Sigal Bergman, ACAT, AmSAT
Sigal Bergman is a certified Alexander Technique teacher (ACAT 2002) and a member of AmSAT. In 2006 she completed an AT postgraduate course in "The Art of Breathing", giving her special skills to work with breath and voice. She was on faculty at Movement Research, taught Alexander Technique at the Juilliard School in the drama department. Since returning to Israel she has been teaching dance composition at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance and dance for people with Parkinson disease at Yasmeen Godder studio. Her background includes 25 years of movement investigation through Yoga, professional dancing and Tai -Ji. She maintained a private practice in NYC from 2002-2009, and since 2009 has a private practice in Tel Aviv, Israel.
"My interest in the Technique grew after injuring my knee in a Yoga class. The exercises and treatments I was getting helped ease the pain, but I wasn't sure that they would prevent me from getting injured again. As an active dancer and choreographer I was looking for knowledge that would allow me to continue working safely. Through the Alexander Technique I learned to identify the movement patterns that weakened and strained my knee, and gained confidence in my ability to perform fully and safely. In the process I fell in love with the practice. Finding an ability to recognise and avoid unconscious habits enriched both my professional and personal life."
Alexander Technique Lessons
The first part of a lesson is spent looking at a students' everyday movements, such as rising from sitting to standing, walking, bending, or stretching. With a combination of hands on work and conversation I bring the student's attention to habitual holdings and help them release them and find new ways to move. The later part of the lesson is spent on a massage table. Lying on their back, fully clothed, students are led to experience a state of improved coordination and deep ease.
I see lessons as a dialogue between my students and myself. Using words and gentle touch, I help them identify and become aware of, their movement habits, and guide them to a new experience of moving. This processes is typically accompanied by a sense of lightness and ease. I pay special attention to breathing patterns, as I believe that they reflect one's present state in a profound way.
Lessons are geared towards the students' individual needs and interests. We study the activities that are central in each student's life, and identify what is preventing them from feeling ease, or from fulfilling their potential. In time, students acquires the tools that enable them to reach this freedom on their own.
A lesson is 50 minutes long and costs 400 shekels.
They take place at 32 Ben Yehuda street suit 1135
By appointment only
054-2883667 Sigalbergman@gmail.com
The Alexander Technique
The Alexander technique sets out to help people change physical habits that are detrimental to their health and limit their ability to move. It views the person as a whole bodymind unity, and uses both language and gentle touch to bring awareness to unnecessary strain in the body and to learn ways to release it.
By alleviating stress and compression on the vertebrae and other parts of the body the Technique creates a relief in a wide range of problems including: back pain, neck pain, headache, as well as helping change breathing and voice problems.
F.M. Alexander (1869-1955) was an Australian actor who began to experience chronic laryngitis whenever he performed. When his doctors could not help him, Alexander discovered a solution on his own. He had not been aware that excess tension in his neck and body were causing his problems, and began to find new ways to speak and move with greater ease.
His health improved to such an extent that his friends and several of the doctors he had consulted earlier persuaded him to teach others what he had learned. Over a career span of more than fifty years, he refined his method of instruction. After teaching for over 35 years, he began to train teachers of what has now become known as the Alexander Technique.
The Art of Breathing
Our breath is closely associated with our psycho-physical state. When we are relaxed we breathe slowly, when we get excited or angry our breath accelerates. If we look closely, each breath is different and corresponds perfectly to the intensity of our physical activity, and to our mood. One of the most effective ways to undo stress and physical pain is through paying close attention to the movement of breathing.
The Art of Breathing was developed by Jessica Wolff. A long-time Alexander Technique teacher and faculty member at the Harvard University School of Acting. Wolf began focusing on breathing and voice in an attempt to recover from neck pain, a feeling of suffocation and a stiff tongue that accompanied her years after she was injured in a car accident.
Her search led her to Carl Stow, a singing teacher and choir conductor who developed a method called Breathing Coordination. Stowe discovered that, contrary to popular opinion, the diaphragm muscle (which is the main muscle of breathing) can be developed and strengthened and thus make a dramatic change in the quality of breathing and the character of the voice.
The Art of Breathing combines Breath Coordination with principles from the Alexander technique. In the lesson we look at the student’s individual patterns of breathing including the work of the ribs, the diaphragm, the jaw, the tongue, the abdominal and neck muscles. Using simple breath and voice exercises we look at habitual holding patterns and ways to undo them.
The Art of Breathing is suitable for anyone who wants to breathe more easily and develop their vocal ability. It is especially helpful for actors, singers and teachers who use their voice professionally and for people who suffer from breathing and voice problems for a variety of reasons, including those post covid syndrome.
Learning to breathe without strain breaks the cycle of helplessness that characterized respiratory problems, and helps restore a positive and harmonious relationship with the body.
