21 Facts About Gerda Alexander

Gerda Alexander was involved with the vanguards of the arts, education, and movement culture in Germany in the first decades of the 20th century, and established herself in Denmark in 1929 onwards.

Gerda Alexander was a pioneer among the creators of somatic education practices in the world.

Gerda Alexander was born in Wuppertal, Germany, and her parents were enthusiasts of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, passing on to her a similar interest in the arts.

Gerda Alexander's parents avoided telling her explicitly about Dalcroze, but Gerda Alexander had her first contact with his work through some photos of the first festival of the Dalcroze school in Hellerau, followed by a Rhythmics course given by Otto Blensdorf in her city in the same period, and insisted on joining the classes.

Gerda Alexander attended the Dalcroze Eurhythmics school of Otto Blensdorf in Wuppertal from 1915 until 1929.

From 1922, at the age of 14, Gerda Alexander began to get involved in the activities, trips, stage productions and as an assistant teacher at Blensdorf's school and its affiliates in Essen, Dusseldorf, Koln, Remscheis, Solingen, etc.

Around 1923, Gerda directed her first play open to the public, staging the first two acts of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

Gerda Alexander was part of the first intake of the Seminar.

In later interviews and remembrances, Gerda Alexander referred to personalities as Rudolf Laban, Mary Wigman, Elsa Gindler, Heinrich Jacoby, Bess Mensendieck, Loheland school and Anna Herrmann, and highlighted how the observation of their students were important on the development of her work.

Gerda Alexander completed a year of practical work as Blensdorf's assistant in these experiences between 1926 and 1927, to which she refers as being "the best pedagogical education of my life, being able to come into contact with all these cases, with the guidance of teachers who have profoundly influenced my work".

Between the ages of 15 and 21, Gerda Alexander had several severe attacks of rheumatic fever, followed by heart diseases and culminating in an endocarditis, which was considered a disabling illness in the 1920s.

Gerda Alexander was hospitalized many times and had to find ways to move that would not overload her circulatory system.

Gerda Alexander graduated as a Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher from the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin in 1929.

Gerda Alexander maintained a link with her homeland, and attended courses at the Schlaffhorst-Andersen school, attended Charlotte Blensdorf's courses at Landjugendheim Finkenkrug and in Sternberg and taught at Dore Jacobs's school in Essen.

Gerda Alexander got in contact with Leopold Jessner, former student of Dalcroze and at that time producer and director at the Berliner Staatsoper, to teach movement to all actors and be his director assistant.

Between 1939 and 1940, Gerda Alexander opened a school for Dalcroze Eurhythmics professional teacher training in Copenhagen, the first of its kind to be opened in Denmark.

In 1959, Gerda Alexander organized the "First International Congress for Release of Tension and Functional Movement" in Copenhagen with the support of the Danish Ministry of Education.

Gerda Alexander gave lectures and workshops in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Israel, Greece, Italy, Holland, Mexico, Venezuela, Belgium and Argentina.

Gerda Alexander died six days after her 86th birthday in Wuppertal, where she lived in her old age.

Gerda Alexander found ways of somatically modulate and regulate neuromuscular tone.

The psychosomatic processes initiated by her classes were reported by the students, recognizing benefits in their psychic well-being and in their daily life, and Gerda Alexander began to receive medical referrals and make partnerships with medical centers, treating patients that "specialists could not give any hope of improvement" as paraplegic, spastic, amputees, with psychosomatic cases, among others.