Raymond Dart was the first to discover human ancestor fossils in Africa in 1926. The “Taung child” skull he found had a braincase scarcely bigger than that of a chimpanzee, but Dart recognized this hominid had walked upright. This pivotal discovery was only fully ratified by science 30 years later with the exposure of “Piltdown Man” as a forgery. During those years, Dart became father to a brain-injured son, whom he sought to help using his knowledge of the Alexander Technique and of human brain evolution.
Dart worked out a series of postures from which to explore how weight-bearing affects the nervous system, a series now known as the Dart Procedures. It helped Dart’s son and even Dart’s own scoliosis, but was largely forgotten until Dart taught at the Institutes for Human Potential in Philadelphia in the 1970s. There he met Alex and Joan Murray, Alexander Technique teachers who had read Dart’s writings on the subject. Dart passed his procedures on to them.
The Murrays have explored, articulated, and taught Dart’s procedures for over three decades, with stunning practical results in improved functioning among their pupils. Erik Bendix has been studying with the Murrays since 1997, and is available to teach classes or workshops on the Dart Procedures.
“...star performers..., whether jugglers or acrobats, dancers or sportsmen, are merely outstanding examples of the well-balanced but gyratory bodies Nature designed for all mankind; they have bodies which every person should possess or be gradually discovering for himself.”
Raymond A. Dart
Dart Procedures