Robyn Avalon - CAS Director / Dance, Music, Theater, Musical Theater
Robyn has been a student of FM Alexander's Work for over 45 years. She is the Founding Director of the Contemporary Alexander School, the USA branch of Alexander Alliance International, offering Alexander Technique Teacher Training in Santa Fe, NM, Portland, OR, and NYC; as well as being Co-Director of AAI, developing pedagogy for AAI schools in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Japan, and the UK.
Robyn is also the creator of Living in a Body™: The Quintessential Owner's Guide to Natural Movement. This Body Mapping Professional Certification course is offered worldwide, supporting educators in all fields.
As a professional performer, theater director, and choreographer herself, Robyn has focused much of her practice on integrating the Work into performing arts; training performers, performing arts educators, and Alexander Teachers who teach performers, throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
She has been honored to teach members of leading opera, dance, circus, & theater companies worldwide, and in many of the world’s top orchestras, chamber ensembles, and instrumental studios, including:
opera companies: NYC, Metropolitan, DC, Boston, Santa Fe, Rome, Firenze, Koln, Strasbourg, Paris, Mainz; orchestras: Berlin Phil, Paris, Firenze, Mainz, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Bremen, Krefeld, Tokyo, ABT, NYC Ballet, Orpheus, Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Boston, DC, Pittsburgh, Houston, Chicago,NM; dance companies: NYC Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet, Aspen/SF Ballet, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, Atlanta Ballet, Seattle Ballet, Maria Benitez, Meredith Monk; circuses: Cirque de Soleil, Wise Fool, Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey.
Drawn to the unique challenges of instrumentalists through her two sons, who are both classical musicians, Robyn has been a guest teacher at numerous music programs in the US, working with faculty and students from Juilliard, Curtis, Colburn, CIM, Eastman, Peabody, NEC, Thornton, Jacobs, Oberlin, Mannes, Manhattan School of Music, and more; as well as being the Founder/Director of the Musician’s Wellness Program at the Meadowmount School of Music.
In addition to training Alexander teachers, Robyn travels the world offering beginner through graduate workshops in a contemporary presentation of Alexander's Principles. Robyn enjoys the direct application of the Principles of the Work into people’s real lives, working with people while they do whatever they do. Whenever possible, she likes to travel to where people work and play, which has provided decades of rich and colorful teaching experiences: on a snowy mountain top with skiers, at a symphony rehearsal, at a dentist’s side, in a potter’s studio, on a football field, in a professional kitchen, at a horse arena, in a meditation retreat, on the Pilates Reformer, rock climbing in the NM mountains, and more. She has also taught Olympic equestrians, for the Ladies PGA, at meetings of the world's top cardiac surgeons, and in gatherings of the LGQTBIA+ community. Robyn has a particular interest in the intersection of AT and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and embodied Social Justice, and actively volunteers with the AT Liberation Project. Her private practice incorporates a unique blend of Contemporary Alexander, Cranial Sacral, Visceral Unwinding, Deep Imagery, Matrix Energetics®, and a life-long study of varied intuitive skills, to create a unique somatic experience.
Beyond her teaching practice, Robyn has a comprehensive resume as a professional theater director/choreographer and rhythm tap dancer. She performed extensively with Honi Coles and the Copasetics, Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, Brenda Bufalino, and most of the “old timers” of rhythm tap. Her work has been seen in venues as diverse as Off-Broadway, NYC’s Blue Note Jazz Club, Carnegie Hall, and The White House.