Listen to the podcast of the Panel discussion here: http://balanceartscenter.podbean.com/2010/06/07/alexander-symposium-5-20-2010/
Freedom to Move: Dance and the Alexander Technique
May 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 2010
Location: 440 Studios, located at 440 Lafayette Street between Astor Place and 4th Street in Manhattan
Dancers strive for movement freedom, coordination, and ease. The Alexander Technique provides concepts and tools to achieve these goals. The focus of the Freedom to Move Conference is to bring dance and the Alexander Technique together, to exploring how the principles of the Alexander Technique are being applied to the many aspects of dance.
The weekend will be full of workshops, a panel discussion, and a performance, for AT teachers who work with dancers, AT teachers who would like to work with dancers, dancers who have had experience with the AT, and dancers with no experience of the AT!
All the conference presenters have had extensive experience both in the teaching the Alexander Technique and in dance. The Alexander Technique has greatly influenced their thinking and approach movement, how they teach, and how they create work. The variety of workshops speaks to the fundamental all- encompassing nature of the Alexander Technique and how the concepts are permeating many corners of the dance world.
Come join us and explore!
SCHEDULE OVERVIEW*:
Friday May 21
7–9 pm
Opening Event: Introductions and Inhibition Games
Thomas Baird, Jonathan Bastiani, Daria Fain, Jennifer, Grove, Katherine Mitchell, Ann Rodiger, Shelley Senter
Saturday
9:30-11am Session 1
A – The Sun King Goes Up! – Thomas Baird
B – Releasing with Balls – June Ekman
C – Balance and Ease on the Floor – Rebecca Brooks
11:10am-12:40pm Session 2
A – Working with Dancers – Jane Kosminsky
B – A Way of Thinking: The Alexander Technique as Tool for Dancers – Raquel Cavalcanti
C – Neurological Connections Between Sight and the Tendons – Daria Fain
12:40-1:30pm Break for Lunch
1:30-3:00pm Session 3
A – Finding Continuity – Jenny Grove
B – From Crawling to Leaping, Part I: Primary and Secondary Curves – The Lively Interplay – Rebecca Nettl-Fiol and Luc Vanier
3:10-4:40pm Session 4
A – Dynamics of Flow – Eva Karczag
B – Bringing Alexander Technique to Partner Dancing – Katherine Mitchell
5-6:30pm Panel Discussion: Creativity and the AT
Moderator: Ann Rodiger
Panelists: June Ekman, Eva Karczag, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, Cynthia Reynolds, Luc Vanier
8pm Concert
Featuring performances by Thomas Baird, Rebecca Brooks and Sarah White-Ayon, Raquel Cavalcanti, Daria Fain, Emily Faulkner, Jennifer Grove, Eva Karzag and Shelley Senter, and more!
Sunday
10-11:30am Session 5
A – Balance and Ease on the Floor – Ann Rodiger
B – Core Emptiness, Spatial Support – Shelley Senter
11:40am-1:10pm Session 6
A – Alexander Technique for Yoga – Ann Rodiger
B – From Crawling to Leaping, Part II: Spirals for Connectivity and Lengthening – Rebecca Nettl-Fiol and Luc Vanier
*The final schedule will reflect registration.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS and TEACHER BIOS (in alpha by teacher):
The Sun King Goes Up!
Thomas Baird
In the court of Louis XIV, one had to have présence or bearing especially while dancing, but also in giving honors, walking, standing and sitting. Thomas Baird will teach a specific style of movement from a distant era, through the principles of the Alexander Technique. A good introduction to period movement for actors and singers as well as dancers, the workshop will begin with a short Balance Arts Floor Class and will continue with walking, standing, bowing and “fan language.” Finally, the mark of every accomplished courtier was in dancing the Ordinary Menuet. Learn the steps and various floor patterns of this once popular dance. Participants should wear loose fitting clothes and dance shoes with low or no heels.
