YIN YOGA

Yin Yoga (the opposite of Yang Yoga) is gentle, passive, works with gravity instead of against gravity. This is not a work out class. This is deep tissue release. My teaching incorporates knowledge of anatomy and fascia from my Alexander Technique training, and also some release practices from Feldenkrais, Qi Gong and massage techniques to release more delicate areas like hands, feet, face and neck.

THURSDAY NIGHTS FROM 7-8:30PM EASTERN

Sliding Scale Pricing: $15-35

Payment is accepted through Venmo @hollycinnamon, PayPal @hollycinnamon
and Interac e-Transfer via email.

DROP-IN WELCOME!
Sign up to receive the zoom link!

WHY YIN YOGA?

Throughout the day, we all engage in repetitive movement patterns, based on what we do. These patterns can create tension and imbalances in our tissues. For example, arm, neck and back tension from leaning and reaching forward to our screens. We all have natural imbalances and compensations, but it is beneficial to release them, particularly at the end of the day, before our fascia naturally shrinks and tightens as we sleep. 

Yin Yoga releases habitual tensions in our fascia and rebalances the whole system, so that tension is more evenly distributed throughout the body, as it is meant to be. We all need a certain amount of tension to hold our bones together, to stand and move, but we want this tension to be flexible and adaptable. Yin Yoga allieviates the build up of tension in certain areas, so that we can remain mobile and adaptive for long, healthy lives. 

EMBODIED BOUNDARIES

Boundaries are important to maintain healthy relationships at work, with family, friends and loved ones and even with ourselves. They can feel intimidating to create, as it can feel like creating walls or being cold with people, shutting down connection. But, in reality, boundaries are a path to healthier connection. Boundaries are a tool to keep us safe in relationships and circumstances, so that we can connect in ways that feel healthy and respectful to ourselves and others.

What are Embodied Boundaries? Well, you might think of boundaries as something you would work on in a talk-therapy session, to express and understand in words. But boundaries are also something that we feel in our bodies. Our bodies tell us when something feels safe and comfortable and when something feels too much, too close, unsafe or overwhelming. Sometimes, when we are trying to solve a problem by talking through it, we can go in circles, but if we listen to our bodily sensations, we might already know what might help us feel safe.

This course will guide you, individually, through a process of discovering and listening to your own embodied boundaries. Once you have this knowledge about yourself, it is easier to navigate your workplace, your relationships, your home and your relationship with yourself and keep your nervous system feeling more safe and your integrity feeling more respected.

Some kinds of boundaries we will explore:

• physical space and distance

• doors, walls, furniture (nesting and barriers)

• directional relationships (front, back, left and right side)

• clothing (layers, hats, sunglasses, makeup)

• eyelids (opening and closing, covering)

• ears (headphones, covering ears, auditory/sound resources)

• time boundaries

• electronic boundaries (camera on/off, powering down, closing the laptop)

• communication boundaries (texting, emailing, to respond or not to respond..)

• touch boundaries (feeling and expressing)

There are a million little ways that boundaries can help us feel more safe and comfortable. Simultaneously, there are a million little ways that not understanding, listening to or being able to articulate our boundaries can make us feel unsafe and uncomfortable, or irritated. This course is designed to empower you to understand, support and articulate your own.

Students will work on zoom in the comfort of their own homes. This is a solo process mostly, but there may be time to optionally share experiences in the group or with a partner.

Students will be asked to turn their cameras on for initial introductions at the start of the session, but will be able to turn cameras/microphones off throughout the session if they prefer.

Learn more about my teaching commitments and values in terms of creating a safe, accessible space for all students here:

Course Schedule: Sundays October 23rd, 30th and November 6th from 2:00-3:30PM Eastern

Location: ON ZOOM

Course Fee: $250 USD/ $325 CAD for the full course*

*Please inquire should the fee be a barrier to attendance. Bartering, payment plans and other forms of exchange/negotiation are available.

