Joan Gavaler
Exploring Alexander Technique Principles Through Contact Improvisation
Participants in this workshop will explore elements of Contact Improvisation (CI) to help elucidate the core Alexander concepts of awareness, inhibition, and direction. Additionally, in exploring the equal relationship of CI partners, we may inquire into the relationship of the student and teacher in an Alexander lesson. Initially CI can be explored in relation to contact with the floor and with awareness of one’s own breath, balance, and jointedness. But at its heart, CI is a dance form that encourages participants to follow an open-ended point of contact with another person. This contact has a listening, responsive, and playful quality that permits each partner to accept themselves and the other person fully within the exchange. The range of engagement can vary from a light touch to fully sharing weight, and participants will be encouraged to move within their comfort level throughout the workshop. After exploration of a Contact Improvisation concept, participants will apply that experience to an Alexander exchange. This process will be repeated with additional CI concepts, each time returning to a related Alexander application.
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Joan Gavaler is a Professor of Dance at the College of William and Mary and an ATI-certified Alexander Technique teacher. She has created over 25 dances for Moving Arts Company, Gavaler Danceworks, and Gravity Optional Dance Company; presenting organizations in Arkansas, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C.; and AT Congresses in Freiburg and Oxford. Joan has taught Alexander workshops through Dickinson College, George Mason University, James Madison University, Muhlenberg College, Ohio State University, Old Dominion University, Radford University, and AAHPERD. At William and Mary, she teaches an Alexander course and private lessons, presents Alexander workshops for music and theatre classes, serves as movement advisor for theatre productions, and teaches a Physical Theatre course drawing on principles of Alexander Technique and Contact Improvisation. Joan received William and Mary’s 2002 Alumni Fellowship Award for teaching excellence and was the 2005 Distinguished Guest Artist at the Southern District AAHPERD convention.
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