Michael D. Frederick is an internationally recognized teacher in the field of psycho-physical re-education. He trained as an Alexander Teacher in London with Walter & Dilys Carrington and in America with Marjorie Barstow (all master teachers trained by F.M. Alexander in the 1930s). Michael was certified in England by The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT) in 1978.
He studied in the U.S. and Israel as a Feldenkrais Practitioner under the direction of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais and has extensive training in the Yoga tradition of T.K.V. Desikachar from Chennai/Madras, India. Originally, Michael trained in 1971/72 as an actor at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England. He is greatly influenced by the work of the renowned theatre director Peter Brook and has taught workshops with the actor Yoshi Oida, who became the first member of Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris. He also studied with the innovative Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski.
As founding director of the first three International Congresses on the Alexander Technique, Michael has organized and taught over 250 workshops in the U.S. and Europe since 1978. He is the Creative Director of the Alexander Technique Congress Association (ATCA) based in England.
Michael worked for two years at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute and taught for over a decade in The Old Globe Theatre’s MFA Acting Program at the University of San Diego.
Michael is on the faculty teaching the Alexander Technique at The BaronBrown Acting Studio in Santa Monica. He started teaching at this Sandford Meisner based acting studio in 1984.
From 1994 to 2000 Michael organized Alexander Technique Master Classes with Marjory Barlow (F.M. Alexander’s niece) and Elisabeth Walker in San Francisco, Basel, and Paris.
He has conducted presentation skills seminars for upper-level corporate management in such companies as Du Pont Corporation, Merck Pharmaceuticals, and AMOCO.
He is former Chairman of the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT) and is now Co-Director and on the Board of Directors of the Alexander Training Institute-Los Angeles. Currently, Michael teaches in Los Angeles, Ojai, and Santa Barbara, California.
Michael attended the International Acadamy of Continuous Education near Oxford, England from 1972-'74 under the direction of J.G. Bennett. He studied Sufism (Islamic Mysticism) in the mid-1970s with master teachers Suleyman Hayati Dede, Sheikh Muzaffer Özak, Hasan Shushud in Istanbul and Konya Turkey, and with Sheikh Muhammad Nazim in London. From 1976 to 1978 he taught theatre at The Brockwood Park School in Hampshire, England founded by educator philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti. From 1986 to 1992, Michael was the Co-Director of The David Bohm Dialogues series that took place annually in Ojai, California. (Dr. Bohm was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century. Also, the man Einstein called his “spiritual son” and the Dalai Lama his “science guru.”)
Michael was voted best Alexander Teacher in Los Angeles Magazine’s "Best of LA."