EMBODIED SCENE WORK

ON ZOOM

This course can be applied to both on-camera and theatrical scenes. Actors will be able to choose to apply the tools to either film/tv sides, a monologue or a theatre scene throughout the course.

This will be a 4-week progressive course, with optional drop-in for actors who have previously studied with Teaching Presence. No fancy set up for your camera or space required.

Week 1: Orienting to the Room - Scene Partners in Your Surroundings

Week 2: Orienting to Yourself - Finding the “I” and the “me” in Your Body

Week 3: Orienting to Your Scene Partner - Being in Relationship from Head to Toe

Week 4: Integrating in Performance - Connecting the Previous Tools in Performance

Schedule: Mondays, September 26th - October 17th, 3:00-4:30PM Eastern

Workshop Fees: $250 USD/ $330 CAD for the full course ($70 USD/ $90 CAD drop-in session for past clients) *Please contact me at teachingpresencenyc@gmail.com should finances be a barrier to attendance - bartering and payment plans are available.

ADD-ON a ONE-on-ONE coaching to your session for just $60 USD/ $80 CAD (normally $90USD/$120CAD)

Learn more about Embodiment for Actors here. Learn about my Teaching Values and Commitments here.

Reserve your spot here:

Payment is also accepted through Venmo @hollycinnamon, PayPal @hollycinnamon
and Interac e-Transfer.

The zoom link will be sent to your email when you sign up!

This class is a fusion of techniques from my Alexander Technique and actor training, made practical and accessible to anyone. The practices involve noticing your patterns of attention, tuning into your senses in both the world around you and inside of your body, and exploring what helps you feel grounded and supported in your environment.

All movement in the class is optional. The heart of the class is really about presence and attention - a meditation in motion and every day activity, adapted to your own range of motion and energy level today.

This class will be adaptable and accessible to all. No training or movement skills necessary - all abilities welcome.

Class Topics and Themes:

• exploring the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water in your body and environment

• exploring your five senses in your environment

• noticing your relationship to gravity, the boundaries of the floor and walls, and the freedom of the air

• intuitive movement

• exploring levels of attention in the body: Bones, Muscles, Skin, Fascia & Joints, Organs, Circulatory System

• exploring patterns in your vision and visual resources: Color, Texture, Shape, Density, Size/Distance

• applying discoveries to every day activities like washing dishes or writing emails

Sundays : 2-3 PM EST / 11AM - 12PM PST

Sliding Scale Pricing: $10-35

Payment is accepted through Venmo @hollycinnamon, PayPal @hollycinnamon
and Interac e-Transfer via email.

DROP-IN WELCOME!!
Sign up to receive the zoom link!

A series of workshops to reset, cleanse your energy, set intentions for the new year, give some love to your body, your eyes and your nervous system and enter 2021 with a renewed spirit!

Apply Alexander Technique tools directly to your acting audition skills. This course will cover monologues, scenes and on-camera sides, how to use the same AT tools to prepare for each, and how to use your attention in each medium and adapt the same tools to each medium!

Topics covered:

• orienting to calm down your nervous system in the audition room / self-tape space

• exploring the resources in the space as scene partners

• how to work with an imaginary scene partner or your reader

• using your attention, time and space consciously to translate the story in the script into 4D

• embodied memorization

• locating the “I” and “me” in your own body

• discovering your character’s field of awareness

• using tension efficiently and to your advantage in your storytelling

• understanding the relationship between choice and tension in acting

• owning your time in your preparation, practice and execution in the room

• unpacking what “presence” really is and how to cultivate it

I encourage you to bring in your own materials that you are working on - old and new! There will also be the opportunity to send me your headshot/resume/reel and for me to assign you new material!

There will also be space in this class to review your reel or look at current audition tapes you have been submitting and receive feedback, based on the tools we are exploring in class!

