ARIEL WEISS has maintained a lively private practice in Philadelphia since certifying to teach in 1988. She is a teaching member of Alexander Technique International and teaches with an innovative and practical approach in the style of her mentor Master Teacher Marjorie Barstow. An inveterate mover, Ariel earned her Master’s degree in Movement and Dance from Wesleyan University and moves to music whenever possible.

In addition to her private practice, Ariel coaches musicians at The Curtis Institute of Music and trains teachers at the Philadelphia School for the Alexander Technique. She teaches weekly classes for skaters at The Philadelphia Skating Club and for seniors through Friends in the City and at Crosslands and White Horse Village retirement communities, serves as faculty for the Well Balanced Pianist and coproduces the  Freedom to Make Music Alexander Technique conference for musicians annually in NYC  (www.freedomtomakemusic.com).  She has created numerous Alexander workshops for different communities regionally and internationally,  including Threshold Choir, the Santa Fe Opera, and Alexander Alliance/Tokyo and Aru Quality Pro training programs in Japan.

Active as a dancer and choreographer for most of her life, Ariel brings well over 40 years of movement training to her practice with an extensive background in Modern Dance, Ballet, Contact Improvisation, T’ai Chi, Pilates, Ideokinesis, Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals and more recently West Coast Swing. She has developed an expertise working with performing artists, bringing her choreographer’s creative and playful sensibility to problem solving, her performer’s sensitivity to the many demands of a performing artist on and off stage, and a keen eye and sensitive ear to deciphering the subtle interferences in a student’s coordination.