Workshop Info

Explore possibilities of freedom and ease to enhance your life. This immersive workshop provides movement learning that can deepen our sense of self and how we relate to the world around us. Those new to the Alexander Technique as well as trainees and AT teachers are welcome.

Mornings will begin with individual hands-on attention (known as “walkabouts”). Small groups will look at areas of interest including performance, daily activities and teaching skills. The large group classes will include developmental movement (from the ground to standing) and exploration of breathing coordination. Gentle, easy to follow movement practices will take place throughout the day and evening.

Our faculty members bring expertise in a breadth of areas all grounded in the Alexander Technique. We practice the approach of Marjorie Barstow, one of the first generation of AT teachers, by applying Alexander principles to a wide range of activities including performance, athletics, martial arts and everyday tasks. We have taught together for many years and enjoy collaborative teaching that draws from the interests and needs of our students.

Plan to arrive after 2 pm on Wednesday, June 26. The workshop begins that evening with dinner followed by opening circle. There will be large and small group classes each morning, afternoon and evening Thursday, Friday and Saturday and a final class Sunday morning followed by lunch and departure. Our schedule is built around delicious meals prepared with love. There will be time each day to rest and to roam the beauty of Claymont’s 350 acres.

Robin Gilmore, MFA, ATI, is an internationally recognized dancer and Alexander teacher whose primary language is movement. As a director of AT teacher training programs in Greensboro, NC and Kyoto, Japan and as guest faculty in other programs, Robin has mentored several generations of Alexander teachers. She was fortunate to study with Marjorie Barstow for a number of years and had a long professional partnership with Marsha Paludan, a founder of release technique.

Robin has been dancing her entire life. Improvisation, developmental movement and the natural world inform her teaching and her approach to life. She has published numerous articles, and her book What Every Dancer Needs to Know About the Body (GIA Press), is a required text in many university performing arts departments. Robin has a personal history with Claymont as a longtime participant in the East Coast Contact Improvisation Jam.

Diana Bradley, ATI, AmSAT has been a certified Alexander Technique teacher since 1979. She has taught in the DC area for over 38 years, including at Arena Stage, Maryland Opera Studio, the University of Maryland and the Baltimore School for the Arts. Diana teaches around the U.S. and internationally. She studied with Marjorie Barstow for 13 years and taught with Marj in Australia and New Zealand.

Diana was a longtime faculty member at the Barstow Institute summer workshop and Chesapeake Bay Alexander Studies North Carolina teacher training program (CBAS). She has been on the faculty of the Studio Acting Conservatory since 2007. Her private practice is located in Takoma Park, MD. Diana has extensive dance training and holds a black belt in aikido.

Renée Jackson, ATI, is an active pianist and teacher of music and Alexander Technique, and a Practitioner of Nervous System Energy Work (NSEW). She began studying Alexander Technique (AT) seriously after a car accident in 1995, subsequently completing teacher training in Philadelphia in 2001. Her continuing study with Dale Beaver, Donna Doellinger, and Bill Conable led her to begin studying Nervous System Energy Work in Cleveland with James Kepner and Carol DeSanto, and she certified in NSEW in 2012. She continues to explore both NSEW and AT at workshops and conferences, and finds both to be rich, lifelong practices. Renée founded and directed the Myrtle Beach Alexander Technique and Energy Workshop and was a faculty member at Chesapeake Bay Alexander Studies (CBAS). She is currently serving as a Director on the Alexander Technique International Board.

As a pianist and musician, Renée did her undergraduate training at Oberlin Conservatory and her masters degree at the University of Michigan, with additional graduate work at the Eastman School of Music. She has been very active with Music Teachers National Association and the South Carolina and Ohio state and local chapters and will be honored with an MTNA Foundation Fellowship Award at the MTNA national convention in March 2024.

As a longtime advocate of healthy playing and movement, Renée plans to continue working with pianists and others interested in better movement, ease, and pain relief. After spending much of her career teaching piano and music theory both independently and at the collegiate level, Renée and her husband, composer Don Sloan, recently relocated to Hendersonville, NC, where Renée continues enjoying piano playing, AT and NSEW work, reading, walking her dog, and exploring the mountains.