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Raymond Dart

Raymond Arthur Dart (1893–1988), Australian-born anatomist and anthropologist. He was the originator of what is now known as the Dart procedures.

Life

Dart, Raymond Arthur (1893–1988) was an Australian-born South African anatomist and anthropologist. He graduated in medicine at Sydney in 1917, and became Professor of Anatomy in Johannesburg in 1923. He achieved international fame as an anthropologist with his discovery of a branch of the human family, Australopithecus africanus, in 1925. It was the first early human fossil found in Africa, and it helped to shift the focus to Africa as the birthplace of mankind.

Connection with the Alexander Technique

Having lessons in the Technique with Irene Tasker in September and October 1943[1] led Dart to the study of the embryological and neurological origin of the erect posture and the importance of poise for learning. When Irene Tasker left South Africa Dart experimented with a series of ‘developmental’ movements, both for himself and for his son who had had suffered motor damage during birth in 1941. The series of movements became later known as the Dart procedures. The consideration of upright posture, poise, and body symmetry inspired him to write several articles in which the Alexander Technique is mentioned: ‘The Postural Aspect of Malocclusion’ (1946),[2] ‘The Attainment of Poise’ (1947)[3] and ‘Voluntary Musculature of the Human Body: The Double–Spiral Arrangement’ (1950).[4] In 1970 he gave the F. M. Alexander Memorial Lecture, ‘An Anatomist’s Tribute to F. Matthias Alexander’.[5] He continued to write and lecture after his retirement in 1958 and was involved with the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, in Philadelphia, USA.

Writings

  • A collection of Dart’s articles on or related to the Alexander Technique were published as Skill and Poise.[6]
  • Dart also wrote a short Preface to Edward Maisel’s The Resurrection of the Body[7], which however was not included in later editions.

Other Writings

  • A biography, Dart: Man of Science and Grit by Frances Wheelhouse and Kathaleen S. Smithford, was published in 2001.[8]
  • A short introduction to Dart and the Alexander Technique is provided in ‘Raymond A. Dart and F. M. Alexander’ by Alex Murray.[9]

Obituaries

  • ‘Professor Raymond Dart’ by Walter Carrington.[10]
  • ‘Raymond Arthur Dart’ (unsigned).[11]

See also Dart procedures.

References
[1] ‘The Attainment of Poise’ by Raymond A. Dart in the South African Medical Journal, no. 21, p. 122, 8 February 1947.
[2] ‘The Postural Aspect of Malocclusion’ by Raymond A. Dart in The Official Journal of the Dental Association of South Africa, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-21, September 1946.
[3] ‘The Attainment of Poise’ by Raymond A. Dart in the South African Medical Journal, no. 21, pp. 74-91, 8 February 1947..
[4] ‘Voluntary musculature in the human body: The double spiral arrangement’ by Raymond A. Dart in Brititish Journal of Physical Medicine, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 265-68.
[5] ‘An Anatomist’s Tribute to F. Matthias Alexander’ by Raymond A. Dart (London, The Sheildrake Press, 1970).
[6] Skill and Poise: Articles on skill, poise and the F. M. Alexander Technique by Raymond A. Dart (London, STAT Books, 1996).
[7] The Resurrection of the Body by Edward Maisel (New York, University Books, 1969).
[8] Dart: Man of Science and Grit by Frances Wheelhouse and Kathaleen S. Smithford (University of Queensland Library, Transpareon Press, 2001).
[9] ‘Raymond A. Dart and F. M. Alexander’ by Alex Murray in AmSAT News issue no. 71 (Summer 2006), pp. 16, 18.
[10] ‘Professor Raymond Dart’ by Walter Carrington in STATNews vol. 2, no. 2 edited by John Hunter (STAT, September 1989), p. 6.
[11] ‘Raymond Arthur Dart’ (unsigned) in The Alexander Review vol. 3, no. 3 (Centerline Press, Winter 1988), p. 57.
Taxonomy: 
Pupils of F. M. Alexander

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