I’ll figure it out myself! Musical theatre students’ enhanced knowledge of embodied learning processes through application of the Alexander Technique

This paper aims to show how Alexander Technique (AT) can serve as a tool in embodied learning processes. The use of AT was explored with a group of 21 students, seven teachers

actual performance situations, the performer aims to master these fundamental skills so that impulse, language, mind, body, and voice work together in an integrated artistic expression.
In embodied learning processes, such as rehearsing musical theatre repertoire or preparing for a performance, bodily experiences (movement, gestures and habits) are in the forefront of students' and teachers' awareness, but investigations have shown that students often struggle to weave the different means of expression together.The connections between the fields are not always reflected upon (Kvammen et al. 2020;Melton, 2015;Melton & Tom, 2012).It seems that students' preconceived notions of learning are influenced by a pedagogy that tends to separate the learning modalities into either mental or physical processes (Coetzee, 2018;Hagen et al. 2017;Middleton;2012), and by a dualistic mindset that still seems to characterize the paradigm of education (Andrews, 2016;Bresler, 2004;Nguyen & Larson, 2015).This article explores the integration of AT in processes of rehearsing and performing a multimodal musical theatre repertoire.We argue that integration of the practical method of AT, and the principles inherent in the technique, might serve as a way to reflect in embodied learning processes, as an alternative to dualistic thinking.We seek to describe how the inherent principles in AT can be lifted and further utilized from the jungle of different techniques and practices, claiming to present the right answer (Regelski, 2002).We argue that the principles might be applicable to other arenas in the students' life-world.
Recent research within music education has heightened the need for more dialogue and multidisciplinary collaboration within the field (Gaunt & Westerlund, 2013;Westerlund & Gaunt, 2021), but also across arts fields (Aquilina & Sarco-Thomas, 2018;Zimmerman Nilsson & Kerin, 2022).We argue that the multidisciplinary aspects in our work might be beneficial and applicable to other arts fields as well.Despite the extensive use of AT as a supporting subject within performing arts educational programmes in the USA, Australia, and Europe, (Lee, 2019;STAT, 2022), research on AT's applicability in the performing arts, and specifically musical theatre, is limited.
The article reports from a study set within the framework of a second-year bachelor's elective course in a Norwegian musical theatre study programme.The study involved a total of 21 students and was arranged over six weeks in 2019 and 2020.In total, nine teachers were involved, and the two authors 1 of this article acted as teacher-researchers, initiating and conducting the research part of the course, guided by the following research question: In what ways can insights into embodied learning processes (in the context of AT) serve musical theatre students?
The results in this study are analysed and discussed in relation to the theoretical framework of embodied teaching and learning, an expanding research field within higher education, with contributors from a range of disciplines (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021).We use the concepts of circularity (Fuchs, 2020) and aspects of embodiment (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021) to focus and narrow the field down.In other words, we will address questions related to how students' "sensorimotor cycles between the brain, body and environment" (Fuchs, 2020, p. 1) interact and constitute the students' embodied learning processes in musical theatre.The first section of this paper gives an account of the background and motivation for the study, before we go on to present the theoretical framework.We then present the research context which we are a part of.The next section explains the overarching methodology in this research, the data gathering and analysis, before ethical considerations.This is followed by a discussion part, ending with concluding thoughts.

Background and motivation for the study
The idea of incorporating AT as a tool in the teaching of musical theatre students came from our embodied and theoretical understanding of the technique during singing practice, performances and teaching musical theatre students for several years.Our interest in how dualistic thinking influences learning and teaching has developed over the years, as we have constantly witnessed students navigating the multidisciplinary field of musical theatre, aiming to create organic, artistic expressions.As teacher-researchers we had defined a growth point (Ulvik, 2016), and this was first articulated in Hagen et al. (2017).Additionally, discussions concerning methodical options in merging the fields of song, dance and theatre2 were scarce.This interest led to a pilot study conducted in 2017 (Kvammen, 2020), where AT was implemented to merge the gaps between the fields of song and dance.
One purpose of the pilot study was to strengthen the students' ability to juggle several skills at the same time.We implied that unconscious habits were influencing the students' learning processes when learning to sing and dance and suggested that the pedagogical methods used in the teaching of bachelor students might contribute to maintaining such habits (Kvammen, 2020, p. 5).We saw this as a possible hindrance when the students were "putting it all together" 3 into musical theatre performances.In the pilot we introduced and tried out new practices (AT together with song and dance).Both projects discussed in this paper were informed by the experiences from the pilot study, with an enlarged student and teacher base.

