Banner image: Special workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina for B’way Street Theater School
As a movement specialist, Sheila offers a unique form of comprehensive body training for the actor that integrates Alexander Technique and release-based movement into the athletic and creative demands of physical theater styles (mask, commedia, clown). Sheila is an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, yoga instructor and graduate of Dell’Arte International.
Sheila works closely with theater companies and schools to design programs that suit the specific needs of the population.
She offers:
Foundational Movement Training based on the swings release work of Trish Arnold
Physical Acting including Neutral Mask, Commedia dell’arte, Clown and Devising
Alexander Technique
Past workshops and faculty appointments include: New York University Gallatin, FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, Brooklyn College, Shakespeare and Company, The Linklater Center, Emerson College, the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Breakthrough Studios, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Sheila is currently Head of the Professional Training Program at Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA.
Past workshops:
Identity, Vitality and Shakespeare
Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA, Summer 2021 (online and in person)
A series of one week workshop diving into movement, voice and Shakespeare with a particular lens to open new pathways for folx from all spaces and places to intersect with the language of Shakespeare. Sheila taught movement with an ensemble of experienced voice and text teachers for Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training.
Performance and Identity: Past and Present Voices Meet
California State University Summer Arts, August 2021
Sheila taught movement and coached student artists with Marie Ramirez Downing, Natsuko Ohama, Octavio Solis and Lisa Wolpe for CSU’s Summer Art's program. The focus of the workshop was creating original material inspired by a deep investigation of the self.
AT Yoga: The Chakras
AT Motion Center for Actors, New York City, Fall 2019
ATyoga is a Vinyasa style yoga class infused with principals of the Alexander Technique. Verbal direction and hands-on adjustments lend ease, clarity and depth to the postures. In ATyoga we flow, breathe, center, and meditate.
Movement for the Actor
Baardar Akademiet, Oslo Norway, August 2019
Sheila designed and taught a series of master classes introducing movement for the actor to the students and faculty at the Baarder Academy, a conservatory specializing in Musical Theater in Oslo, Norway.