Andrea Grody
Carrying Bags — Better Ways to Manage Backpacks, Purses, Totes, and More
Andrea graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University, and she holds a Master’s degree with Highest Honors in Musical Theatre Music Directing from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is Associate Director and Resident Music Director at New York Vocal Coaching, the creator of WordWaves, and an AmSAT-certified Alexander Technique teacher.
She lives in New York City, where she is a well-practiced bag lady.
Ann Rodiger
PANELIST: AT & Cerebral Palsy
The Basics of the Alexander Technique
Hypermobility/EDS & AT
Ann Rodiger is the Founder and Director of the Balance Arts Center and the BAC Teacher Training Program. She has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 40 years, Rodiger teaches internationally in Germany, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey. She has also adapted the Alexander principles to work for those with hypermobility and Ehlers Danlos Syndromes. As a former dancer, Ann enjoys working with performing artists in all disciplines.
Eric Liu
PANELIST: AT in Different Languages & Cultures
A certified Pilates instructor, classical ballet dancer, and current trainee in the Alexander Technique at the Balance Arts Center, Eric Liu offers a highly attuned, integrative approach to movement. Originally from a vineyard in Taiwan and fluent in Mandarin Chinese, he brings a grounded sensitivity to his teaching that reflects both his cultural roots and extensive artistic training. Eric has trained and performed in Iceland, Israel, and the United States, cultivating a diverse somatic and choreographic perspective. In 2016, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to deepen his exploration of dance and interdisciplinary performance. His work integrates anatomical precision with musicality and curiosity, creating an experience that supports both embodied awareness and technical clarity. Clients value his thoughtful presence, movement insight, and ability to meet individuals where they are—whether in injury recovery, performance training, or daily life.
Elizabeth Miller
AT & Violin
Elizabeth Miller is a professional violinist in the New York City area for over 30 years. She has played on Broadway, and currently plays with the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and New York Scandia Symphony. She has actively freelanced at Lincoln Center and all over the Metropolitan area. She also runs the Hudson Heights String Academy for Young string players.
A recent graduate of The Balance Arts Center, she holds certification from AmSAT and has taken Workshops with Robyn Avalon in Santa Fe like Living in a Body and Professional Enrichment. She is currently teaching in upper Manhattan, and is on Facebook and Instagram.
Gabrielle Scott
Listening and Presence
AT Lie Down: Daily Mind-Body Reset
Gabrielle Scott is a Trinidadian theater-maker: director, actor/singer and playwright who incorporates Alexander Technique in everything she does. Specializing in physical theater, classical work and her original work, she aims to create safe spaces that encourage true freedom of expression. She works with both performing artists and non-performing artists. Her calling is to use art as a means of activism, healing and empowerment while shedding light on Truth.
Hailey McAvoy
AT and Self-Empowerment for Performers with Disabilities
PANELIST: Voice & Alexander Technique - What Happened?
Hailey McAvoy is a versatile performer of opera, song, and concert. McAvoy’s recent operatic performances include appearing as Mem in Paola Prestini’s Sensorium Ex (Opera Omaha) and as Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit (Opera Praktikos). Additional roles in her repertoire include Third Lady (The Magic Flute; MassOpera), Third Woodsprite (Dvorak, Rusalka; Opera Ithaca), the Page of Herodias (Strauss, Salome; Fisher Center of Performing Arts), The Taller Daughter (Mazzoli, Proving Up; Aspen Music Festival), Zosha (Heggie, Out of Darkness; Eastman Opera Theater), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro; Aquilon Music Festival), and in select performances as a Young Artist with Cedar Rapids Opera and Opera Ithaca.
In 2024, McAvoy was an artist in residence at Hogfish Regenerative Arts Portland, Maine, where, in addition to singing the role of Newspaper Vendor in Poulenc’s Breasts of Tiresias, she began developing Wholly Unwinding, a concert of original music which explores themes of disability, accessibility, and what it means to feel at home in one’s body.
As a performer with the neurological condition Cerebral Palsy, McAvoy is committed to amplifying the discussion around disability in the arts in order to make the performing arts more inclusive for all. She recently published essays on accessibility in the arts in AGMAzine and Our Singing Bodies and has appeared as a panelist with such organizations as the National Endowment For the Arts, National Sawdust, Opera Ithaca and Opera NexGen.
