• Private Lessons
• Workshops and Classes

In lessons, students learn how to stop automatic tension habits, with a particular focus on releasing harmful tension in the neck, jaw, shoulders and back. Simultaneously, students learn how to reorganize movement by naturally lengthening the spine.

During a lesson, the teacher uses guiding touch to heighten body awareness and help students identify and release unconscious holding patterns. Everyday activities, which might range from sitting, standing and walking, to singing, presentation skills, yoga, or sports are the subject matter for exploration. Lessons also include a table session to integrate new kinesthetic and sensory experiences. Afterwards, students often feel as if they have emerged from a chrysalis of tension, lighter in body and mind, with a more authentic connection to the self.

Alexander Teachers are required to complete 1600 hours of continuous training. This ensures expertise in movement analysis and a special quality of touch that one student described as, "contagious with spaciousness and coordination."

Offices Locations:

• Mission District (Guerrero St. at 26th St.)
• North Berkeley (Francisco St. at Milvia)

Please contact Elyse for an initial consultation by Email or Tel: (415) 342-6255. Package rates available.

Alexander lessons require the student's participation in a learning environment. Lessons are classified as "educational" versus "treatments" and in this way differ from massage or chiropractic care. Students remain completely clothed during lessons.

Although the technique has a salutary effect on many health issues, Alexander teachers are not medically trained and the technique is not meant to replace medical diagnosis or treatment.

The American Society for the Alexander Technique recommends a course of 20-40 lessons as the average amount needed to experience lasting benefits and to learn to apply the skills to life activities.

To organize an Alexander Technique event at your worksite, classroom or other venue please contact Elyse via email or tel: (415) 342-6255

 2012 Workshop and Class schedule

Alexander Technique & Linklater Voice
Voice that truly reveals thoughts and feelings rather than portraying them

 
2011 Workshop and Class schedule

Alexander Technique & Linklater Voice
Voice that truly reveals thoughts and feelings rather than portraying them

Intro to Alexander Technique
Dates: Thursday evenings, April 7 - May 5, 2011, 7 - 9:30pm
Location: Berkeley Repertory School of Theater,
2025 Addison St, Berkeley CA 94704
Registration 

This 5-week class will help you find a more connected relationship with your body. Through the Alexander Technique, you will learn a systematic method to free yourself from tension habits that limit vocal delivery and physical movement. With a new degree of body awareness in place, you will gain access to an expanded realm of creative choices, both on and off the stage.

Free Alexander Technique Workshop
Bay Area National Dance Week

Sunday, April 24, 2011
2:00 - 3:30 PM

Twinspace Continuum
2111 Mission St, Third Floor, Suite 300
San Francisco, Ca
Registration

Can we find a sense of openness even when surrounded by walls and ceilings? How does landscape affect our inner world? Join us for an exploration of light, space and motion inspired by the Alexander Technique. All levels welcome.

Instructors - Elyse Shafarman and Nick Thompson are friends who have been collaboratively practicing the Alexander Technique since 2004, after training together with Frank Ottiwell at the Alexander Training Institute of San Francisco.

Nick Thompson is a software engineer and teacher of the Alexander Technique.  His other interests include trees, mountains, clouds, and stars.

New Alexander Technique & Linklater Voice

Lisa Anne Porter (Linklater Voice)
Elyse Shafarman (Alexander Technique)

Dates: Thursdays, 1/13/11 --  3/17/11
Time: 7–10pm 
Cost: $330
Location: Berkeley Repertory Theatre,
2025 Addison St, Berkeley CA 94704
Registration

This workshop will offer an enriched experience for actors, performers and professionals seeking vocal freedom, postural improvement and more connected communication. Through the Alexander Technique, students will learn a systematic method to relax, align and free themselves from tensions that limit vocal delivery and physical movement. With a new degree of physical ease and control in place, students will move more quickly and deeply into the material developed by Kristin Linklater to liberate the actor's natural voice. Students will be introduced to exercises that will give them a deeper, fuller breath connection and a stronger, more dynamic vocal range that truly reveals their thoughts and feelings rather than portraying them.


Instructor Bios:
Lisa Porter. MFA American Conservatory Theatre, Designated Linklater Voice Instructor. Lisa Anne Porter is a designated Linklater voice instructor, acting, voice, dialect and text professor and a professional actress and director. Lisa teaches in the BFA and MFA programs at UC Davis and the Academy of Art University. She was an associate professor in the BFA program at Syracuse University for six years. She has also taught master classes in voice, dialect, Shakespeare, acting, character and text in the American Conservatory Theatre MFA program, the Summer Training Congress and Studio program, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre School of Theatre , California Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco State University, Shakespeare & Company, The Tepper Center in NYC, Naropa University, Stagebridge, and Mendocino College. She has coached voice and dialect in over forty productions. She has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals throughout the country including the American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Marin Theatre Company, Shakespeare & Company, Syracuse Stage, Sacramento Theatre Company, GeVa Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre, Interact Theatre Company, the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival and Boston Theatreworks. She has directed for Town Hall Theatre, TheatreFirst, Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble and Syracuse University. She has a B.A. in Theatre and American Studies from Wesleyan University and an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theatre.

Elyse Shafarman, MA Physiological Psychology, AmSAT Certified Alexander Technique Teacher. Elyse teaches the Alexander Technique to actors in training at American Conservatory Theater’s MFA program and has a private practice in San Francisco and Berkeley. Her background includes a 10-year career as a Modern dancer and training in a wide array of movement disciplines including Gyrotonics, Svaroopa style yoga, Body-Mind Centering and Feldenkrais. Over the past seven years, she has taught Alexander Technique at schools and work sites throughout the Bay Area, including American Conservatory Theater’s Summer Training Congress, Elephant Pharmacy, The French American International High School, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and San Francisco State University. In her spare time, she dances Argentine Tango.