Embodiment and circularity
During the last few decades, scholars from multiple fields (e.g.music education, psychology, and neuroscience) have buried the concept of dualism and advocated the interaction between body, mind and, environment (Bremmer & Nijs, 2024;Fuchs, 2016Fuchs, , 2020;;Gallagher, 2006Gallagher, , 2011;;Juntunen et al., 2023;Varela et al., 1991).According to Clughen (2023, p. 1), proponents of embodiment theory "refuse mind/body dualisms [...] positioning the 'mindbody' as a single, symbiotic entity, they consider how the two work together as an interdependent, communicative network" (p. 1).Fuchs (2020) offers the term circularity to explain how the mind is embodied and in constant interaction with the environment.
Fuchs argues that one must re-cast the disembodied mind, and that instead of continuing to ask, "how the mind is related to the brain" (p. 2), one must investigate the "body-body problem" (first termed by Hanna & Thompson, 2007).
The body-body problem is the gap between the living subject body (first person perspective) and the physiological, objective body (third person perspective).The concept of circularity is suggested as "a means of explaining the relation between the phenomenology of lived experience and the dynamics of organism-environment interactions" (Fuchs, 2020, p. 1).According to Fuchs, this circularity operates on different levels: The mind is embodied and in constant interaction with the environment.Hence, the circular structure of embodiment is based on (a) "the cycles of homeostatic self-regulation between the brain and body" and (b) "the sensorimotor cycles between brain, body, and environment.This includes the interdependence of an organism's dispositions of sense-making and the affordances of the environment" (p. 1).When people are sensing the world, the lived body is "pre-reflectively experienced as the point of convergence of action and perception" (p.4).
In the moment, everything the living body is experiencing is a total interaction of the different sensorimotor cycles, an interplay between the inner and the outer world.
According to Fuchs (2016) there is a circular interaction that "connects the embodied subject and the situation with its affective affordances in a circular interaction" (p.196).Fuchs (2020) suggests that "interoception is the basis of exteroception" (p.4).The sense of what is happening on the inside is constantly affecting how one relates to the world.
According to Fuchs, it "pervades all interaction with the world" (p.4).To focus more specifically on the different levels of this circularity, it is relevant to relate to Hegna and Ørbaek's (2021) term aspects of embodiment based on Lanei M. Rodemeyer's (2018) model "layers of embodiment."

Aspects of embodiment
The term aspects of embodiment offers "a broad understanding of embodiment that may unify multiple perspectives" (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021, p. 4).According to Hegna and Ørbaek, all the aspects of embodiment overlap and work together at the same time (p.4).The different aspects are (a) sensory experience, (b) bodily experience, (c) cognitive experience, (d) intersubjective experience and (e) discursive experience (p.3).
Sensory experience is the constant flow of information from the senses.This includes all sensations from the body, and the term encompasses many more senses than the traditional five.However, it includes all bodily sensations: "feelings of warmth or coldness, tickling or shivering, pain, tension or relaxation, constriction, or expansion, sinking, tumbling or lifting, etc. " (Fuchs, 2016, p. 196).Bodily experience refers to the experience of movement, gestures, and habits that people carry out either consciously or unconsciously.Further, cognitive experience is how people create meaning and are conscious based on a bodily experience of themselves.This aspect includes "reflection and language based construction of meaning", and is usually foregrounded in the traditional understanding of pedagogy (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021, p. 3).The next aspect, intersubjective experience refers to experiences when together with others, whether in a one-to-one relationship or together with more people in the environment (p.3).Finally, discursive experience addresses the experiences that "develop within a culture, and the transition from one generation to another" (p.3).Discursive experience can be seen as institutional and pedagogical traditions within music, song, dance, or acting practices.
In this regard, it is relevant to relate the concept aspects of embodiment to Fuchs' elaboration on anticipations or protentions (Fuchs, 2020, p. 5).Fuchs writes that in every action, which is an interconnection between perception and movement, there is an implied anticipation "each body action implies anticipations or protentions (being prepared for the response of the environment)" (p.5).In every action one perform, one inhabits an anticipation of the next moment.The anticipations are sometimes fulfilled, sometimes not, but regardless of the response: "Thus, protention and response forms a temporal circle that extends into the future" (p.5).Fuchs also connects this anticipation to the affordances of the environment.People perceive and react with anticipation to the different affordances in the world: "we make sense of the environment as affording certain possibilities of action" (p.5).This section has reviewed the key concepts of circularity and aspects of embodiment we use when analysing and discussing the emerging themes in this study.The next section moves on to give an account of AT.

