Gerda Alexander

Gerda Alexander was a German-born dancer, director and teacher of Dalcroze Eurhythmics who became a pioneer of somatic education after acquiring Danish citizenship and settling in Copenhagen. Her research into muscular tension and relaxation led her to coin the term eutony for the body-awareness method she developed, which addresses psychosomatics, body awareness and neuromotor rehabilitation by training people to regulate their own neuromuscular tone. The school she founded in Copenhagen trained professionals in her method for forty-five years, establishing eutony as a lasting practice within movement and somatic therapy. She lived from 15 February 1908 to 21 February 1994.