Thomas Baird is a Baroque Dance specialist, and is the co-director of Apollo’s Banquet, a New York City-based Baroque dance and music ensemble. For ten years he directed the annual East Coast Baroque Dance Workshop at Rutgers University. Mr. Baird is a regular guest lecturer on Baroque Dance at The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. He is a faculty member of the Opera Division at the State University of New York at Purchase where he teaches Movement Styles for Singers and choreographs the opera productions. He was the Period Movement Coach for the Broadway productions of O’Neill’s “A Touch of the Poet,” and, at Lincoln Center Theater, Sheridan’s “The Rivals.” In 2005, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as a choreographer, providing period dances for Alfano’s “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Most recently, he has choreographed and performed period dances for the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts at Avery Fisher Hall. Thomas is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, having received his training from the Balance Arts Center in NYC (Ann Rodiger, Director). Mr. Baird is a Guest Faculty member in the Dance Division of The Juilliard School where he teaches the Alexander Technique.
Balance and Ease on the Floor
Rebecca Brooks
Find your balance and center through an extended session on the floor. Work slowly and carefully to build your awareness of your limbs in relation to your back. Focus on your breathing, ease, coordination, and direction during your movements. The class is useful for movement professionals and community members alike who want to improve balance, coordination, and strengthen their movements. Ann Rodiger developed the Balance Arts Floor Class to present movement through the lens of the Alexander Technique. Rebecca Brooks teaches her version of the class, building towards full body movements and expanded sensory integration.
Rebecca Brooks is a NYC-based performing artist and AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher. She has taught classes in the Alexander Technique at Balance Arts Center, CLASSCLASSCLASS, Movement Research and the American Dance Festival, and she also teaches privately. This spring she has been re-performing Imponderabilia as part of the Marina Abramović retrospective The Artist Is Present at MoMA. Upcoming and recent performance work includes projects with Heather Kravas, Amanda Loulaki, Jillian Peña, Katy Pyle, robbinschilds, and Kathy Westwater. Her own work has been presented throughout NYC. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, co-founded AUNTS, currently (wo)manages programs and events at Movement Research, and is Artistic Director of the Rockbridge Artist Exchange in Lexington, Virginia.
A Way of Thinking: The Alexander Technique as a Tool for Dancers
Raquel Cavalcanti
In this workshop we will explore the idea of changing our thinking to change our movement. We will discuss and experiment with Alexander’s principles and see how they can be used as a tool to guide us in our dancing. We will start by observing our habitual ways of moving and using our bodies as we think about the “idea” of dancing or creating a movement. We will then experiment with new ways of thinking to see the impact in our movements. My hope is to make this workshop a revealing and fun experience to everyone interested in using the Alexander principles as a powerful tool to dance making.
Raquel Cavalcanti is a Brazilian-born artist, based in NYC since 1995, who has been creating, teaching, and choreographing dance for more than 15 years. Her own work has been presented in the US, Brazil, and Europe. Raquel became a certified Alexander Technique Teacher at IRDEAT, in New York, in 1999. Since then, she has been teaching private lessons and workshops in New York and throughout Brazil. She worked as Ann Mathews’ assistant at NYU, teaching the AT to graduate students at Tisch School for the Arts. She also assisted Cindy Reynolds at Fordham University teaching the AT to undergraduate dancers. From January to March 2010, Raquel taught the Alexander Technique for Dancers class at Movement Research. She will earn her MA degree in Dance Education from New York University in May 2010. Her master’s thesis research explores the Alexander Technique as a tool for teaching dance.
Releasing with Balls
June Ekman
This workshop will deal with “site specific” areas of the body, using small rubber balls. The purpose is to help deepen one’s proprioceptive awareness of the joints, and take this sensory information into movement in space.
June Ekman came to NYC from Chicago in 1953 to study with Martha Graham. She went on to perform with many early Modern Dance Companies and to participate and perform at Judson Memorial Church. She has been a certified ACAT Alexander Teacher since 1979, and has taught in the theater and dance department at Sarah Lawrence College for the past 21 years. Her main focus and interest is in working with dancers to help them to understand and use the basic principles of the Alexander Technique, to enable them to be more conscious and ease-ful with their bodies. In June of 2009, the American Center for the Alexander Technique honored her for her teaching and service.
Neurological Connections between Sight and the Tendons
Daria Faïn
Using the Alexander Technique principals along with the Chinese Theory of the 5 Elements and Chi Kung, we will experience how the sense of sight has deep implication in our behaviors.
