Anatomy of Choice with Alexandra Beller

A course in Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals
Live in Person @ The Floor
10 Weeks
Tuesdays 2-5 PM
Sept 20-Nov 22

About this course

This course invites students to rigorously explore our physical and expressive potential through integrated studies of Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals. By increasing our awareness of the body and its relationship to the environment, we are able to transform both our functionality and expressivity. This system analyzes human actions, both movement and speech, in order to free us from habit, convention, bias, and limitation. By systematically considering how we use Space, Dynamic, Physicality, and Relationship, we are able to consciously choose how we move, create, teach, perform, nurture, and relate to others.

This workshop counts as two prerequisite Intro workshops required for entry into Laban Institute of Movement Studies Year-long and Modular programs. This includes Intro to LMA and Intro to BF. Intro to Anatomy/Kinesiology to be offered as a separate course. Alexandra completed the Year Long Program at LIMS (Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies), and holds a CMA (Certified Movement Analyst) degree.

 

Here’s how this workshop works...

The course consists of 10 3-hour live sessions, held in person. Readings, creative assignments, and journal entries will lend themselves to a three dimensional learning environment. 

Classes start with one hour of movement practice based on deepening our somatic connections and re-patterning the body for greater efficiency. The following two hours move into Movement Analysis, where we will systematically look at every aspect of what makes up human movement (and is applicable to non-human movement as well). 

The course will equally utilize physical embodiment, deep analysis, and social contextualization. The workshop is geared towards teachers, bodyworkers, artists, healers, and movers who wish to expand their understanding of how, and why we move, and what meaning is derived from our choices.

This course will open new possibilities by helping you to…

1) Find a shared language that is unbiased, consensual, and specific.

2) Find depth to both movement and text  by discovering the expressive and functional movement life specific to them.

3) Understand movement efficiency in radically new ways, through developmental movement and biomechanics.

4) Break habits as a performer, creator, teacher, writer. 

5) Have a road map to analyze movement, whether for performance, pedagogy, or human communication strategies.

6) Create a safer space in every environment by removing the subjective language that often leaves people behind, or triggers associations that don’t serve them, or the process.

7) Reach an audience with immediacy by creating vivid, concise imagery saturated with meaning.

8) Understand yourself better, both in terms of intention and impact.

About the Instructor

Hello, I’m Alexandra Beller. I am passionate about art-making through authenticity, clarity, and mindfulness. I am a choreographer and director, a professor, writer, and mentor.

After dancing with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company for seven years, I started my own Dance/Theatre company in 2002 (Alexandra Beller/Dances). I was always using both text and movement to storytell, but after getting my degree in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies (a certified Movement Analyst), I began to work predominantly in theatre. 

I have choreographed everything from classics to futuristic dystopian fantasy worlds, and have recently started to direct plays through a movement-centered, empathy-rich process. I’ve worked Off-Broadway, and regionally, for film and video, and have found each project to be a unique world requiring a mindful tuning, a learning curve, and a lot of listening.

My company became a place for education: helping choreographers find their voice, helping actors open their bodies to tell the story as much as, or more than, their voice. I help individuals sort themselves inside their art career, and teach Choreography and Contemporary Dance to people, who’ve often never danced before, at Princeton. I devise, curate, and run workshops, mentor individuals, teach at Universities, and teach teachers to bring their life vision to their classrooms.

My mission is to help artists find their truth and take action based on that inner knowledge, whether that is in their creative process, performance, personal life, or pedagogy.