Dear Dancer,
Do you live to dance? Does that moment when you walk into the studio feel like you’re coming alive in a different way, feeling more you than anywhere else? Does it awaken desire to dance beyond what your body can do today?
Do you feel like you were born to dance, or at least that when you dance you feel like the troubles of the world fall away…it is a special world…full of struggles but also amazing joy… Joy in the body as well as the incredible frustrations of work without end and never knowing when that moment will happen – feeling free – that it’s easy – that you fly.
That’s how I feel, that there is something inside me that needs to be filled with music and fly across the floor, to feel something very special…that I cannot feel in any other way.
Here is my story and why I want to offer something I’ve found, to help you feel that good and look fantastic, on and off the dance floor.
No wonder I love to dance; as a tiny child, my father stood me on his feet, keeping time to Viennese Waltz. I grew up in Interpretive dance classes and as a teen, danced International Folk Dance five or six days a week. I played several musical instruments and studied theater. I was a classical guitarist and a working actress… But first, was movement and dance. I dance, therefore I am…maybe you feel this way, too…
The epiphany came one day in a dance lesson. My first teacher, Rex Lewis, started talking about moving the head through space. I could see his head and there was an energy about it that drew my eye. Nose over toes, he said, and I knew where my head was over my feet.
That day when Rex spoke about the head is burned into memory.
It reminded me of my first introduction to Alexander Technique and the amazing feeling, like floating as I walked. Effortless. Weightless. Alive.
I went back to Alexander lessons and felt better on the floor; more confident in movement and it helped my balance. It felt good in a way that’s hard to describe. Good.
The thought came to complete my training as an Alexander teacher and work with dancers. Nine months later I was back in school, driving crazy distances in rush hour traffic. I graduated and went into private practice in 2002.
I also continued dancing and training. In 2010 I became very serious about dancing and began finding ways to meld Alexander Technique in dance. I started using what I found with all my students – dancer and non-dancer alike – and it works.
I love using my skills in Alexander Technique to solve dance problems for dancers.
There is a dancer in all of us. Be free. Be fully you. Be the dancer inside.
There is a tremendous aliveness inside, even “standing still.” I help people find that and live from there. You can live with grace in your body.
I’d love to talk with you! Ask me a question – tell me your story – contact me!
Dana Ben-Yehuda is a movement and posture coach, with 16 years experience helping people out of pain and to move with ease. She is a Certified Alexander Technique practitioner in private practice and an avid, competitive ballroom dancer. She loves empowering dancers for freedom in the body, poise with ease, and pain-free dancing. Dana first encountered the Alexander Technique while earning her BA in Acting/Theater. She was a working actress in Hollywood and Israel.
Education: BA, UCSC, Theater/Acting, Professional training: The Nina Foch Studio, Academy of Stage and Cinema Arts (ASCA), San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Classical Guitar), De Anza Community College (Music theory).
Entrepreneur: Crystal Net Corporation, 1995 – 2001, marketing and licensing technology for video compression and streaming video over the Internet.
Dana is an amazing teacher! She helped me when my left arm was numb. She worked on my head alignment for dancing and helped my balance too. I feel so much more natural in my balance and movement now. I can’t say thank you enough.
R.P., San Jose, CA