Daria Faïn’s choreography has been presented in New York at The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Movement Research and the 92nd Street Y, among other venues. Faïn founded her company Human Behavior Explorers in 2000, and, with architect- poet Robert Kocik, founded the non-profit organization Universal Coverage, Inc., in 2008. Faïn’s work is based on two decades of practice in the Asian philosophy of the body, American dance training, and the study of architecture. Faïn’s research on impaired senses has led her to work with patients in the fields of neurology, psychology and with blind-deaf individuals, leading to a complex understanding of the body as a resource of knowledge. Her website is www.prosodicbody.org.
Finding Continuity
Jennifer Grove
The Alexander Technique is about regaining and maintaining natural poise. The breath and how we think of movement play an integral part in continuity and expression. We will explore poise and breathing through simple dance phrases, allowing time to investigate how we make each move, how we think about the action, and how the breath works through the movement. This will in turn allow us to find the connections or flow of movement through the phrasing.
Jennifer Grove is the Artistic Director and Founder of Grove Dance Theatre. She began her professional career by studying Performance Art at De Montfort University in the UK. Jennifer is experienced in organizing platform performances from street events at the Leicester International Dance Festival to quarterly showcases for the emerging choreographers in Brighton and Oxford. Her work, both theatrical and dance, has been performed in venues across Europe including The Oxford Playhouse, UK and the Music Conservatory in Enschede, NL. Jennifer moved to New York in 2000. She has been working with the Alexander Technique and dance since 1990 and in 2003 became a certified teacher of the work. She taught Alexander Technique on the graduate acting course at NYU for 6 years and has a private teaching practice in NYC.
Dynamics of Flow
Eva Karcag
At the foundation of this workshop lies an appreciation of, and respect for, the innate intelligence of a fluid and alert body. Using movement improvisations, imagery, and the directed touch of the Alexander Technique, participants will be guided to sense, observe, and explore the complexity of anatomical structure as it relates to individual patterns of use. Through embodying our weight and lightness, and our breathing and flow, we can arrive at an experiential understanding of our capacity for equilibrium and efficiency, and taste the integrated openness and buoyant suppleness that generates easeful articulate moving.
Eva Karczag: Independent dance artist and teacher. For the past three decades she has practiced, taught, and advocated explorative methods of dance making. She performs solo and collaborative work internationally, many of her collaborations involving links across the arts. Her performance work and her teaching are informed by dance improvisation and mindful body practices, including the Alexander Technique (ACAT certified teacher), whose concepts, in particular, shape her methodology. She has been a member of leading groups in the field of experimental dance, including the Trisha Brown Dance Company, and has taught dance at major colleges and studios throughout the USA, Australia, and Europe. She has an MFA degree (Dance Research Fellow) from Bennington College, VT. Current activities include collaborating with Lisa Kraus and Vicky Shick on “Red Thread”, a project inspired by a model of women’s quilting circles, and with visual artist Chris Crickmay and composer Sylvia Hallett on improvised durational performance/installations.
Working with Dancers – a Workshop for Alexander Technique Teachers
Jane Kosminksy
In this workshop, Jane shares her approach to working with dancers. What is the psychology of dancers? Where do you begin? What should you look for? Where do you put your hands? How can you help the dancer to achieve safely what seems to be dangerous? Juilliard dancers will be present for “hands on” work and for there their input in integrating dance and the Alexander Technique. Learn how you can help dancers improve alignment, strengthen technique, work without injury, lengthen careers and dance with greater joy and passion.
Jane Kosminsky. Dance Award Winner, School of Performing Arts, 1960. B.A. in Language & Literature, CCNY. Graduate, The American Center for the Alexander Technique. Soloist, Norman Walker Dance Company, 1960-65. Soloist, Paul Taylor Dance Company, 1965-71. Co-artistic director (with Bruce Becker) and principal dancer of 5 by 2 Plus, a modern dance repertory company, 1971-82. Restaged Paul Taylor’s Aureole for productions of Nureyev and Friends and appeared as Mr. Nureyev’s partner, Paris, 1974; London, 1976; Madrid, 1978. Director of Dance, 92nd Street Y, 1986-1988. Faculty, The Neighborhood Playhouse since 1988. Faculty, The American Center for the Alexander Technique Teacher Training Program, 1986-1994. The Juilliard School drama faculty, 1971-1986. Dance faculty since 1986. AmSAT member. Has produced 3 pioneer videos about the Alexander Technique (www.balanceofwellbeing.com). Latest DVD – For Dancers, The Alexander Technique was released in the spring of 2005.