When: Fridays, 2-4PM Eastern, November 6th - 27th, 2020

Cost: $120 course fee or $35 drop-in/class

Payment: PayPal / Venmo @hollycinnamon or Interac E-transfer

This 4-week course will apply tools from Alexander Technique directly to your singing, warming-up, performing and auditioning practices. Unlike other AT classes, this work is applied directly to your singing, so that you can fuse AT skills with the practices you already have!

Miss singing? Struggling to find motivation to practice and keep up your skils? This online class will offer you the motivation, structure and support to keep up your practice through this difficult time and be ready to go once auditions and performances resume!

When: Tuesdays, 1-3pm Eastern, November 3rd- 24th, 2020

Cost: $120 / $35 drop-in per class

Payment: PayPal / Venmo @hollycinnamon, or Interac E-transfer

In this 4-week course, we will learn about the anatomy of the eyes and discover ways to take care of your eyes when they are suffering from pain and fatigue from screen exhaustion. Each class will have its own theme, so drop-in is welcome!!

Topics we will cover:

• anatomy and function of the eyes, rods & cones, optic nerves and brain

• eye massage and head massage for tension release

• orienting to your present surroundings

• setting up your screen space to maintain 3D awareness

• lenses through which we can see the world: size, shape, color, texture, density

• engaging your kinaesthetic system to support the visual system

• conscious depth perception

• the relationship between the eyes, head and spine movement

• internal seeing: imagination, vision, the “mind’s eye”

You will finish this course with countless simple tools, exercises and practices to incorporate into your daily life to keep your eyes healthy and happy! Screens are reducing our awareness, embodiment and ability to perceive depth! Combat those dangerous effects and gain insight to maintain your eye health long term!

When: Sundays, 2:30-3:30pm Eastern / 11:30am-12:30pm Pacific / 8:30-9:30pm Europe* October 25th - November 15th, 2020
***Note: USA does not change clocks back until November 1st, so the time difference will be different the first week. 

Cost: $35/drop-in per class OR $90/3 classes

Payment: Venmo or PayPal @hollycinnamon or Interac E-Transfer

Your body is a physical system, just like your car, your bicycle or your computer. But are you using it in line with its design, with the most efficiency? 

In this 6-week course, you will learn about your body through visual aids, videos and every day simple movements. Understand how your joints work, how you are designed to move as a fascia, bone and muscle system! By developing a more accurate body map of yourself, you can actually prevent repetitive strain injuries and chronic stress! 

Week One: The Head-Spine Relationship, the curves of the Spine, the Eyes and Ears moving the Skull

Week Two: The Hips, Legs and Pelvis

Week Three: The Shoulders, Arms, Sternum and Lungs

Week Four: Wrists, Hands and Feet

Week Five: Layers of Tissue: Bone, Muscle, Fascia, Organs, Skin - Moving from different levels of awareness

Week Six: Thinking Patterns and Perception: How your Self-Concept influences your Movement and Structure; the Nervous System, Energy Body, and Personal Space Bubble

Start to experience more freedom and ease in your movement in all of your daily activities: at work, sports, cooking, walking, and even while using your iPhone! All abilities and movement ranges welcome.

In this class, we will examine how some of your ideas about how your body works as a system are influencing the way you move, for better or worse. By developing a more accurate anatomical body map of yourself, you can actually prevent repetitive strain injuries and chronic stress and start to experience more freedom and ease in your movement in all of your daily activities: at work, sports, cooking, walking, even while using your iPhone!

Tuesdays: October 20th- November 24th, 2020 - 6:00-7:30PM Eastern / 4:00-5:30PM Mountain

Cost: $160 course fee or $35 drop-in/class

Payment: PayPal / Venmo @hollycinnamon or Interac E-transfer

Discover an embodied process for on-camera scene work, from preparation to performance, and increase your on-camera presence!