The Alexander Technique
The originator of the technique was pointing out that "it is impossible to separate 'mental' and 'physical' processes in any form in human activity" (Alexander, 2001, p. 21).The cornerstone of AT is to identify reaction patterns, often referred to as habits.In this regard, the term habits covers both unconscious and conscious reactions to a stimulus, and might include both thinking and movements (Heirich, 2005).When reactions are identified, inhibiting one's immediate habit (and often unconscious reaction) to a stimulus is the next step in the process.A stimulus could be a thought such as "I will never reach the high note!"; a difficult repertoire or choreography in a performance; an instruction from a teacher; or a notification on a mobile phone.The student learns how their reactions are embodied.A certified AT teacher uses a combination of verbal communication and practical hands-on work to guide the student in different activities in a lesson.Such activities could be singing, playing an instrument, or simply moving up and down from a chair.The purpose is to fine-tune the student's attention towards their embodied reactions, thereby helping them to discover the correlation between their thoughts, body and surroundings that is referred to as use (Alexander, 2001).The student is thereby provided with tools to self-regulate in different situations: "conscious inhibition is the mental act of refusing to react in an automatic, habitual way" (Dowling, 2008, p. 164).
Furthermore, when the students are more aware of their reactions, they are invited to think in activity, and to replace their immediate reactions with new directions.Directions are mental messages and thoughts that are sent to the nervous system and body.An example of such a message could be thinking of an extension between different joints in the body, while simultaneously ensuring that one's attention is expansive in nature, and includes the surroundings, that one's neck is free, and that one's back is broad and long (Nettl-Fiol, 2006).The purpose is to provide the student with insight into the interaction between thinking and moving in a process of re-education (Klein et al., 2014).The term end-gaining is often used when learning AT, in terms of discovering the means whereby one reaches a goal, instead of being too concerned with reaching the goal (Rootberg, 2011).Klein et al. 's (2014) systematic review of controlled trials on the effect of AT on musicians found that it may improve performance anxiety.Davies (2019Davies ( , 2020) ) found that AT has relevance to musical skill development in terms of improvements to instrumental technique, performance level and practice effectiveness, and stresses the benefits AT yields "across a range of performance-related skills" (Davies, 2019, p. 1). Lee (2019) has collectively examined how AT is implemented into several tertiary educational programmes in higher music education.This study was the first of its kind, and states that AT has a positive impact on tertiary music students' training and development.Pendenza's (2023) studies investigated perceptions of AT among AT teachers, instrumental and vocal teachers, and music students.Findings demonstrated that AT is largely seen as a valuable tool for musicians.

Previous research on AT within the performing arts
However, Pendenza suggests that AT teachers need to develop their work in a collaborative institutional environment, and that AT teachers and instrumental or vocal teachers are "allies in supporting music students' learning" (p.323), for example in a triadic lesson.
So far, very little attention has been paid to the role of AT as an integral part in teaching in higher educational performing arts fields, except for a few studies on instrumental teaching (Fox & Romaniuk, 2021;Jørgensen, 2015;Pranevičius, 2018).
Within the field of acting, Barker (2002) addresses the problem that students' personal exploration of self-use techniques (such as AT) does not always transfer into their performances.Barker elaborates on how actors can use AT as a tool to change physical use to unify body, voice and thought and integrate the technique into acting.In a case study, Bjerken et al. (2012) link AT and acting, and argue that AT might contribute to developing a framework for theatre artists.
Within the paradigm of dance education, AT is recommended as a tool in developing kinaesthetic awareness and movement re-education "prescient in respect to what is known about neuroscience today" (Berardi, 2005, p. 65).Nettl-Fiol (2006) and Nettl-Fiol and Vanier (2011) demonstrate the applicability of AT in dance education.

