“Those who do not move,
do not notice their chains.”
- Rosa Luxemburg
About Clare Maxwell
Sitting still and being quiet was never my forte! I was born with joyful connection to my body and a natural trust in my physical intelligence. I loved dancing just for fun. I was aware of my body and loved my body.
That connection was broken by overtraining when I became a professional dancer. I worked so hard at it that I started to dissociate from my body just to get through the pain.
My standards for myself during my dance career were extremely high. I was forced by multiple injuries and emotional pain to re-examine those standards and see that they were destroying my career, not sustaining it.
The Alexander Technique, which I encountered by accident in a dance class, showed me how to let go of self-destructive attitudes and replace them with positive movement practices that were more in harmony with the actual design of my unique body, mind, and spirit.
The Technique calmly centered me in my own perceptions. I could stay present in myself without dissociating even under stress. I recovered my ability to dance easily and expansively—to fly!—with just the right amount of tension. I found my real voice as an artist and stopped trying to be like other dancers.
The Technique restored my trust in and love of my own body. I healed multiple injuries while still staying active professionally and was astonished at the growth in my technical skill and range. All this was possible without toxic overthinking and unnecessary muscular effort of the past.
The Alexander Technique became the foundation on which I built an joyful and sustainable career as an independent dance artist and embodiment educator.
I worked with choreographers John Jasperse, Ann Carlson, and many others. Surprise surprise, I became one myself! I toured the US and Europe and had a blast. Eventually my dream to train as a teacher of the Alexander Technique came true, and I settled down in NYC. After two decades of teaching, however, I became frustrated with the lack of life-affirming motion in traditional Alexander Technique teaching and practice.
I wanted to help my students and fellow teachers apply the AT principles more freely to all movement. To that end, I trained extensively with a group of AT teachers that use developmental movement as a framework for learning, inspired by Professor Raymond Dart and the Dart Procedures. This led me to a deep inquiry into the central nervous system and the segmental structure of the human body.
I created Mobile Body Alignment™ four years before the pandemic as a way of communicating what I had learned. Now it is taught worldwide by a growing group of teachers because it can be used easily in activity and online. MBA helps all kinds of holistic practitioners and embodiment teachers use movement freely and fearlessly in their work, whether they are therapists or teach art, music, theater, dance, or the embodiment practices like the Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais.
I also mentor holistic practitioners in their creative & business development. I believe that it is our responsibility to communicate the value of embodiment in the marketplace and create profitable businesses. This is the only way to really change a profoundly disembodied culture.
I continue to work on live theater productions as a movement coach. Over the years I've worked with Sarah Cameron Sunde, Marielle Heller, and most recently on the brilliant play What to Send Up When It Goes Down by Aleshea Harris.
Mobile Body Alignment includes three core elements:
Clare Maxwell is a certified as a teacher by The American Society for the Alexander Technique and The International Somatic Movement Education And Therapy Association. She completed her training at The American Center for the Alexander Technique in New York City and taught on the volunteer faculty there for 10 years.
Clare has a postgraduate certificate from Alexander teacher Jessica Wolf in The Art of Breathing and has done extensive postgraduate work in the Dart Procedures with Joan and Alex Murray, Marie Stroud, and Luc Vanier.
She also leads Mastermind Groups for embodiment educators who want to build a profitable business, and leads a peer-to-peer learning community for Alexander Technique teachers called the Experimenters Union.
4 core values of Embodied Learning Systems:
1. Embodiment is the foundation of all learning
2. Embodiment starts with self acceptance
3. Your body can be an infinite source of deep resilience if you understand it well
4. Full embodiment disrupts inhumane, oppressive systems
How Embodied Learning Systems can help you:
Check out the options below for mobility learners and embodiment professionals so you can get started.
Embodied Learning Systems:
Mobile Body Alignment™
- Get mobilized and energized for your day
- Recover lost mobility
- Expand existing movement range and expression
- Discover your own unique grace and coordination
Moving itself is great, but how we move is also important. If we move with too much tension, we wear ourselves out. If we move with ease, we experience vitality and pleasure. It’s that simple.
In weekly classes you’ll learn simple step-by-step practices that increase mobility and decrease discomfort. You'll get a more accurate, holistic sense of your own body and learn to trust it through structured improvisation and dancing to music.
You’ll want to move more because you already feel better. You’ll get healthier as you move better, no matter what your age or level of ability.
Embodied Learning Systems:
The Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique activates the optimum relationship between your conscious mind and your unconscious behavior. The teacher uses words, a highly sophisticated kind of touch, and guided movement.
Learning is based on understanding functional principles of movement rather than by performing rote exercise. You learn how all of the separate parts of your body fit together as moving, coordinated whole.
You start to notice previously unconscious habits. If those habits are hurting you, the teacher guides you in moving and thinking in a new, healthier way without damaging your body, holding your breath, or compressing your internal organs.
This technique was created by F.M. Alexander (1869–1955) in response to laryngitis that, he eventually discovered, he caused himself by using excessive tension while speaking and reciting. The technique has been passed down from person to person since Alexander founded his original training program in 1931. That it has survived across seven generations of teachers is a testament to its efficacy.
For embodiment educators who want to make a difference in the world and make an abundant living doing it.
Embodied Learning Systems:
Embodiment Educators Mastermind Group
If you are:
- An Embodiment Innovator
- A Dance Teacher
- A Somatic or Therapeutic Movement Teacher
- An Alexander Technique Teacher
- A Yoga Instructor
- A Movement-Based Therapist
Are you tired of being overworked and underpaid for your movement expertise? Are you ready to make an abundant living from the work you love best? People need to get in touch and stay in touch with their bodies now more than ever.
Your unique teaching voice is the core of all your marketing. No other mastermind group will understand that relationship the way we do – I know, because I’ve tried them. I can help you develop your marketing materials organically, using your teaching voice as the guide.
My small and curated Mastermind groups make all the difference between burnout and success.
Embodied Learning Systems:
Embodiment Teachers Community
The Experimenters Union is an online work-exchange community for innovative embodiment educators. We test, verify and improve our teaching online. We support each other’s growth and development using a mindfully designed nonhierarchical, facilitated format for work exchange.
We began as a community of Alexander Technique teachers, but have expanded to include all forms of embodiment education because we can discover more about human functioning through cross-disciplinary research and dialogue. We also have a private Facebook page where we help each other with teaching and business success.