Join the Balance Arts Center in a global virtual conference on the Alexander Technique and Performing Arts. BAC graduates from all over the world are coming together to present workshops in their field of expertise to help artists improve their technical and presentation skills.
The Alexander Technique offers the artist an understanding of how they participate in their art making. They are the ones speaking the text, making sounds through their instruments, and creating designs in the space. AT helps performers find self agency in improving their skills during practice and performance through understanding their habits and learning a process for making changes leading to their artistic goals. As the Alexander Technique work addresses fundamental aspects of our human movement, the information is applicable and valuable to everyone at all levels of development and skill.
Our conference schedule accommodates students in different time zones and various languages. Actors, dancers, musicians, singers, and conductors are all welcome!
"I was so happy to learn alongside people from all over the world who share an interest in the Alexander Technique and body awareness… Every single class was so interesting that I wished I could have taken all of them!" - Momoko K.
Conference Features:
Over 20 workshops available!
Presenters are BAC graduates from all over the world!
Conference Passes are available for discounted participation.
Below you will find the virtual conference program schedule. From there you can sign up for each workshop individually. If you would like to see all of the sign up links for the conference, click here. If you're looking to get the most out of our conference, click here to get a Conference Pass.
Please note: all times listed are ET
Saturday
October 11th
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Ann Rodiger
Every moment offers us a choice — but are we aware of how we're making those choices? In this experiential workshop, you'll discover how to access a clearer, more grounded state of awareness using the principles of the Alexander Technique. Learn how to pause, notice, and make conscious decisions that align with your whole self — physically, mentally, and emotionally.Together, we’ll explore how how, when, and what you choose can transform with greater self-awareness. Whether you're new to the Technique or deepening your practice, this workshop offers practical tools to support more mindful, embodied decision-making in everyday life.
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How can we get more out of our Ballet Barre or Center Barre Warm-up without necessarily exerting more energy? How do we set ourselves up for a successful barre experience, one that will continue to inform our movements away from the barre, one that will keep us healthy and safe? In this class, we’ll begin at the beginning – just before the accompanist starts to play. We’ll look at ways to save energy in separate movements such as plié, port des bras, extension and rélévé, and then put them all together – ready to begin.
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Hailey and Ann will have recently returned from a study trip to Toledo Spain to visit with Biotensegrity and cerebral palsy expert Leonid Blyum. We are delighted to share our insights and findings from his work and how they relate to the Alexander Technique. The research completed on this trip will serve as the foundation for our further efforts to share Alexander Technique as a rehabilitative tool with the CP community at large.
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This 75 minute class guides you through fundamental movement patterns that help improve balance, coordination, and establish a sense of flow and connection in your mind and body. Class begins on the floor with time to let go into the ground and prepare yourself to move in new ways. You will also spend time on your stomach and then come to standing to apply your refreshed posture to balance and stability movements.
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How can making choices with one’s vision yield a grounded, powerful performance?
In this workshop, we will explore the visual systems through the lens of the Alexander Technique. Various movement experiences will bring awareness to the eyes in relationship to the whole self, and we will also explore a few ways to focus one’s vision. This practice will be applied to improvisation and a short movement sequence.
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GAP is an acronym for three words; Give A Pause. This technique is a tool one may utilize to have a more embodied experience. Begin each lesson, practice, or performance with a pause, a GAP - (Give A Pause). Allow yourself to find your best balance and use of your body before you approach your next task. This practice allows us to take ourselves off of 'auto-pilot' and luxuriate in the present moment of 'choice'.
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Explore how to take up space while being generous and even guarded when needed or desired. As performers or simply people existing in space, we have a right to be seen and heard. This begins first with listening in. Learn how to first and foremost be present with yourself so that you may be present with others right here, right now, moment to moment.
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A violin workshop on how the Alexander Technique can enhance mobility and reduce pain while playing the Violin with Q and A.
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Why do babies and small children make sounds effortlessly, but adults dread speaking or singing in public? In this class, we will use principles of the Alexander Technique to rediscover the joy in making sound as babies do before thinking and judging get in the way.
Small movements fully supported by the floor will refresh our dimensions of length, width, and depth. As the breath flows through this resonant space, we will invite sounds to arise, pausing to release any unnecessary habits or judgment. Microphones will be off to invite playful experimentation. As our stamina for awareness grows, movements and sounds will gradually increase in size and volume. -
Refresh yourself with a 30 minute guided AT Lie Down to start or end your day. Lie Downs are a recuperative AT practice that allows you to integrate your mind and body through releasing unnecessary tension, refining overall structural support, and calming your nervous system.
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In this virtual workshop, we will explore sitting for playing the drums as well as other musical instruments. Sitting mindfully is a nice way to remind us of the head/neck/back relationship which makes our limbs available for playing instruments. Through exploration as a group, we will rediscover our connection with the ground to aid in our music creation. Feel free to bring your drumsticks, instruments etc. on screen!