Research methodology and methods
As researchers, we place ourselves within the broader field of art and practitioner research (Bresler, 2006;Brydon-Miller et al. 2003), of which action research methodology is a part (McNiff, 2013).Initial investigations (Hagen et al., 2017) provided information about the praxis within the field of musical theatre education, and we took action to improve it (McNiff, 2013).Principles from the methodology of action research have informed the two projects described in this paper.According to Cohen et al. (2007, p. 300) action research develops through the "self-reflective spiral".

Data gathering and analysis
The two projects reported on in this paper were carried out in the context of an elective course in the middle of the students' bachelor programme.One of the aims of the course was to give students insight into the development of the musical theatre profession and make them see themselves as active agents in this development.The electives were practice-as-research projects and one premise was to offer the students practical knowledge on research methodologies within the field.(For another article from such an elective course, see von Germeten, 2022.)The courses lasted approximately six weeks in each calendar year, in 2019 and 2020.In 2019 the project included the participation of 11 students, three singing teachers (two of them the researchers and authors of this paper), one dance teacher and one AT teacher.The 2020 project expanded further; two new dance teachers and two new AT teachers were included.The field of acting was also implemented in the project with one acting teacher participating.
The course goals for both years were as follows: • To increase the understanding between the disciplines, but also within the singing and dancing disciplines through better insight into psychophysical processes; 4 • To give students and teachers knowledge about cognitive processes and implicit habits/memory so they are better able to identify their own habits; and • To describe the extent to which attention to one's own psychophysical processes optimizes rehearsals and influences performance in both song and dance.
The main activities of the projects were: 1. Ordinary musical theatre classes, where the teachers worked with rehearsals of repertoire with a different focus on singing, dancing, and acting.The teachers in the projects took turns leading these sessions depending on what we wanted to focus on at the time.
2. Joint lessons with collaborative teaching (singing, acting, dance and AT pedagogue (s)), where the students worked on the musical theatre numbers.In the joint lessons, the students observed each other working on the floor, and plenty of time was devoted to discussions and feedback from peers and teachers.
3. Three individual lessons and six group lessons in AT with an AT teacher, for both the students and educators.
The students rehearsed a total of four numbers from the musical theatre canon: "American Idiot" and "Puttin' on the Ritz" in 2019, and "Anatevkta" and "Hamilton" in 2020.As a supplement to the practical work, the students were given relevant literature on AT.
In both the musical theatre classes, and the joint lessons, the students were encouraged to give feedback on the learning processes, to each other and as a group.The participating teachers were also students when it came to learning AT, and this contributed to less asymmetric power relationships between the participants.The conversations roamed back and forth, and the teachers and researchers strove to create a safe atmosphere.Aase and Fossåskåret (2014) characterize this conversation as a "field discussion", where the researcher can comment on and control the conversation.In many cases, the field discussion is a dialogue between the students and the researchers.Just as often as someone answers the researcher's questions, other students' comments come unsolicited as a reaction to a situation that arises (p.33).

4
In the projects, we used the term psychophysical processes to explain the interaction between mind, body and surroundings.The rationale for using the concept of psychophysical was derived from two different angles: actor training (Gutekunst & Gillett, 2021) and the practical method of the Alexander Technique (AT) (Valentine et al., 2023).
The results we are discussing in this article are derived from data gathered from students' reflection notes and focus group interviews at the end of each project. 5Personal reflection notes of 1,500 to 2,000 words were handed in after the projects were closed.The reflection notes were based on the students' log writings (both spontaneous writing during the classes and reflective writing after sessions), with the intention to make the students reflect on and summarize their experiences from the research projects.
The research question (In what ways can insights into embodied learning processes (in the context of AT) serve musical theatre students?)guided the focus group conversations before the students handed in their reflection notes.During the focus group interviews, the aim was to summarize the projects, highlight the students' reflections, and ask follow-up questions (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015).These conversations were led by the project manager and both the students and the teachers were allowed to comment on and discuss the process.The focus group interviews were transcribed, and in the analysing process the transcripts were used to validate the reflection notes.When analysing the empirical data, an initial step was to familiarize ourselves with the dataset as Braun and Clarke (2023) suggest.We read the reflection notes, made notes and comments on the first observations and insights, discussed the content and re-read them again.The reflection notes and focus group interviews were coded and labelled concerning important features in relation to the research question (Cohen et al., 2007).Example of codes were "conflicting pedagogy between the disciplines", "new experiences", "end-gaining", "semi-supine" and "inhibition and stopping-moments".The codes were then examined, to find recurrent topics and themes.Several themes were generated during this analysing process (Braun & Clarke, 2019), guided by the research question.The themes were "produced at the intersection of the researcher's theoretical assumptions, their analytic resources and skill, and the data themselves" (p.594).Therefore, the thematic reflexive analysis existed in the intersection of us as the researchers, the dataset, and the various contexts of interpretation.
The themes that emerged during the thematic analysis were (a) strengthening the students' observation skills, (b) improving rehearsal routines, (c) revealing the students' preconceptions and (d) exploring conflicting thoughts.These themes are discussed in relation to the theory of circularity (Fuchs, 2020) and aspects of embodiment (sensory experience, bodily experience, cognitive experience, intersubjective experience, and discursive experience) (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021).

