Presentations, Talks, and Conferences

UpcominG:

The Anatomy of Art Book Release Party

(and Alexandra’s Bday!)

November 19th at 7 pm

Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway (entrance at 53A Chambers)

Middle Eastern bites from Sahadi’s, Prosecco, and Cake from Mia’s Brooklyn Bakery
Reading and panel discussion with Alexandra, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, and David Dorfman
Book sales and signing through P&T Knitwear Bookstore
Pop-up performance and video installations with Same as Sister, Janessa Clark, and Kayla Hamilton and small creative prompts offered throughout to spark your own creative juiciness.
Dancing!

RSVP details coming soon!

December 17, 2026

Embodied Score Study: From Notation to Gesture

Most conductors have felt it—the rehearsal where you keep stopping, keep explaining, but the musicality just isn’t there. Conductors are trained to analyze a score but rarely taught how notation becomes physical gesture. This session closes that gap—connecting score study to embodied decision-making using principles from Laban Movement Analysis. Directors leave with a repeatable, actionable process for catalyzing a score into clear rehearsal leadership and a more

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February 6, 2027

One of the biggest stressors for dance teachers is knowing what to say when a student's movement isn't landing. This 60-minute session offers a practical system drawn from Bartenieff's Nine Principles for observing movement problems, identifying the root cause, and delivering corrections that are clear, kind, and effective. Participants will experience BF principles in their own bodies, practice giving precision feedback, and leave with a repeatable method they can implement in any teaching context.

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September 25-27, 2026

Teaching on Purpose

Dance educators carry the weight of how they were taught—often without having chosen it. This 90-minute interactive session offers a structured framework for examining how teaching habits form, what they stabilize, and when they may no longer serve. Through guided writing, facilitated discussion, and practical reframing tools, participants will surface assumptions embedded in their pedagogy and develop strategies for making more intentional choices in the moment. Adaptable across K–12, higher education, studio, and community contexts, the session honors diverse bodies, forms, and expertise. Participants leave with concrete language and reflection tools for teaching that is both rigorous and genuinely their own.

August 13-17, 2026

Movement Observation + The Art of the Right Correction:

This session will offer a practical, somatically informed system—drawn from Bartenieff's Nine Principles—for quickly identifying why movement isn't landing and crafting corrections that are clear, kind, and effective.

Bartenieff Fundamentals: Embodied Tools for Teachers:

Participants will experience Bartenieff Fundamentals in their own bodies—exploring dynamic alignment, weight shift, initiation, sequencing, and efficient patterning—and learn simple ways to integrate these principles into warm-ups, across-the-floor work, and technique class.

July 30, 2026 2:45 pm

Embodied Meaning: Unlocking Expressive Performance Through Laban Dynamics

Participants will explore how Laban Movement Analysis—specifically expressive dynamics like speed, weight, focus, and spatial intention—generates performance meaning without requiring emotional excavation or personal disclosure. Through guided movement exploration, scene work, and devising tasks, actors and educators will leave with practical tools for expanding expressive range and creating rehearsal environments that are precise, inclusive, and ethically grounded.

The Anatomy of Choice: A Movement Framework for Choreography

This session introduces practical choreographic tasks and scores drawn from Laban Movement Analysis that help dancers generate movement rooted in sensation, image, and individual curiosity rather than external models. Participants will experience methods for building creative agency in teen choreographers while also gaining tools to refresh their own choreographic process. We'll work with prompts that produce specificity, not stylistic conformity—useful for solo competition work, group choreography, and improvisational exploration in technique class. Bring your questions about teaching choice-making, developing expressive range, and fostering choreographic independence across different studio contexts.

Bartenieff Fundamentals and Laban Movement Analysis Training

Alexandra offers a comprehensive somatic training program designed to support conductors' physical sustainability and expressive development. Daily Bartenieff Fundamentals classes focus on functional, efficient movement for injury prevention and rehabilitation, while Laban-based expressive exercises deepen dynamic range, relational clarity, and gestural specificity. Each conductor receives personalized coaching and a detailed movement assessment examining use of space, focus, stability, weight shift, biomechanics, and expressive dynamics—equipping them with embodied tools for long-term health and artistic growth.

Presentation at NDEO Virtual Dance and Disability Summit

This movement-based session explores how shifting from outcome-driven language to task-based inquiry—grounded in Bartenieff Fundamentals—creates more inclusive dance pedagogy that honors diverse bodies, abilities, and experiences. Participants experience practical reframing strategies that center action and individual inquiry over idealized standards, supporting autonomous learning without sacrificing rigor.