I know how challenging it is to live a satisfying life, balancing responsibilities with needs and desires, while enjoying our experiences and the people we share them with.

Allison Foley loves making a difference in people’s lives. Whether it is observing a student sit down with ease, sing a note with clarity and fullness, walk with length and lightness, or dance with grace and balance, Allison enjoys guiding people towards new and fulfilling experiences.

A practical and gradual education of the self, the Alexander Technique has helped me manage the moment-to-moment responses I make to the actions I take. Little by little my life has changed in ways I always wished it would. I rely on the Alexander Technique to deal with everything I do, from typing this sentence to recovering from an injury. It influences all that I do.

Devoted to movement her entire life, as a dance maker and as an educator, Allison brings 20 years of experience to teaching the Alexander Technique. She was a faculty member of the Physical Education Department at Barnard College for 10 years, where she originated the Alexander Technique program. Along with an accredited course, she taught group classes and individual lessons to faculty, staff, and students from both the Barnard College and Columbia University communities.

Allison Foley is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique who trained at the American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT).  ACAT was the first training program in this country and is now one of the most reputable worldwide. Certification requires a three year commitment and a fulfillment of 1600 hours. There is a teacher to student ratio of 1:5 in classes and additional weekly private lessons. Grateful to have received such an excellent training, Allison served on ACAT’s Board of Directors for three years.

Postgraduate work included a visit to Great Britain where she was fortunate to have had lessons with some of the original teachers of the technique who trained with F.M. Alexander himself, such as Walter Carrington, Marjorie Barlow, and Peggy Williams. A few years later, she returned to attend Carrington’s Teacher Refresher Course at the Constructive Teaching Centre.

Allison maintains a private teaching practice on the upper west side, and has taught group classes and workshops at the 92nd Street Y, Manhattan School of Music, Hunter College, the July Program @ Bennington College, and various self-organized classes in yoga studios, offices (for groups of co-workers), and in her home.

Working with people of a variety of ages and associations, has shown me that it can be helpful to anyone who is willing to learn! It is the most dependable tool I have found for living well.

 Allison’s passion for moving and observing the way people move shaped her first livelihood as a dancer and a choreographer.  Interested in how people use their bodies to communicate, relate, and take action, she has found teaching the Alexander Technique as fulfilling as making a dance. She enjoys being able to share her passion for movement, directly, with her students.

Introduced to the Alexander Technique over 20 years ago, Allison had admired a group of dancers for being able to think on their feet. When she asked them what they were doing to attain this kind of mind/body integrity, they attributed it to lessons in the Alexander Technique. She too began lessons, first with June Ekman and then with Eva Karczag.

What was subtle, but significant, when she committed to this work was that she felt clearer about where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do. Not only did it influence her decision to choreograph dances, it helped her recognize that there were many more choices in life than she could ever imagine. Her creativity blossomed.

The Alexander Technique continues to influence my life in significant and lasting ways. Aside from the obvious changes of being able to move with greater support, balance, range of motion, and grace, I experience more pleasure in everything I do. I have greater hope that my life will continue to change and grow.