5
In the 2019-project the students answered a questionnaire in the beginning of the project.However, we have chosen to not include the answers from the questionnaire in the analysis, because the students' reflections upon the questions in the questionnaire were also discussed in the different lessons.
I'll figure it out myself! 99

Ethical considerations
Various ethical considerations must be mentioned in this practice-as-research study.One important phenomenon is the issue of power relationships between us as teacher-researchers and the students (the course was both a mandatory educational course, and research).
It was not always clear to the students when we acted as researchers or when we acted as teachers.However, we positioned ourselves as co-learners and co-explorers, and repeatedly underlined the explorative and reflective character of the projects, explaining the characteristics and principles of action research (Laprise, 2017).The rest of the participating teachers had no earlier experience of AT, which underlined the exploratory focus for all the participants.Further, we acknowledge that our beliefs, commitments, and hopes have affected and shaped the process of planning, researching, teaching, analysing the data and writing about the projects (McNiff, 2013).Overall, we have brought our own preconceptions, background, agenda, and interests into the research process (Cohen et al. 2007), inhabiting a multi-relational methodological position and triple identity as performers, researchers, and teachers (Irwin et al., 2006).We realize that this might have influenced the students' answers and attitudes.All participants gave their written consent to the further use of reflection notes and recordings from the focus group interviews, and they were able to withdraw from the projects at any time.The research projects were reported to and approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (Sikt).To pass the elective course, 80% of the teaching was mandatory.The participating students were given the opportunity to read this paper and approve the translations of the quotes from the reflection notes.

Strengthening the students' observation skills
In all the lessons in the project, the students were encouraged to notice (a) automated thoughts and reactions in the body, (b) how the surroundings and those in the room affected their work, and (c) what they observed when peers were working on the floor.
In summary, all the students in this study reported that learning AT (in the one-to-one lesson or in the group lesson) had given them better observation skills.The students became aware of how different stimuli affected their embodied reactions.The greater awareness encompassed their conscious reactions to a stimulus, but they also discovered reactions that had earlier been hidden to them.They became aware of how different layers, aspects of embodiment (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021)  The student became more aware of how their thoughts about performance and getting ready, which we can say is a cognitive experience (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021), acquired a distinct bodily and sensory experience in terms of the discovery of unnecessary tension.
The circulation on a first-person level, their "cycles of homeostatic self-regulation between brain and body" (Fuchs, 2020, p. 1) were revealed.Equipped with better self-observation, the student could identify how their bodily experience (habits) in this situation were causing tensions.In this regard, it is relevant to relate the term habit to spontaneity.Spontaneity is often seen as valuable and necessary in a performer's artistic expression.Shusterman (2009) argues that "we cannot simply rely on spontaneity, which, as the product of habit, is precisely part of the problem" (p.135).If habits are seen primarily as a part of the performer's personal expression, we argue that they might become an excuse for lack of growth.
Another student addresses such a dilemma: "If you have bad habits and make mistakes then often you think to yourself, oh well, that is how I am.Now I think differently." When the participating students were better equipped to notice sensory, bodily, and cognitive experiences (such as automated thoughts), they were able to change their habits.
We argue that automated and unconscious reactions (such as habits noticed as bodily experience) sometimes impede spontaneity.As noted by Shusterman (2009, p. 135): "Unnoticed bad habits exercise a horrible power over action, thought, and will.What we call spontaneous action is the product of habit, not of a pure, free will; and habit typically incorporates aspects of the conditions of its acquisition".When the ability to discover their own reactions was strengthened, the students were empowered to improve their rehearsal routines.

