Teaching

I teach group classes for dancers, performing artists and for the general public in The Alexander Technique, performance practice (for performers and non-performers), embodied anatomy, movement improvisation, making dances, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Below are descriptions of some of these courses. Check events page for current class offerings.


Somatics and Movement Improvisation
In class we'll work with principles of embodied anatomy in the form of movement explorations that prepare us for dancing by tapping into our own body's intelligence, allowing us to make deeper connections to what we're doing in the moment. These explorations will prepare the ground for each of us to find more freedom in mind and body allowing a seamless transition into thoughtful, open, and fearless movement explorations. I'll offer improvisational structures and prompts that invite spontaneous dance making in solo, partnering, and ensemble groupings. This class is designed for movers at all levels of experience and I welcome folks from different performing disciplines who are interested in movement based improvisation.

Preparing Ourselves, Performing the Performance Lecture
I was recently asked to teach this at Yale University, School of Art for the 1st year design students who were tasked with presenting their work in the form of a performance lecture. Many of them had never performed before. I presented it as a way to reframe how they might think about performance and their bodies in space.

Movement Composition for Improvisors
I have taught this workshop for composers, musicians and dance artists using principles for structured improvisation honed from my approach to structured improvisation in my current project, Novel Formats, many projects with composer Anthony Braxton and his language musics, many years as part of Masters of Ceremony, an improvising dance and music collective, and my experience of using improvisation as a shared language across disciplines in my work with other musicians and visual artists.

Contemplative Dance Practice
Co-facilitated with: Julie Püttgen, Dwight Richardson Kelly
Contemplative Dance Practice (CDP) is a meditation and movement improvisation practice originated by Barbara Dilley that includes three sections: meditation, personal warm-up, and open space. In developing CDP, Barbara Dilley integrated dance and Buddhist practice. Her book, This Very Moment, has a chapter on CDP. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Tibetan meditation master, asked Dilley to design the dance program at Naropa University, which he founded.
Once all participants are comfortable with the structure, the practice is not led. As the facilitator Julie, Dwight or I will keep time and transition the group to the next section.
CDP is divided into 3 sections:
1 Sitting Meditation Practice
"There are three aspects: posture; breathing; and noticing thinking, the moving mind. When your posture is upright and relaxed, breathing is light and easy. Notice thinking and back to breathing."
-Barbara Dilley
2 Personal Awareness Practice
"In Personal Awareness Practice, explore your way of bringing meditation awareness into movement in this very moment…listen to the voice of body mind, and as Gertrude Stein says 'use everything.' It's time for self-care, research, and courting the unexpected. Wait for sudden images and sensations to surprise you, to move you. Follow them. Develop them. And rest often. Encourage Kinesthetic Delight.”
-Barbara Dilley
3 Open Space
"Open space holds each one of us as we are. It is rigorous because awareness is moving between our inner and outer noticing and we are tracking the nowness of it all...Who knows what will happen?"
-Barbara Dilley
Each CDP closes with a short meditation, reflection, discussion

Performance Practice: Strategies for Dance Improvisation and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Often starts with offerings for locating ourselves in our bodies and in space as preparation to bring us into the space and prepare ourselves for our practice together. Then we'll move on to movement explorations using compositional and improvisational strategies from a range of sources, navigating these different approaches as a means to expand our range as improvisors and foster greater awareness of our own, in-the-moment choice making. We’ll investigate the ways in which they open us up to the experience of self, to connection with others and to the pleasure of being in the moment. We'll explore individual approaches to these ideas in a time-condensed laboratory process for creating a seed of our own improvisational structure or score and sharing them with the group. This could be in the form of sharing notes, discussion, directing others, or a solo performance. Our aim over all will be to leave space for both knowing and not knowing, for spontaneity, and to playfully embrace risk.

We’ll explore strategies from artists I’ve worked with including composer Anthony Braxton’s Language Music Types, and Yvonne Rainer’s “radical juxtaposition”. In addition, we’ll look at Merce Cunningham and John Cage’s framework for performance, the collaborative work of musician Bill Dixon and dancer Judith Dunn, among others. I’ll share principles developed over many years with my music and dance collective Masters of Ceremony, with composer and instrumentalist Taylor Ho Bynum, along with collaborations with other musicians, writers and visual artists.

Multi-week / Semester long courses in the Alexander Technique
Exploring the Alexander Technique with hands-on support from me, group demonstrations and activities, guided movement explorations, and discussion. This class can be introduction to the Technique and be specialized to the needs of specific groups. On the ground, each course is flexible enough to be take into consideration the needs of each individual and group that I work with.

I've taught AT group classes in university settings for performing artists, tailored specifically to the needs of actors, musicians, dancers. I also offer courses to the general public in partnership with local arts organizations, training spaces, and through my teaching studio.

The Art of Undoing
A 2-day somatic and gentle movement workshop using the principles of the Alexander Technique, among other modalities. Allow muscle tissue to let go and lengthen ease-fully to make everyday movement less stressful. Access the means to “think in activity” to make change and undo unhealthy or unhelpful movement patterns. In this 2-day workshop we’ll slow things down. A slower pace is a valuable tool for investigation. It allows for the release of unwanted muscular effort to get to a deeper state of quiet and comfort, both in activity and at rest. We’ll take our time to explore where movement happens in our bodies, becoming attuned to the range of motion in our joints and spine. This level of specificity invites greater connectivity between all our moving parts. It supports a more coordinated, unified experience of being and moving in the world. This workshop is a hybrid approach to the Alexander Technique. I also brings principles and movement explorations from other methods and techniques I've studied in her 30 plus years as a dance artist, somatic practitioner, and perennial student of many movement forms.

Refining Leg Direction and Support
This experiential workshop augments Alexander directions, deepening our understanding of how our legs connect into our pelvis and spine, and release into movement. Through application, anatomical images and discussion this workshop offers a deeper investigation of direction, connection and release of the legs, pelvis and spine. The release of the legs, especially the inner legs and groin, are crucial to allowing the back to widen and release back and up. This class offers a hybridized approach to Alexander Technique, drawing upon my study of many movement modalities over thirty years as a modern dancer and student of movement, including Feldenkrais, Body-Mind Centering, Skinner Releasing, and Contact Improvisation.

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Image: Rachel and students exploring improvisational scores in a movement improvisation workshop, Links Hall, Chicago, IL / photo by Ayako Kato