about elizabeth
Qualified and committed to teaching
- Hi! I'm Elizabeth Hurwitt. I love the life-enhancing work of teaching Alexander Technique, and if you decide to pursue AT lessons with betterATbeing, I'll be your teacher. Read on — and if you have questions, let's set up a call and ask away!
- I came to Alexander Technique originally as an amateur singer hoping to breathe more freely. I tried AT and found it did much more for me than I had anticipated. It wasn't just a postural or respiratory improvement. The taller I stood, the more I grew as a person. I kept up my lessons for 10 years. My teacher was Pamela Anderson, then director of the American Center for Alexander Technique in New York City.
- When I decided to train as an AT teacher, I became one of the few and fortunate people to train under Tom Vasiliades, director of Alexander Technique Center for Performance and Development. Tom's approach to teaching was shaped by his work with revered AT figures John Nicholls and Walter Carrington (see below). Tom's rigorous 1600-hour hands-on training program was certified by the American Society for Alexander Technique (AmSAT).
Continuing studies with Tom Vasiliades
- Since starting my practice in 2017, I have continued pursuing post-graduate studies with Tom, and spent 4 years assisting him in his in-person course at The Juilliard School, Evening Division. Alexander Technique is a never-ending series of discoveries, and Tom is an invaluable teacher, mentor and friend.
Walter Carrington's Way
"People imagine that their bodies are disobedient and unreliable in carrying out their wishes, whereas nothing could be further from the truth."
Walter Carrington
Walter Carrington -- whose influence informs my practice through my training with Tom -- was uniquely important to the field of Alexander Technique. He worked directly under F.M. Alexander and preserved and communicated Alexander's teachings in the first AT training course at Lansdowne Road in London, which F.M. entrusted to Carrington on his death.
Carrington's approach to teaching, documented in his published lectures and practiced by his trainees, enables students to achieve a well-organized use of themselves which I believe surpasses that of all other AT practitioners. It emphasizes and promotes a widening as well as a lengthening back, freeing the rib cage for deep and natural breathing. A Carrington teacher's inquiring, guiding touch speaks to the entire individual with each placement of the hands. With minimal manipulation, this touch imparts a deep, direct experience of AT.
My work at betterATbeing is dedicated to carrying on this potent approach to Alexander Technique. This is what I want my students to receive.
OTHER BACKGROUND
I'm originally from the S.F. Bay area. After college, I moved to NYC's Upper West Side, where I joined a church choir of trained singers and actors, who encouraged me to study voice and Alexander Technique. I ultimately became a performing arts administrator, helping to shape and sustain a few small but stellar companies on New York's concert-giving scene.
In addition to teaching AT, I serve as Development Director of Copland House, a unique creative center for American music based in Aaron Copland's historic home in Cortlandt Manor, NY. I live in lower Manhattan with my husband Elliott Hurwitt, a music historian.