Bringing Alexander Technique to Partner Dancing
Katherine Mitchell
We will explore principles of the Alexander Technique through leading and following during simple games and basic Argentine Tango. How do we prepare to move? What messages are we sending unintentionally? Awareness and understanding of the head-neck-back relationship helps with form, and improves how we connect with our partner and how we transfer and receive an improvised lead, thereby enhancing the fun and exhilaration of dancing together. Experiencing these subtleties of non-verbal connection between dance partners can be applied to any form of dancing.
Katherine Mitchell came to the Alexander Technique as an injured professional dancer in the early 1980s. She was a choreographer and dancer in Memphis TN where she danced with the Harry Bryce Dance Theatre and developed environmental pieces for a pasture, a farmhouse and an ancient YMCA racquetball court. She danced with various companies in Chicago and Denver including Radis Dance Strata and ARTCO. She made the transition to social dancing in the late 1980s, calling square dances in rural Illinois and in the city of Chicago. She has maintained a private teaching practice in AT for the past 20 years and has trained AT teachers since 2001. She developed and taught AT classes for the Conservatory for Theatre Arts at Webster University for eleven years and an AT class for dancers at Washington University for five years. She currently teaches Argentine Tango at Washington University. She sees special relevance for the AT in the embrace, connection between partners, and improvisational nature of Tango. She is interested in the AT’s ability to help people avoid injury and thrive at whatever they want to do.
From Crawling to Leaping I and II
Rebecca Nettl-Fiol and Luc Vanier
In these two sessions we will explore the Alexander Technique principles through the lens of the Dart Procedures and developmental movement. (The Dart Procedures, as developed by Joan and Alex Murray, is a series of movements derived from developmental and evolutionary sequences.) We will demonstrate how a playful investigation of these movement sequences can give you insights about your own movement patterns and inform and enhance your dance technique. The Dart Procedures are especially useful for dancers interested in learning the Alexander Technique because they provide simple movements for exploring Alexander’s principles in a non-dance situation, yet they can easily be linked to dance vocabulary.
In Part I: Primary and Secondary Curves – The Lively Interplay, we look at the two opposing curves present in the body and explore the ongoing interplay between these two movement pathways. This provides a foundation for looking at the moving body, giving a vocabulary for discussing holding patterns, habitual movement tendencies and preferences, and places where we unwittingly interfere with the movement intent. The primary and secondary lens provides us with a flexible and adaptable model, moving us away from “posture” toward a dynamic use of the whole body in action.
In Part II: Spirals for Connectivity and Lengthening, we will show how the primary and secondary curves intertwine to create spirals. The spiral is a key concept in understanding dynamic alignment, allowing us to maintain connectivity without stiffening or bracing. At the same time, the spiral facilitates lengthening and movement through space, propelling you into actions such as turning, falling, or leaping.
Rebecca Nettl-Fiol is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Illinois. A certified Alexander teacher since 1990, she is particularly interested in looking at developmental movement as a lens for enlivening and illustrating the Alexander principles for dancers. Rebecca has presented numerous workshops and papers on Alexander and dance both nationally and internationally. Publications include “Alexander Technique and Dance Technique: Applications in the Studio” (Journal of Dance Education), and a co-edited book, The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in Dance Training. She is completing a book with Luc Vanier on dance and the Alexander Technique, to be published by University of Illinois Press. Rebecca is also a choreographer, producing work annually at the Krannert Center as well as in other venues throughout the U.S. Most recently, her work was selected for performance at PS 122 in FranceOff!, 2007, and for the American Dance Guild Performance Festival 2008 at Dance New Amsterdam.
Balance and Ease on the Floor
Ann Rodiger
Find your balance and center through an extended session on the floor. Work slowly and carefully to build your awareness of your limbs in relation to your back. Focus on your breathing, ease, coordination, and direction during your movements. The class is useful for movement professionals and community members alike who want to improve balance, coordination, and strengthen their movements. Ann Rodiger developed the Balance Arts Floor Class to present movement through the lens of the Alexander Technique. She has combined her knowledge and experience of the Alexander Technique for over 25 years, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Feldenkrais, Yoga and various dance techniques in creating the class.
