Annedore Kleist studied at Dan Armon’s School for Alexander Technique in Berlin from 2000 – 2004 and is working since then as an Alexander Technique Teacher specialized in working with Actors. She studied Acting at the Academy of Musik and Theater in Hamburg, took part in productions in Basel, Wuppertal, Berlin etc. and she is a member of the ensemble Nico and the Navigators. Since 2017 she is member of Studio Tambour, as Alexander Technique Teacher.
As actors, we don’t want to be inhibited by our personal habits, we want a wide range of possibilities how to react in various situations and as various characters. The Alexander Technique gives us the freedom and flexibility to behave in unconditioned ways. We start working on simple activities like standing up, sitting down on a chair, walking etc. While we are performing these activities, the Alexander Technique Teacher helps us to recognize and stop unnecessary tension. We learn to stay out of the way, so that something different, new can happen instead. The manner how we move and do things becomes light and free. We start to act in a state of tranquility and heightened presence.
As Directors, the Alexander Technique enables us to have an overall view on the actor, we can read the actor’s body better and have another tool to address it. Instead of saying, the scene should be happier, we could for instance remind the actor to be lighter on his feet. This will give us a non-threatening language, because it bypasses all sort of psychological strategies and goes straight to the actors body.