Heather Gardner
String Workshop
PANELIST: AT & Voice
Heather Gardner is a singer and music teacher living, working and teaching in the Philadelphia and New York City areas. She specializes in singing 20th and 21st century works though she is equally comfortable singing Brahms, Mozart or Bach. She holds a Master’s degree in vocal performance from Rutgers University and a Bachelor’s degree in viola performance from the Eastman School of Music, where she also studied violin and voice. She has performed extensively with a variety of groups as a soloist, including Alarm Will Sound, The Albany Symphony Orchestra, SFSound, the Dogs of Desire, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Musica Tevere, the Society for Ancient Instruments, and Z-ensemble.
Heather enjoys teaching people of all ages and abilities in a variety of genres from classical to musical theater and jazz. Her studio hosts Music Together® classes for babies and toddlers, Suzuki voice and violin classes for children and Alexander Technique-inspired voice lessons and classes for adult beginners and professional singers. She is passionate about helping people find their own way to express themselves through sound and music with freedom and creativity. She recently completed her certification as a Deep Listening Facilitator and hopes to bring more improvisation and dream-inspired sounds to her teaching, performing and community-building.
Jenna Hokanson
Acting and the Alexander Technique: Entering and “Owning” the Room
AT Lie Down: Daily Mind-Body Reset
Jenna Hokanson is an AEA actor, Alexander Technique Teacher (AMSAT 1600 hrs certification), and martial artist living in Brooklyn, NY.
A North Carolina native, she graduated with a BFA Acting and BA Arts Administration double major from Elon University in Elon, NC.
Jenna received her Alexander Technique Teacher Training Certification with Balance Arts Center in Manhattan under the guidance of Ann Rodiger and has her Second Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. She's also proficient in photography, specifically headshots and portraits. Jenna’s worked with Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Scranton Shakespeare Theatre, Convergences Theatre Collective and more.
Jessica Goldring
Take the Pressure Off: Rest, Sigh, Release, Play!
AT Lie Down: Daily Mind-Body Reset in French
Jessica lives in the Finistère (the land’s end) region of Brittany, France where she currently teaches voice and the Alexander Technique at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the Archipel in Fouesnant as well as Novomax and the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts in Quimper. As a singer, Jessica has performed internationally in Europe and in America. Today, she co-organizes Live@La Rêverie: A Jazz and Classical Music Series together with her husband, Stéphane Spira. She also enjoys drawing, writing and exploring wide beaches and winding forest paths with her family and their dog Tempo.
Jill Usdan
Finding Presence through Performance
Jill is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University as a theater major and recipient of the Kenneth Janes Theater Prize. As a 1,600 hour AmSat certified Alexander Technique teacher, Jill has taught workshops and privately for nine years. She is on the faculty at the Balance Arts Center and specializes in working with actors, singers and public speakers. Jill is passionate about exploring the Alexander Technique as it relates to mental health. In addition to teaching, Jill is also a singer/songwriter and performer. You can listen to her EP, “Numbers” on Spotify. The first and last songs are jazz standards and the four in between are originals. Jill wrote the book, music and lyrics of her one woman musical, The Haunted Trumpet. It is a show about facing what haunts you and healing your trauma through original songs, poems and tap dancing.
Kerry Ryer Parke
Sound Flow
Kerry Ryer-Parke is an AmSAT-certified Alexander Technique teacher and a teacher, conductor, and performer of many musical styles, from oratorio, opera, early music, and new work to folk, jazz, and rock. Trained in classical voice performance, Kerry is also certified in LoVetri Somatic Voicework and the McClosky method for non-classical styles. She has been the Director of the Bennington Children's Chorus since 1994 and the Bennington Voice Workshop since 2002. She joined the Music Faculty at Bennington College in 2013 and was an Artist Associate in Voice at Williams College from 2000-2022. As a soprano soloist, she has appeared with many orchestras and choirs in the Vermont/New York/Massachusetts area. She is the lead singer and bass player of the rock band The Prescription. Kerry’s interest in music and peacebuilding has led to training with Musicians Without Borders and the School for International Training, and travels to Sardinia, Corsica, Bosnia, Greece, and Cyprus.
Lindy Rogers
Fundamentals in Flow, Balance & Stability
Lindy Rogers teaches the Alexander Technique in New York City; a graduate of the Balance Arts Center since September 2019. Currently on Faculty with the BAC Teacher Training Program. Her passion is offering Balance & Stability classes that include a One Pound Weight class and a Fall Prevention class; both classes explore the power of being able to get down to and up from the floor with confidence. Lindy also teaches privately and works locally as an Actor and Director.
