040: Optimizing Performance by First Doing LESS w/ Eve Bernfeld

When I was little I wanted to be a Teacher and a Writer and a Performer and a Jedi and a Princess and a Detective and a Mother.

So I studied dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, majored in Theatre and Philosophy at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, earned an MA in Theatre Education and an MFA in Applied Theatre from Emerson College and became an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique at the Oregon Center for the Alexander Technique.  I also climbed mountains and read fantasy novels.

Now I get to be my own version of all the things, including Mom to 7-year-old triplets, who let me read all my favorite fantasy novels aloud to them. I teach at Lewis & Clark College and through my own business: In Balance Alexander Technique.  I lead workshops and give talks around the Portland, Oregon region.

I write and sing and create art.

I get to say Yoda-ish stuff like “You can’t do something you don’t know, if you keep on doing what you know.” (actually F.M. Alexander said that).  And I daily embark on the same journey I invite my students on: unraveling the mystery of how we are getting in our own way so we can STOP doing it.