We will cover:

• orienting to calm down your nervous system in the audition room

• exploring the resources in the space as scene partners

• how to quickly engage with your reader in a fully embodied way

• using your attention, time and space consciously to translate the story of the script into 4D

• embodied memorization

• how to be with the camera, understand the frame and how to be with your full body while keeping your work within the frame

• how to use tension efficiently and to your advantage in your storytelling

• understanding the relationship between choice and tension in acting

• locating the “I” and “me” in your own body in real time and space

• discovering your character’s field of awareness

• owning your time in your preparation, practice and execution in the room

• re-embodying your imagination

• unpacking what “presence” really is and how to cultivate it

The increased screen time we are facing as a cultur brings with it the challenging habit of disembodiment. This is particularly harmful to actors and performers whose work requires an even higher level of “presence” than every day activities. Regain your presence in your acting practices and directly apply that to your on-camera scene work!

Please send your headshot and resume to holly@teachingpresence.com and I will send you sides, or send the sides you would like to work on!

Thursdays: August 6th - 27th, 2:00PM - 4:00PM Eastern

Discover an embodied process of learning your monologue, without tension habits from memorization, and end this class with a new memorized audition-ready monologue in your back pocket!

We will cover:

• orienting to calm down your nervous system in the audition room

• exploring the resources in the space as scene partners

• how to work with an invisible embodied scene partner (the hardest part of monologue auditions!)

• using your attention, time and space consciously to translate the story in the script into 4D

• embodied memorization

• locating the “I” and “me” in your own body in real time and space

• discovering your character’s field of awareness

• how to use tension efficiently and to your advantage in your storytelling

• understanding the relationship between choice and tension in acting

• owning your time in your preparation, practice and execution in the room

• re-embodying your imagination

• unpacking what “presence” really is and how to cultivate it

The increased screen time we are facing as a culture brings with it the challenging habit of disembodiment. This is particularly harmful to actors and performers whose work requires an even higher level of “presence” than every day activities. Regain your presence in your acting practices and directly apply that learning to a new monologue.

If you do not have a monologue you would like to learn, please submit your headshot and resume and I will send you a couple of options.

Thursdays: August 13th - September 3rd, 2:00 - 4:00PM Eastern

Embodied On-Camera Acting

Fridays from 4:30 - 6:30PM Eastern / 2:30 - 4:30 PM Mountain

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN!
Suggested Donation: $20-40/session

Self-tape season is on its way when filming starts picking up again! Use this class to prepare yourself! Discover how the tools offered by the Alexander Technique can expand your presence for your on-camera auditions. Learn from me the tools I applied in the audition room to book Daredevil, and how I prepare for all my auditions, whether a self-tape at home or going in for Casting Directors in NYC.

By orienting to various resources in the room, your attention can tell the story in the space between the lines. You will remain grounded over your feet and the camera and the casting director will be drawn into your experience as you embody the character in 3D.

Bring in your own sides to work on, or I can assign you some. Feel free to bring in audition sides or CD class sides you are currently working on! Many casting directors are currently hosting open calls - this can be a way to prepare material to submit.

Tuesday Night Hatha Flow

Tuesdays in June-July 7:00-8:15PM Eastern / 5:00-6:15PM Mountain

This will be an Alexander-Technique infused hatha yoga flow practice. A fusion of Ashtanga Primary Series and Hatha Flow, with standing and seated poses, taught with an Alexander Technique awareness, mapping our joints accurately and the spiralling nature of our fascia as we move through the sequences with ease, freedom and increased attention. We don’t always have to go to our “edge” - there is just as much to learn by listening to each moment in the process.

If you are feeling stuck in your habitual patterns inside your home, this is a great way to change your awareness of yourself and unwind your habitual patterns! Get moving from your own home yoga mat - whether inside your living room or in your backyard or the park!

Alexander Technique for Monologues

Tuesdays from 2:30 - 4:30 PM Eastern

Learn a new monologue - from research to performance! We will use the tools of Alexander Technique in the process of memorization, character development and performance.