Improving rehearsal routines
Learning AT made the students' more aware of their reactions.When they were able to decipher their own reactions, they could stop (inhibit the automated reaction), and choose something else.Inhibition and directing (Alexander, 2001) became key elements in changing ingrained habits.One student said: "Part of the answer for me, I think, lies in the work on inhibition.Inhibition is the moment before you get started.This moment can be the difference between acting according to a habit, or not." Sometimes it can be useful to stop an action in the moment if one wants to learn to inhibit one's reactions.Another student wrote: "It [inhibition] has helped me to stop in practice situations and think: Am I carrying my arms now?What's my neck like?Am I tensioning any body parts?"Inhibition was therefore helping the students to act differently on automated reactions.Fuchs (2020) says that "protention (anticipation of the next moment, our precision) and response forms a temporal circle that extends into the future" (p.5).Inhibition made the students able to stop or at least slow down this temporal circle between anticipation and response.Inhibition enabled them to react in another way, and to change an ingrained pattern.
Many of the students were trained in a tradition of replication.They relied upon copying others and had limited experience of rehearsal routines in dancing and singing before they started their bachelor studies in musical theatre.If students are too eager in copying movements, voice, and sound, a probable outcome is that they do not develop self-observation and awareness.It is likely that copying and replication makes them more concerned about what is next and they miss out on awareness in the moment, which is essential for altering their rehearsal routines.
By inhibiting their usual way to react, and instead changing their cognitive experience (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021), it was possible to alter rehearsal routines.Their cognitive experience was changed, in terms of using directions (messengers from brain to body, for instance pertaining to extensions between different joints in the body or a free neck, and at the same time ensure an expansive attention, including the surroundings (Kvammen et al., 2020;Nettl-Fiol, 2006).Furthermore, they could rely more on their own self-discovery in terms of more accurate sensory and bodily experiences.
Some students describe several useful stopping moments, also during performance.
This student used short moments in a number to recover and 'reset': What I found very helpful in this process was finding those moments where I wasn't necessarily in character -for example, just before I was going up on the floor, or at a moment in a choreography where I was facing away from the audience or had a break in the song.I found these 'pause' moments and used them to think about directions and kind of reset myself from the tensions the number required.This gave me a resurgence of energy for the rest of the number [...] By stopping and directing (thinking in activity in the actual moment), the student could experience the circulation between cognitive experience (thoughts) leading to new bodily and sensory experiences.Inhibition and stopping moments became an effective tool in rehearsal and performance situations.

