SLCityAT Training Course Director
Luc Vanier, Director
Luc Vanier (MFA, MAMSAT) received his MFA from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and certified as an Alexander technique teacher in 2001 and later became a training course Director in 2011. A Principal Dancer and company choreographer with Ohio Ballet, he danced pivotal roles in the works of company founder Heinz Poll, Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Kurt Jooss, Lynne Taylor-Corbett and Laura Dean among others. His choreography has been produced at the Joyce Theater in New York City and toured nationally. Vanier has lectured and presented his research extensively nationally and internationally and his co-authored book “Dance and the Alexander Technique” was published by University of Illinois Press in 2011. He founded the Integral Movement Lab, which combines the Alexander Technique and developmental ideas within product and curriculum designs and his collaborative research with neuroscientist and physical therapist Dr. Wendy Huddleston was recognized with a two-year $50,000 multidisciplinary grant the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Last year, he co-authored a chapter, The Subtle Dance of Developmental Self-Awareness with New Media Technologies, published with the Presse University du Quebec (PUQ). Luc is convinced of his responsibility to interrogate our physical practices in order to not habitually duplicate racist/sexist perspectives. He co-created Framework for Integration, a movement analysis system anchored in the way babies and animals move that helps all movers make new, healthier movement decisions and encourages more coordinated and integrated bodily use.
Faculty - 100 years of experience combined
Jacque Lynn Bell
is a dancer, choreographer, and an AmSAT certified instructor of the Alexander Technique. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography, both from the University of Utah. She received her teaching certification in the Alexander Technique from the American Center for the Alexander Technique, located in New York City, NY.
Ms. Bell taught at the Soho Center for the Alexander Technique in New York City where she intermittently lived, choreographed, and performed from 1982-1998. She developed the Alexander Technique program (based on the Juilliard model) for the Department of Theatre’s Actor Training Program, where she also teaches Movement for Actors. Additionally, she is an Associate Lecturer for the Department of Dance at Brigham Young University, and has taught modern dance at the University of Utah.
Julia Caulder
is an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, and a professional performer. She has been practicing professionally for over 20 years and has studied the technique for over 30.
Currently, she is on the faculty of the Egyptian Theater, The Alexander Training Institute of Los Angeles and teaches privately in Park City, Utah
Julia has taught at Mount St. Mary’s College, The Laura Henry Acting Studio in Los Angeles, Santa Monica College Extension and Cal Arts. She has done workshops at Google, The University of Southern California School of Music, Pepperdine School of Music, Santa Monica College Music Department and the Long Beach Police Department.
Elizabeth Johnson
BFA (George Mason University), MFA (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is a performer, choreographer, educator, Laban Movement Analyst (GL-CMA), Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique (M.AmSAT), and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT200). An embodied academic, her teaching and research include the integration of aesthetics, anatomy, kinesiology, somatic inquiry, and critical and social justice theories into dance technique and composition pedagogies. Her creative work—rooted in autobiography and her love/hate relationship with popular culture—aims to subvert cultural tropes regarding propriety, relationships, and bodies as objects/commodities. Since 2004, her company, Your Mother Dances, has featured her choreography as well as produced national and regional guest artists (US); her work has been seen in New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and beyond. Johnson has also performed professionally with David Parker and The Bang Group (NYC), Sara Hook Dances (NYC), and Molly Rabinowitz Liquid Grip (NYC).
Johnson’s approach to dance pedagogy is often spurred by her intense adolescent experiences at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where she trained in classical ballet with Balanchine ballerina Melissa Hayden as well as former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and American Ballet Theatre dancers. Influenced by developmental movement and prosocial/trauma informed education, she teaches and presents nationally and internationally on dance/movement pedagogies and somatics. In addition to this chapter in (re:)claiming ballet, Johnson has recently co-authored/authored two book chapters featuring Alexander Technique and developmental movement applications that promote conscious embodiment in response to new media technologies (University of Quebec/PUQ-published) and the psychophysical demands of arts performance (Springer International Publishing-pending). She has served on Dance faculties at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University North Carolina-Greensboro, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Texas Tech University, and the University of Florida.
Marjean Mckenna
Once a graduate student in embryology and later a professional skier, Marjean took her first Alexander lesson in 1976 and certified as a teacher in 1990 (ATI-SF). Marjean is especially interested in evodevo (evolutionary developmental biology), comparative anatomy, and developmental movement. Her movement passions include the martial arts, taiji and aikido, in which she holds a second-degree black belt, contact improvisation, and tango. She likes to walk and loves to hike in the canyons of southern Utah. A Utahn since 1970, Marjean lives in Salt Lake City.
Cathy Pollock
Cathy Pollock received her certification by the American Society for the Alexander Technique from the Pacific Institute for the Alexander Technique in Chico, California in 1994. Cathy is an RYT-200 Certified Yoga Teacher and holds a black belt in Aikido.
Cathy has presented the Alexander Technique to the University of Utah Physical Therapy, Music, Modern Dance, and Theater Departments, Weber State University Music and Voice Departments, Idaho State University Music Department, the Utah Symphony-Utah Opera Company, Suzuki Flute Festival, the National Choral Director’s Association, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In healthcare facilities, at the University of Utah’s Physical Therapy Department, ARUP Labs Fitness Program, The Spine Clinic in Salt Lake City and the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit at the University of Utah. She has conducted workshops for yoga and martial arts groups and has taught young performers at Dancer’s Workshop in Jackson, Wyoming, the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts, The Waterford School, and Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City.
Cathy uses creativity and intuition to help her students learn to refine their body awareness and movement strategies. Cathy’s love of music, yoga, outdoor sports and martial arts create a teaching atmosphere that is both fun, and practical. Cathy is devoted to empowering her students towards self-care.
Visit her private practice website at: http://theembodiedway.com/
Or contact Cathy directly at: cathyepollock@gmail.com