2010 Workshop and Class Schedule

New Alexander Technique and Linklater Voice Class 
Voice that truly reveals thoughts and feelings rather than portraying them

Lisa Anne Porter (Linklater Voice)
Elyse Shafarman (Alexander Technique)

Dates: Tuesday 9/21/10 – 11/9/10. 
Time: 7 – 9:30 pm
Cost: $355. 
Location: Jeffrey Bihr Studio, 5390 Miles Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618

This workshop will offer an enriched experience for actors, performers and professionals seeking vocal freedom, postural improvement and more connected communication. Through the Alexander Technique, students will learn a systematic method to relax, align and free themselves from tensions that limit vocal delivery and physical movement. With a new degree of physical ease and control in place, students will move more quickly and deeply into the material developed by Kristin Linklater to liberate the actor's natural voice. Students will be introduced to exercises that will give them a deeper, fuller breath connection and a stronger, more dynamic vocal range that truly reveals their thoughts and feelings rather than portraying them.


Registration & Information:
Lisa Porter (Linklater Voice)
Tel: (510) 644-8372
Email: lisaanneporter@yahoo.com
Web: www.lisaportercoaching.com

Elyse Shafarman (Alexander Technique)
Tel: (415) 342-6255
Email: elyse@bodyproject.us
Web: www.bodyproject.us


Instructor Bios:
Lisa Porter. MFA American Conservatory Theatre, Designated Linklater Voice Instructor. Lisa Anne Porter is a designated Linklater voice instructor, acting, voice, dialect and text professor and a professional actress and director. Lisa teaches in the BFA and MFA programs at UC Davis and the Academy of Art University. She was an associate professor in the BFA program at Syracuse University for six years. She has also taught master classes in voice, dialect, Shakespeare, acting, character and text in the American Conservatory Theatre MFA program, the Summer Training Congress and Studio program, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre School of Theatre , California Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco State University, Shakespeare & Company, The Tepper Center in NYC, Naropa University, Stagebridge, and Mendocino College. She has coached voice and dialect in over forty productions. She has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals throughout the country including the American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Marin Theatre Company, Shakespeare & Company, Syracuse Stage, Sacramento Theatre Company, GeVa Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre, Interact Theatre Company, the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival and Boston Theatreworks. She has directed for Town Hall Theatre, TheatreFirst, Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble and Syracuse University. She has a B.A. in Theatre and American Studies from Wesleyan University and an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theatre.

Elyse Shafarman, MA Physiological Psychology, AmSAT Certified Alexander Technique Teacher. Elyse teaches the Alexander Technique to actors in training at American Conservatory Theater’s MFA program and has a private practice in San Francisco and Berkeley. Her background includes a 10-year career as a Modern dancer and training in a wide array of movement disciplines including Gyrotonics, Svaroopa style yoga, Body-Mind Centering and Feldenkrais. Over the past seven years, she has taught Alexander Technique at schools and work sites throughout the Bay Area, including American Conservatory Theater’s Summer Training Congress, Elephant Pharmacy, The French American International High School, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and San Francisco State University. In her spare time, she dances Argentine Tango.

HEALING with the Alexander Technique
Thursday, January 14, 2010, 6-7pm
Latino/Hispanic community Meeting Room A

San Francisco Public Library, Lower Level
100 Larkin St
SF CA 94102

Join me for a free one-hour discussion and demonstration of the Alexander Technique at the fabulous SF Public Library*. I will describe the recent British Medical Journal study demonstrating the efficacy of the Alexander Technique as a treatment for chronic low back pain, and provide you with some practical tips to use the Alexander Technique to free up your body.

You will leave feeling lengthened, expanded and relaxed, and with greater knowledge about how to solve back pain and postural issues. Afterwards you can browse the library and check out a book or video on the Alexander Technique.

All programs at the Library are free.

 

2009 Workshop and Class Schedule:

FREE YOURSELF with the Alexander Technique
Free introductory class in celebration of
International Alexander Technique Awareness Week

Saturday, Oct 17, 2009
Lecture/Demo: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Individual Q/A and hands-on work: 12:30 - 1:00 pm

San Francisco Public Library
Martin Paley Conference Rm, 3rd. floor
100 Larkin St
SF CA 94102

Join me for a free one-hour discussion and demonstration of the Alexander Technique at the fabulous SF Public Library*. I will describe the recent British Medical Journal study demonstrating the efficacy of the Alexander Technique as a treatment for chronic low back pain, and provide you with some practical tips to use the Alexander Technique to free up your body.

You will leave feeling lengthened, expanded and relaxed, and with greater knowledge about how to solve back pain and postural issues. Afterwards you can browse the library and check out a book or video on the Alexander Technique.

In addition, I will be available from 12:30 - 1:00 pm to answer your individual questions.

This workshop is free and open to the public. However space is limited, and previous workshops have been full. To reserve your spot, or for further information please contact:

 

Elyse Shafarman:
Email: elyse@bodyproject.us
Cell: 415.342.6255

*This is not a Library Sponsored Program

 

FREE YOUR NECK with the Alexander Technique
Free introductory class in celebration of
Bay Area National Dance Week
Sunday May 3, 2009
2 - 3:30 pm

Mission Yoga - The Sun Room
2390 Mission St, Third Floor, SF
CA, 94110

Take an anatomical and experiential journey into your neck. Learn how the Alexander Technique can help you improve precision and freedom in movement and release neck and back tension. Open to all levels and types of movers. For more information contact elyse