The phrase normally used is ‘theory and practice’ but Alexander wants to emphasize, in his technique, that practice precedes theory. It first appears in his Introductory to UCL,[1] and several times in UCL, specifically stating that his theory ‘flowed from’ the practical procedures:
My life-work has been one of dealing with practical procedures based on the principle of unity and with the associated theoretical conclusions which flowed from them.[2]
However, the preceding of ‘practice’ before ‘theory’ is a late phrasing.[3]
‘Theory and practice’ was used in ‘The theory and practice of a new method of respiratory re-education’ (1907),[4] in ‘Why we breathe incorrectly’ (1909),[5] and in MSI’s ‘Preface to First Edition’ (1910),[6] and in ‘New Preface’ (1918).[7] Alexander discusses the bridging of the gap between theory and practice in the preface to the new edition (1946) of CCC.[8]
Only two later (than UCL) papers contain ‘practice and theory’: ‘Manufacturing Premises for Desired Deductions’ (1949),[9] and ‘Autobiographical Sketch’ (c. 1950).[10]
Note that in UCL he talks about the ‘acceptance of the theory and practice of non-doing’.[11]
Later Writings
The observation that Alexander wants to emphasize that practice precedes theory has been made by Walter Carrington in 1984,[12] and Nicholls and Carey in 1991.[13]
Criticism
Ron Dennis is arguing that some theory did precede practice, because Alexander, upon meeting his doctor after following the doctor’s advice of not using his voice before a recital and still loosing his voice, concluded: ‘It is not fair, then, . . . to conclude that it was something I was doing that evening in using my voice that was the cause of the trouble?’ Dennis argues therefore that Alexander was a first a theorist.[14]
For theory of the Alexander Technique, see individual entries on Concepts.
