Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique is a simple and effective method for improving “the use of self.” Students become aware of habitual use of their bodies and use conscious choice to change restrictive habits.
The Alexander Technique is taught at the Juilliard School, The Royal Academies of Music and Dramatic Art, and most great performing arts conservatories. Olympic athletes study the technique, which teaches skills useful to anyone who wishes to move better. People often learn the technique to support their wellness or performance goals, prevent/recover from injury, stress, and strain.
To learn more, see: ATI , Alexander Technique or Guide to AT
Somatic Movement Therapy
Individual Sessions are available in Somatic Movement Therapy to support adult wellness goals in recuperation from injury, repetitive strain, chronic conditions, stress and pain. Movement, visualization and light touch are used to promote awareness, expression and body-mind integration. Sessions include breathing, gentle touch, movement and visualization.
Children with developmental concerns such as physical movement, coordination, attention, learning or behavior needs and the autism spectrum can be supported with Somatic Movement Therapy.
Performance Coaching
Individual or group sessions
Coaching for your performing art, sport, skill and ergonomic needs using the Alexander Technique and Laban Movement Analysis supports your performance goals, injury prevention and recuperation. Rachelle has experience working with instrumentalists, singers, tennis players, dancers, and people who do yoga or spend long hours at a computer or desk. Anyone who works with highly skilled movement can benefit from coaching.
Ease of Movement Classes
Bartenieff Fundamentals,
Bartenieff Fundamentals are gentle patterns to enliven the whole body with breathing, grounding and developmental sequences. Practicing BF can enhance your movement quality and coordination and help balance, mobility, stability and recuperation from pain. Integration of body, mind and emotion are playfully explored through rhythms, energies and movement scales.
Tuesday mornings, 9 - 10:30
Feb 7 - May 1 , 2012 (no class March 13)
at Arts ala Carte/City Ballet, 700 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA
$150 for 12 classes or $15/class drop in
Call 621-1803 to register
Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique is a simple and effective method for improving the “use of self.” Students become aware of habitual uses of their bodies and learn to use consciouschoice for positive change. The Alexander Technique is taught to Olympic athletes and at conservatories such as Juilliard and The Royal Academies of Music and Dramatic Arts.
The technique teaches skills useful to anyone who wishes to move better, support wellness or performance goals, and prevent/recover from injury, stress, and strain.
Fridays, 9-10:30 am Introduction to Alexander Technique
May 11- June 1, 2012
The Center, 28 S. Linn St., Iowa City
4 classes, $50, or $15/class
Call 356-5220 to register
Alexander Technique at the University of Iowa
Course description: The Alexander Technique teaches "self-use": how our movement choices effect the results we achieve. It has been recognized as a simple but powerful way of improving physical skills and "presence." This course will introduce principles from the Alexander Technique in support of the performing arts: speaking, singing, playing an instrument, dancing and acting, however, the principles can easily be applied to many skills in daily life, as it addresses the underpinnings of movement.
Principles explored in this course will be: The poise of the head in fluid relationship to the spine; responses to gravity; developing sensory awareness and understanding the process of change; conscious use of of energy and direction to support natural phrasing; "body mapping" and experiential anatomy to clarify how movement takes place most easily.
Physical participation in this studio course will include laying, rolling, sitting, standing and locomotion. Alexander Technique is most often taught through light touch, thinking and visualization: Students will learn some principles of listening to information from their hands through touch, and how to learn through the kinesthetic information supplied by touch. Work outside of class time will include a journal, observations, and take-home questions. Students will be expected to practice daily and explore the use of the principles learned with their specific performance area or in service of other unique goals.
Adult Ballet
by registration only
Friday afternoons (contact Rachelle to register)
Come learn an organic Ballet technique taught at the Juilliard School by the Corvinos, focusing on healthy, joyful, expressive classical dance. Attention is given to musicality, weight transfer, placement and dynamics. There are many levels for each exercise, so beginners and experienced dancers can enjoy the same class.
Habeas Corpus Early Dance Project
sponsored by Arts a la Carte of Iowa
Habeas Corpus is an art cooperative directed by Mark McCusker and Darrell Taylor that affirms and advocates the body as art. Our ongoing Early Dance Project, co-directed by Rachelle Palnick Tsachor, practices the art of courtship, love and intrigue as experienced in the courtly ballrooms of the 15th - 19th centuries.
The Early Dance Project was formed in 2003, and has performed at the Iowa Renaissance Festival, University of Northern Iowa, and at Iowa City public schools along with QuintEssence, the early music recorder ensemble which regularly performs with our group.
Recent programs were based upon reconstructed social dances from the dancing manuals of Fabritio Caroso's Nobiltŕ di Dame (1600) and Il Ballarino (1580) , Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesography (1589) and Cesare Negri's Le Gratie d'Amore (1602), John Playford's English Dancing Master (1651), and the Baroque manuals of Louis Pécour, Raoul Auger Feuillet (1700) and André Lorin (c. 1686).
Habeas Corpus Early Dance Project is sponsored by Arts a la Carte, a not-for-profit organization in Iowa City supporting the Movement Arts, which provides rehearsal space for the company. Our company is community based and inclusive dancers and musicians of all ages and abilities who share an interest in historical dance and music. We are often joined by the English Country Dance Society of Iowa City. Ruth Williams directs our music group.
Early Dance Project director Rachelle Palnick Tsachor earned her BFA in Dance at the Juilliard School and her Masters of Dance Research and Reconstruction at the City College of New York, where she studied Renaissance dance with Dr. Julia Sutton and Baroque dance with Wendy Hilton. She has taught period Movement and dance at the University of Iowa, where she is currently faculty at the School of Music. Tsachor has staged dances for the UI Madrigal Dinners for 10 years, the University of Iowa Theatres and Riverside Theatre in Iowa City. She as been invited to give presentations on Early Dance at the International Conference of Early Dance in Ghent, Belgium, the Society for Dance History Scholars, The Association of Theatre in Higher Education, the Association of Theatre Movement Educators, and the Laban Institute of Movement Studies. Tsachor is currently serving as managing editor for the forthcoming scholarly edition of André Lorin's late 1680's manu! script of Country Dances, which was commissioned by Louis XIV. Tsachor was a major consultant to the video "How to Dance through Time: The Majesty of Renaissance Dance."