Revealing the students' preconceptions
One interesting result is that when the students' preconceptions were revealed, it was possible to reflect on whether their preconceptions constituted a hindrance in their embodied learning.One observation made by several participants, about themselves and their fellow students, was unnecessary preparation before starting a phrase or movement.On several occasions, the students adopted a 'singer position' or 'dance position' before starting, which was something they believed satisfied what the teacher wanted, as mentioned by this informant: The word 'posture' was also something I used a lot.All my life, I have been told that you have to do this or that to ensure a good posture -you have to tighten these muscles to get good posture, you have to stretch these muscles to get good posture, and so on [...] I've always thought that, in order to get the right breath that will give me the best conditions to sing or dance, I have to do a lot with my body.[our emphasis] The idea that they had to adopt the right position influenced their means of expression in a non-constructive way.A possible explanation for this might be that the student was formed by traditions that had developed within a culture or a field (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021).They were affected by their discursive experiences and continued to react based on them.
Several of the students had practiced for years, with the idea that mastering the skill of singing or dancing was all about strengthening and manipulating the body and working hard.It then became very confusing when they were faced with experiencing something else, expressed by one of them: Sometimes I've been really confused and maybe almost a little frustrated because I think it's been too easy to be true, in a way.[...] I wouldn't have believed that just thinking about extension was going to make such a big difference, but then you kind of see the proof of it, because you've heard about it from other students who have tried it out.
[...] Small things can make very big differences.
This might indicate that their discursive experience was affected by an understanding that learning a skill, like singing or dancing, required hard work and "blood, sweat and tears".
According to Puttke (2010), this myth is still alive.The reasons for the students' preconceptions are probably very complex, but one can argue that the teaching in song and dance up until then had maintained an underlying understanding that 'this is how I have to stand, breathe or hold myself when I start to sing or dance' thereby initiating inappropriate muscular tension in the body, including a restriction in breathing.
Another interesting preconception that was revealed was the belief (discursive experience) that concentration requires 'shutting oneself in' and narrowing one's attention.
Several students discovered that they restricted their attention before starting a song or dance piece; they associated the exclusion of their surroundings with concentration.
While they had previously held the belief that a fixed and closed concentration meant an increased awareness of their own body, in their reflection notes they described how in fact their increased attention in the room around them resulted in a honed bodily experience.
The focus on a wider and more inclusive field of awareness gave new experiences: This is a rather surprising finding and relates to what Fuchs (2020) writes about a constant circularity between the sensorimotor living self and the environment; the students' increased presence and attention in the room resulted in enhanced bodily and sensory experiences as well, which is in line with Fuchs saying that "interoception is the basis of exteroception" (p.4).A possible explanation of this discursive experience might be that one learns from early childhood that concentration is about narrowing one's attention.
Another topic that was highlighted as part of the students' discursive experience concerns the concepts of support and centre.The students' preconceptions were based on a discursive experience of a dualistic mindset where the physical body was an object they could manipulate and control.
In the joint lessons it was revealed that many of the students understood both the concepts as something instrumental and physical -something they had to learn to manipulateand that this was a prerequisite for being able to sing and dance.One student described how I think this is one reason why there are so many breathing techniques out there.What is certainly a good idea to take from this is that you should become aware of your choice of words.Maybe not everyone has the same perception of the words as you.
The analysis shows how this discursive experience (Hegna & Ørbaek, 2021) was affecting their embodied learning in different ways: Firstly, their cognitive experience (how they made meaning of the concepts based on a bodily experience) was based on different explanations from different teachers, and traditions (discursive experience).The students became aware that their preconceptions had possibly influenced their learning processes and their skills.

Exploring conflicting thoughts
AT as an approach does not necessarily suit everybody.One issue that many of the students experienced as a discrepancy between the field of AT and the field of musical theatre pertained to their level of energy.One student stated: "When AT often makes you feel relaxed and perhaps a little introverted, how can you combine this with energy-filled extroverted musical communication?".One reason for this discrepancy might be the students' tendency to end-gain (Alexander, 2001) and to strive too hard towards their goals.Dimon (2003) argues that if one tries too hard it might influence skill learning.Balancing the energy level is a lifelong task for a performer and we argue that these conflicting experiences is a necessary part of the student's development.The AT teacher aims to "give students tools to make choices about the way they employ physical, emotional and intellectual functions" (Nettl-Fiol, 2006, p. 81).However, it is the student's choice to employ the tools.
The dilemma of combining skills remained a focus in several of the conversations during the project.For some of the students it led them to confusion and frustration, as uttered by one of them: "After six weeks of both joint and individual Alexander Technique classes, I am now almost as confused as I was before we started." For some of the students, increased attention regarding their different reactions and habits when learning AT did not become a useful tool when rehearsing and performing, exemplified by one of them: Working on these two things [AT and acting] at the same time I found very difficult.I found that the strong body awareness, for example related to free neck, in a way blocked the natural bodily impulses that the intention and the moment actually provided.Thus, the intention and character felt weaker, and I was left with questions about whether one can really act and think about the Alexander technique at the same time.Regelski (2002) elaborates on the underlying tensions of method-based teaching and learning, introducing the term methodolatry: "with its faith in technicist methods and corresponding inattention to an ethic of accountability…" (p.114).To some of the students, AT became yet another technique and skill they had to master.It became a hindrance instead of a useful tool.One explanation might be that we, as teacher-researchers, were not clear in communicating the underlying philosophical thoughts and ideas (circularity in embodied learning processes) in the projects.Regarding different methods and approaches, Benedict (2010) says "It is essential […] to consider the philosophical grounding that frames and shapes […] these approaches" (p.195).The intention of implementing AT was to help the students reflect on their embodied learning processes, and not be 'right' in terms of learning AT in a perfect way.The conflicting experiences addressed in this section, might indicate that we did not communicate these aspects enough.