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Eiko Kanamoto, Aldo Ruiz-Alonso, Eric Liu, Takehiro Shimizu, Ann Rodiger
This workshop explores how to teach the Alexander Technique in multicultural, multilingual settings by focusing on the shared human experience of movement and awareness. We will address how to create a respectful, inclusive teaching environment that honors cultural differences while emphasizing our common ground. Learn to be simple, non-imposing, and adaptable to your students and the environment. This is an opportunity to deepen your teaching skills and learn to communicate across language barriers.
Sunday
October 12th
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Refresh yourself with a 30 minute guided AT Lie Down to start or end your day. Lie Downs are a recuperative AT practice that allows you to integrate your mind and body through releasing unnecessary tension, refining overall structural support, and calming your nervous system.
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Refresh yourself with a 30 minute guided AT Lie Down to start or end your day. Lie Downs are a recuperative AT practice that allows you to integrate your mind and body through releasing unnecessary tension, refining overall structural support, and calming your nervous system.
This Lie Down will be taught in French.
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This workshop will explore the mechanics of everyday household activities. The key to decreasing long-term wear and tear of the body is expansive awareness in moments that seem to be commonplace. Participants will experiment with reliable strategies inspired by the Alexander Technique in hopes of employing better physical use in daily tasks.
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In this workshop you will explore how the voice and body can work together to create a free and easy resonance. You will explore motion and balance in the body and how that helps you to breathe and support your sound. This class will also feature SOVT and other vocal exercises to reduce stress and optimize resonance. You will be guided through a series of movements and recuperative vocal exercises to help you discover more ease, balance and resonance in your speaking or singing voice. This class is great for teachers, public speakers, singers, actors, and anyone interested in refining their vocal health.
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Many people catch themselves whistling as they walk down the street, drive their car, wait for the subway, or whistle along with their favorite music. Sometimes they don't even know they're doing it until someone points it out. Whistling can be a release, an expression of one's self, a musical instrument, and all of the above. If you are someone who can already make a whistling sound and are interested in applying the principles of the Alexander Technique to your whistling, please join Jay Winston, World Champion Whistler and America's Got Talent Season 20 contestant, and Balance Arts Center trained Alexander Technique teacher in this unique workshop!
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Julie Frazier-Smith, Jessica Goldring
A workshop that stretches time so that we can embody, create and share our experiences in community. Julie and Jessica will lead the group through meditations, offer creative prompts and moderate discussions. Please wear comfortable clothes and if there’s something creative that you have not had time to work on—i.e. a poem, emails, a song, vocalises, practicing your instrument, choreography, cooking, childcare, yoga asanas, taxes, household chores—there will be time and space for you to play with this activity during the workshop.
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In an audition, it's often said that the director wants to see you and what you bring to the table. What they don't want to see is your habits of tension. Learn how to use the Alexander Technique to define the difference between your character's intention and your habits of stress or nerves, letting the latter fall away so the craft shines though. It's the how-to after all the work is done and the instructor says, "now, let it all go."
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Explore how the Alexander Technique fosters natural breath and whole-body coordination in this dynamic workshop with Mike Maher. Performing artists will discover practical tools to enhance tone, expand vocal or instrumental range, and reduce effort for greater freedom and expression.
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Discover what it feels like to be grounded in your body and mind, available for whatever the present moment holds. In this workshop, we will not only look at what it means to be present in front of an audience, but also how we can use that performance experience as a way in to finding more presence in our daily lives. The Alexander Technique can help us harness our unique story and vulnerability, unlocking the potential for us to be our most authentic selves, through joyful exploration. In this workshop we will also touch on how the Alexander Technique informs the process of self-discovery.
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An exploration of the Alexander Technique principles applied to playing the violin and viola.By using awareness to fully inhabit our bodies and the space around us, we can then invite our instruments to vibrate at their full potential.
This workshop will consist of a series of awareness building experiments focused on assisting different technical aspects of string playing, such as resonance, supporting the violin/viola, bow hold availability, and left-hand mechanics.
Bring your violin/viola and join us!
*Si bien este taller será impartido en inglés, ofrecemos la posibilidad de explicar los conceptos y actividades en español para aquellos participantes que así lo necesiten.
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This 75 minute class guides you through fundamental movement patterns that help improve balance, coordination, and establish a sense of flow and connection in your mind and body. Class begins on the floor with time to let go into the ground and prepare yourself to move in new ways. You will also spend time on your stomach and then come to standing to apply your refreshed posture to balance and stability movements.
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Refresh yourself with a 30 minute guided AT Lie Down to start or end your day. Lie Downs are a recuperative AT practice that allows you to integrate your mind and body through releasing unnecessary tension, refining overall structural support, and calming your nervous system.
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Join us for a final conversation with BAC Founder & Director Ann Rodiger to wrap up and reflect on the conference!
Click the link below to learn more about the presenters who will be joining us for the Fall 2025 Virtual Global Alexander Technique Conference.
“With the 2025 first global Alexander Technique conference, Ann Rodiger, founder of Balance Arts Center New York provided a platform that was transformational in its scope.” - Julie O.