Find resources and scene partners in any audition room, or your home studio, that will help you feel grounded, empowered and present throughout your performance. Discover an embodied process of learning your monologue, without tension habits from memorization, and end this class with a new memorized audition-ready monologue in your back pocket!

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN!

Recommended Donation: $20-40/session

4- Week Class: June 2nd through 23rd

Sign up below to receive the zoom link to all classes!

Eye Fatigue Solutions

Experiencing eye fatigue, soreness or dryness? We are all stuck in front of a computer right now more than usual. In terms of our design, this is completely unnatural. Our eyes were designed for the savannah, the forest, the wild: to scan the horizon for danger and resources. Not to stare at a flat glass surface for hours. 

In this weekly class, we will give our eyes a break by re-orienting them in real space and reawakening our depth perception. Learn simple practices to keep your eyes feeling free, rejuvenated and healthy. Discover resources you can add to your workstation to help you feel present, alive and grounded in your physical environment. We will explore habitual eye level, eye stretches, expanding peripheral awareness, seeing at different distances, seeing various textures, colours and shapes, and re-integrating the kinesthetic and visual systems!

Transform the way you relate to your screen and the way your eyes feel today!

Two class times available: 
Tuesdays 7-8PM Eastern / 5-6PM Mountain
Fridays 3-4PM Eastern / 1-2PM Mountain

*Drop-in to either or both classes. Classes are structured as a 4-week progression. Tuesday and Friday will be the same class each week, so if you can't make it Tuesday, you can drop-in Friday instead!

Sliding Scale Pricing: $15-35

Sign up to receive the zoom link, which allows you to drop in to any class!

☀️ Monologue Month ☀️

Learn a new monologue this April - from research to performance! We will use the tools of Alexander Technique in the process of memorization, character development and performance. Discover an embodied process of learning your monologue, without tension habits from memorization, and end this class with a new memorized audition-ready monologue in your back pocket!

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN!

Recommended Donation: $15-40

Tuesdays in April 5-6:30pm EDT / 3-4:30pm MDT

If you don’t have a monologue, I will help you find one! 

Sign up below to receive the zoom link to all future classes!

Fridays, May 31 and June 7, 2019
12:00pm – 2:00pm

AT Motion Center for Actors 
151 West 30th Street, Floor 3
New York, NY 10001

Intensive Fee: $110

As a film and tv actor, the lens determines how you are seen by the audience. You are working within a completely different framework than on stage or in a theatre audition. Do you know how to work within the frame and make the camera your scene partner to draw the audience into each moment of your character’s journey? Do you know how to use your attention and your thinking and your body to tell the story within the frame? Do you know how the camera sees you? 

In this class, we will apply AT tools directly to on-camera work. You will discover resources in the audition room and on set that can support your on-camera acting, expand your presence and clarify your focus, so the camera is drawn to you. We will work on audition sides and watch playback during class so you can see how the tools we apply can transform what the audience sees on screen. The class will leave you with simple, concrete tools and practices that you can incorporate into your on-camera work immediately. 

Intensive: AT & Auditioning
Own Your Space In Your On-Camera Auditions

2 Mondays: April 29th and May 6th
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Intensive Fee: $120

Are you a theatre-trained actor now working and auditioning for film and TV? Do you ever feel compressed or reduced by the camera? Having to narrow yourself to fit in the frame of the lens?

This class will offer you tools and resources to orient to the room you are auditioning in, and work with the camera and the space around you to expand instead of narrowing your field of awareness. Through this practice, you will draw the camera to you at the center of the moment rather than narrowing to meet the camera’s frame or pushing the camera away. You will find yourself in the center of the character’s moment and the camera will then meet you there.

In this class, we will work with a camera on a tripod and directly apply AT tools to audition sides. Actors will be given the option to bring in sides of their own or be given sides to prepare. There may also be time dedicated to cold reads. You will receive a copy of your clips after each class via Dropbox.

Register