About Dance without Limits
Alexander Technique offers benefits that I’d never experienced from any other discipline (dancing, pilates, yoga, exercise, massage, etc.)…a freedom of movement you can’t get any other way.
Ayelette Robinson
What is it that limits your dancing?
What puts the brakes on, what is that invisible glass ceiling that you bump up against no matter how hard you try?
Tension in the body… old habit patterns of movement… residue of old injury causing unconscious, protective holding…not quite being in balance, or fear of flying, that feeling of being a bit off balance dynamically – just a few of the things that limit you no matter how much work you put in.
Those things that you keep working on – for years –
What if there is a way to unleash the fearless body freedom you were born with, that you had when you were young?
It is still within you – the muscle memory – but over time it has faded, gone to sleep.
Wake it up! I will help you get there!
How do I help you?
I help you get your head right, helping you line up physically, mentally and emotionally – because if you don’t, you’re never going to be your best.
And that is one thing that simply mustn’t be off – Alexander’s discovery about the head and spine – a fundamental principle of alignment, posture without tension, and fluid movement. This is essential to dancing to your full potential and expressing yourself fully. You will never look your best if you control your body through tension. It slows you down. It is often connected with pain.
As a dancer, you know how important your head weight is, but it’s often so hard to feel where it is! And then it’s even harder to control without tensing up. However, you need to learn it, because it is the controlling factor in movement!
If you knew you were pulling yourself off balance or tensing inappropriately, you wouldn’t do it. But you don’t feel it or if you do, it’s very difficult to control it in real time, in dance.
Dance without Limits: look fabulous, feel great, and fly on the dance floor.
This isn’t “stretch harder, try harder, practice a hundred times more.”
This is a totally different way to move without pain, without tension, with tremendous power.
There’s knowing patterns and figures, and then there’s being able to execute them beautifully. The problem no one sees is that what matters most to make you look good is the basic way you carry yourself; how you move.
This is the Emperor who has no clothes that no one is talking about – dancers use tension to hold their posture in movement. They contract instead of expand. Their faces show strain, no joy. It shows on video and in photos.
This is a revolutionary way to organize your body for dynamic alignment in movement. Move with freedom. Feel great. Dance without pain.
You can take steps to learn and struggle for years making incremental progress. It all feels good till you see yourself on video…
Or you can transform your relationship with your own body
And fly on the floor.
What is the Dance without Limits method?
The Dance without Limits method is a meld of Alexander Technique and dance: Applied Alexander® for Dancers. It rehabilitates faulty postural and movement patterns that are often at the root of many dance problems. More about the Alexander Technique
Look gorgeous on the dance floor. Free yourself from performance anxiety. Resolve issues of pain, tension, balance and posture. Have adequate freedom internally to transfer weight properly and access isolations within an overall system to organize your body for freedom of movement and control. Heighten the mind-body connection for confidence and focus. Gain the “it” factor. Technique alone doesn’t make a winning performance. You need other tools. Bring body awareness to new levels for that extra edge. Release tension patterns for elegant lines, grace, and ease. Break through the competition glass ceiling.
Alexander technique is helpful to all dancers. It is very subtle to position head so body is most free, creating freedom in the spine and all joints. Dana has superb in-depth understanding of Alexander Technique and she is wonderful to work with.
Yuliy Sannikov
This is what you will learn:
- How to control your body yet move freely.
- How to free your body for isolations that you can control and also let them fly.
- How to coordinate your head and spine dynamically for fabulous lines that capture the eye.
Learn to move your energy rather than muscling through and forcing your body. Resolve dance problems that are connected to body problems. Learn to move from the inside, out.
Dance without Limits is Applied Alexander® Technique for dancers. It frees you from old habits of movement so you can dance your best. It is something every dancer needs: control without tension. Feeling free and fabulous on the floor. Making age only a number that isn’t written in the way you move anymore. Confidence and poise.
It feels like no resistance from your body as you move.
Free.
A feeling of expansion and aliveness.
Ease.
I love teaching dancers to feel so free you can let the dancer who lives inside you, out on the dance floor.
What are some of the benefits?
Get taller! Height is often restored. You really can expand back. One of my students phoned me from his doctor’s office; he was measured an inch taller – at 40 years old. Another student, over 60, said he had to move the mirrors in his car higher since taking lessons. It’s not too late and you are not too old to feel better and move with ease.
Take the struggle out of balance – how clearly you can feel your feet – energy flow – the lines of your body.
Calm your nervous system, focus better mentally, feel better and improve movement.
Have beautiful, tension-free posture in your dancing.
Maintain your poise – be centered and more in control with less tension. A huge benefit to performance!
“Most surprisingly is that I feel better emotionally. I have an unexpected sense of equanimity from being in harmony with my body.”
Rani Fischer
We are creatures of habit in many ways, but ultimately we are free. We are free to pause and reflect, and to learn a powerful way to move at a much higher level of grace and poise.
I have taken dance lessons for over 30 years, but only really started on a journey for mastery in dancing in 2012. I have been aware of Alexander Technique for a long time, but never followed up on it until my current teacher recommended working with Dana Ben-Yehuda a few months ago. It has truly “revolutionized the use of self” for me and brought about fundamentally powerful changes in how I stand, sit, exercise and (most important for me) dance. Alexander Technique has shown me how to break bad habits of many years standing, and find the natural movement essential to maximize my potential as a dancer.
Su Murdoch