Concluding thoughts
The aim of the present research was to introduce AT as a tool in embodied learning processes.We have argued that the principles inherent in AT served musical theatre students in several ways when they were rehearsing and performing musical theatre repertoire.First, the students' observation skills were strengthened.Their increased awareness and level of competence about the ongoing, embodied learning processes gave them experiences in how their thoughts, bodies and environment interacted in a constant circular interplay.It led the students towards a more independent and self-regulated learning process, and the students were better equipped to 'figure it out by themselves' , as pointed out by one of the informants after the project had ended.Second, when they were empowered to discover their reactions, they were able to inhibit them.Increased self-observation and inhibition led further to improved rehearsal routines.Such awareness and ability to self-regulate is, we would say, self-regulation in the true sense of the word.A skill that hopefully has a transfer value to several other fields in the students' life-worlds.Finally, when the students' preconceptions were revealed, they were able to reflect on how their preconceptions constituted a hindrance in their learning process.The results discussed in this paper might indicate that the teaching the students had had up to this point did not address embodied circularity enough, and that dualistic mindsets had influenced their learning processes.
In recent years, there has been increased attention towards cross-arts collaboration within the fields of arts, including the field of music education (Ford & Sloboda, 2013;Westerlund & Gaunt, 2021).Despite increased multidisciplinary tendencies across the arts fields, the paradigm of musical theatre is an under-explored research field (von Germeten, 2023), and research on the multidisciplinary pedagogical possibilities within higher education in musical theatre are scarce.As we see it, higher education within musical theatre needs to heighten the knowledge regarding circularity of mind, body and surroundings.
This insight cannot come from theory alone but must be gained through embodied experiences.We have argued that the principles inherent in AT are well suited to address these experiences, by no means saying that AT is the only way to explore these questions.
The intention of implementing AT was not to introduce a "quick fix", as Regelski (2002) addresses, but to implement a practical method that gave the students insight in terms of new experiences of their embodied circularity.Notwithstanding this relatively limited group of participants, this work might provide a foundation for increased discussion in the broad field of embodied teaching and learning.As pointed out by Hegna and Ørbaek (2021), the field is fragmented, and they call for "research that explores the interdependency between different aspects of embodiment" (p.16).In this regard, we hope that our research might serve as a positive contribution, not only to the of field embodied teaching and learning, but also towards an educational paradigm that still seems to address learning through either mental or physical approaches.
These projects included several of the students' teachers (in singing, dancing, and acting) which leads us to a final comment on the collaborative aspect.Increased insight into embodied learning processes gave the participating colleagues cross-aesthetic pedagogical experiences.These new perspectives have further informed and influenced their teaching in their respective fields of singing, dancing and acting (Kvammen & Bjørneby, 2023).
However, further research is needed to establish whether the teaching and established the project revealed the students' different understandings of the concepts: "It was interesting to see the different definitions that everyone has of 'support' […] It's so diffuse for everyone." He continued, explaining that the term is actively used by the teachers: "We are constantly reminded that we must 'remember to support' ." This appears confusing, as expressed by another of the participants: Some interpret the word in one way, others in a different way.The fact that people don't know where organs such as the lungs and diaphragm are in the body leads to different interpretations of how they think they work, including in relation to breathing and support.How do you actually use the support in order to maintain good breathing?
worked together, exemplified by this student: as if you squirm, you shorten your neck, which is a good habit at that moment, but if you shorten your neck when you get ready, your body and head will think you're afraid, which can make it inhibited.This habit […] makes my body less ready, and I use more muscle power than necessary.
[...]My habit for getting ready involves a physical adaptation in the body.When I lined up on the floor to get ready, we saw that I tended to lock my knees, take a breath, and push my chest forwards/shorten my back[...].Bad habits often come from fear-based events, such 've learned that connecting with your body also opens you up to be more present in things that happen around you.You' d think it would be the other way around.[...] It feels like my body is more ready for things that are happening around me.The focus is not condensed onto one thing, but the attention is expanded from the attention on yourself and out to encompass your surroundings. I