Learning enactivity: Can Alexander Technique-led music training enhance proprioceptual skills and awareness in dyspraxia?

Abstract

I aim to show how Alexander Technique-led music praxis can increase proprioceptual awareness in dyspraxia. I am a dyspraxic cellist. Dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder) is a neurodevelopmental disorder like dyslexia and ADHD, and affects visuo-motor coordination, and gross and fine motor skills like those used for playing a musical instrument. A dyspraxic may have decreased musical enactivity– –primarily proprioceptual and visuo-motor embodiment––(Schiavio and van der Schyff 2018, Hayes 2019) and participatory sense-making (Gallagher and Lindgren 2015: 394), but this may be subtle and depend on: the musical activity, instrument, notation, and the individual. I was not identified as dyspraxic until the first year of my music PhD and during my studies I started the cello with a teacher who also teaches Alexander Technique. The enactive account constitutes embodied, embedded and extended knowledge; knowledge dependent on the body, within a socio-cultural context, and arising from co-dependent interactions (Schiavio and van der Schyff 2018, Hayes 2019: 449), which last Gallagher and Lindgren (2015: 394) consider participatory sense-making. Alexander Technique is enactive, focusing on increasing embodiment and reducing physical tension through “a bottom-up sensory-led experiential approach” (Easten 2021: 5) developed in teacher-led interactions. Could this participatory sense-making help me fine-tune proprioceptual-led embodiment in music performance and reduce inhibitory tension? As a dyspraxic