Matt Cahill
“Let There Be Peace On Earth” - Alexander Technique for a More Equitable, Regenerative, and Kind World
Matt Cahill (he/they) is the co-founder and director of Hogfish, a regenerative arts production company and residency in Maine. along with his husband Edwin. Together, and through Hogfish, they are creating the regenerative arts - new secular rituals for the modern human that restore our relationship to the living world. Mind to Body. Performer to Audience. Individual to Community. Human to Nature. www.hogfish.org
Matt directs the artist residency at Hogfish, and is a Juilliard trained performer and teacher of performers at the Metropolitan Opera, Circle in the Square Theatre School, and privately in Maine and New York City. He specializes in mind-body awareness for singer-actors, and is an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique and Reiki Level II Healer.
Mike Maher
Breathing in Balance: An Exploration of Breath through the Alexander Technique
Mike Maher is a trumpeter, singer, international touring and recording artist, and an AmSAT-certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, having completed his teacher training at the Balance Arts Center.
As a member of the multi-Grammy Award–winning group Snarky Puppy, he has spent the past two decades performing on the world’s biggest stages. These performance environments have served as a real-world laboratory for deepening his understanding of the principles and practical application of the Alexander Technique under the demands of professional music-making.
Mike’s passion for the work began through firsthand experience of how the Alexander Technique transformed his own trumpet playing, singing, and overall ease in performance. That enthusiasm continues to grow through his private teaching, where he supports students from a wide range of backgrounds in discovering greater ease and fluidity in their movement. He finds particular inspiration in witnessing students’ breakthroughs—moments when improved coordination and awareness open new possibilities, not only in performance, but in how they meet the challenges of daily life.
Ofelia Ruiz-Alonso
AT Lie Down: Daily Mind-Body Reset for Musicians
Viola & Violin Spiral Workshop
Ofelia is a violist, music teacher, and an Alexander Technique teacher based in Tijuana, Mexico.
As a violist, she's toured extensively around Mexico and California with prominent ensembles, including the Orquesta de Baja California. Ofelia has also shared the stage with many world-class artists such as Andrea Bocelli.
Ofelia holds two degrees in viola performance, a Bachelor of Music from the Autonomous University of Baja California (2015), and a Master of Music from San Diego State University (2018). Ofelia also underwent the Alexander Technique - Performing Artists Teacher Training at the Balance Arts Center (2025), with both the generous support of the Judith Leibowitz Scholarship Fund and the Balance Arts Center.
As an Alexander teacher, she is both a member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique, and the Asociación de Profesores de Técnica Alexander de México - APTAM.
Ofelia feels fortunate to play a 2021 viola built for her by Claudia Reynoso, one of Mexico's most prominent luthiers.
Takehiro Shimizu 清水勇博
AT Lie Down: Daily Mind-Body Reset in Japanese
Drumming/Seated Instruments Workshop
PANELIST: AT in Different Languages & Cultures
Takehiro is an Alexander Technique Teacher and teaches private lessons and group classes in NYC and Osaka (Japan). He has been involved as a teaching assistant in Balance Arts Center teacher training course since 2022.
He graduated from the Balance Arts Center and also holds a bachelor degree in Human Science from Konan University in Kobe Japan. Takehiro also has been working as a jazz drummer for more than 20 years.
アレクサンダーテクニック教師 (AmSAT）
2020年にAmSAT(米国アレクサンダーテクニーク教師協会)の認定を受け、アレクサンダーテクニークを日本とNYで教え始める。
2022年よりBalance Arts Centerで教師育成クラスにアシスタントとして関わる。
教師業の傍らジャズドラマーとしての活動も行なっている。
Taylor Belew
AT & Emotions
AT & Household Activities
AT Lie Down: Daily Mind-Body Reset
Taylor is an Alexander Technique-certified theatre artist and performance coach with a passion for human potential. In addition to working as a professional actor and director in the Chicago area, Taylor has over eight years of experience teaching theatre and public speaking in higher education. She leads extensive training in various actor training methods, such as the Meisner Technique and the methods of Jerzy Grotowski. Taylor has led workshops across the country on managing performance anxiety, cultivating emotional intelligence, improving deep listening, developing boundaries, and amplifying group creativity. She also serves as a public speaking and presentation coach for business executives in high-pressure performance environments and competitions. Her competitive gymnastics background and experience as a gymnastics coach invigorates her understanding of the human body. Taylor holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Mississippi, an MFA in Acting from the University of Georgia, and a Post-MFA in Applied Performance from Virginia Tech.