Poster displaying the Dart Procedures

The Dart Procedures, developed by Joan and Alexander Murray, are a series of exploratory poses and movements relating to the sequence of human developmental movement from infant to adult. They correspond to F. M. Alexander’s understanding of human poise and coordination, and are done while applying the Technique. They are based on the work of Professor Raymond Dart, thus the name. While Dart is widely recognized as one of the pre-eminent anatomists, anthropologists and paleontologists of the 20th Century, it is less well known that he had great interest in developmental physiology and human developmental movement as exhibited by infants and young children. Beginning in 1967, from close readings of several of Dart’s many published papers and personal visits with Dart himself, the Murrays expanded on what they understood from Dart and developed the Procedures as a way of exploring human developmental movement with adults while using the principles of the Alexander Technique.

Raymond Dart (1893-1988) is primarily known for his discovery in 1924 of the so-called missing link, the skull of what is called the Taung child, that he named Australopithecus africanus. Australian by birth, Dart emigrated to London after graduating from medical school in Sydney in 1917. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1922 and in 1926 became dean of the medical school there. He retained the post until his retirement in 1958. In 1943, Dart and his family had Alexander Technique lessons with F. M. Alexander's assistant, Irene Tasker. Dart had a single lesson with Alexander himself in 1949 and maintained that Alexander influenced him for the rest of his life. In March 1970, Dart delivered the F. M. Alexander Memorial lecture titled “An Anatomist’s Tribute to F. Matthias Alexander” to the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique in London. He died in Johannesburg in 1988 at the age of 95.

Skill And Poise: Articles on Skill, Poise and

the F. M. Alexander Technique  by Raymond Dart

    available from Mouritz

A collection of six articles particularly relevant to the Alexander Technique. Chapter seven, written by Alexander Murray, is a complete description, with illustrations, of the Dart Procedures.

Beginning from the Beginning: The Growth of Understanding and Skill

                    edited by Marian Goldberg

      available from amazon.com

“Joan and Alexander Murray in conversation with Kevin Ahern and Marian Goldberg on the evolution of the Dart Procedures and beyond.”

More information about the Dart Procedures is available in these two books.

Both are indispensable for anyone interested in this work.