Ann Rodiger (producer) brings her experience of over 25 years in the Alexander Technique, Laban Movement Analysis and Observation, Dance Notation, movement education, and her own dance performance experience to her work as a teacher. She currently has a private practice in New York City. Ms. Rodiger is the founder and director of the AmSAT approved Balance Arts Center Alexander Technique Teacher Training Course in NYC. Ms. Rodiger has taught graduate and undergraduate level dance courses in several major U.S. Universities, including the University of Illinois-Urbana, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Hawaii-Manoa, City College of New York, and the Juilliard School. Internationally, she teaches regularly in Berlin, and has taught in France and Switzerland. Ms. Rodiger graduated from the Urbana Center for the Alexander Technique in 1981. She also holds a Masters Degree in Dance from the Ohio State University and a B.S. from the University of Oregon. She has also studied ergonomics, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Feldenkrais, yoga and meditation.
Core Emptiness, Spatial Support
Shelley Senter
Opening the body, the brain and the conversation to new considerations of ideas, language, seeing and organizing the self in time and space.
For nearly twenty-five years, Shelley Senter has been investigating the application of the principles of the Alexander Technique to the performing body and mind. A certified teacher of the Alexander Technique since 1994 (ACAT), her approach to teaching has influenced artists in all disciplines and has been written about in various dance, arts and Alexander Technique publications and scholarly papers. She has been critically recognized and awarded for her distinct approach to movement, both as an independent dance artist and as a collaborator/performer with many distinguished artists, including Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer, for whom she is an official repetiteur. She teaches workshops and private lessons in colleges, universities and conservatories, in international festivals and organizations, as well as at Movement Research and the Trisha Brown Company School in New York. After more than a decade on the West Coast, Senter has recently returned to New York City and maintains a private practice in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Additional panelist bios:
Cynthia Reynolds left the dance faculty of the University of Maryland inspired to train with and dance for Erick Hawkins. She was a soloist in the Erick Hawkins Dance Company for 18 years, performing and teaching with Erick from 1976 to 1993, and was Director of the Hawkins School from 1990-1993. Motivated to open her body and extend her dancing career, Reynolds began studying the Alexander technique, trained at ACAT and certified as an Alexander teacher in 1987. Ms Reynolds teaches the Alexander Technique in private practice one-to-one, and in classes at the The New School for Drama, the NYU Vocal Performance Program, Mannes College extension division, and trains teachers at the American Center for the Alexander Technique. In New York she teaches dance classes informed by the Alexander technique at the 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Center and Panetta Movement Center. Her teaching was the subject of a feature article in Dance Teacher Magazine, and is also featured in Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique, a video documenting the technique of Erick Hawkins, created by Renata Celichowska in 2000.
Luc Vanier is an Associate Professor in the Dance Department at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee where he teaches ballet, Alexander Technique and digital media. Originally from Montreal, he graduated from L’École Supérieur de Danse du Quebec under Daniel Seillier. In 1998, he retired from Ohio Ballet having danced a variety of roles such as the Workman in Kurt Jooss’ Big City, the Third Song of Tudor’s Dark Elegies, the leads in Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and Paul Taylor’s Aureole among others. He both received his MFA from the University of Illinois and became a certified Alexander teacher in 2001 from ATCU. His research on linking the Alexander Technique, developmental movement and Ballet is at the forefront of integrating somatic work into dance curriculum and has been presented at various international conferences and workshops most recently at the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science conference in The Hague and the Freedom to Move conference in New York City. Co-wrote Dance and the Alexander Technique: Exploring the Missing Link with Rebecca Nettl-Fiol to be published by the University of Illinois Press in the Spring 2011 (For more information visit www.lucvanier.com)
REGISTRATION
Registration by May 1st: $135 register for full conference here
Registration after May 1st: $150
Pay-by-session: $25 each (does not include concert) register for pay-by-session here
Concert (for pay-by-session students): $10
Registration includes attendance at Opening Event, Panel Discussion, Concert, and one workshop in each session.
Note that Opening Event and Panel Discussion are free to both conference registrants and pay-by-session students.
Register for the full conference on our website SOON. Once you have registered for the conference you will receive an email asking you to chose which workshop (A, B or C) in each session (1-6) you will attend. Priority registration will be on a first come basis.
You can also pay for the conference by check. Email Ann Rodiger to register, and then make check out to Balance Arts Center.
Contact:
info@balanceartscenter.com
vm: 212-439-5248
