Journeying Toward Center with the late Nancy Topf

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsKristin MarrsKRISTIN MARRS, MFA, M.AmSAT is an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Iowa, where she teaches ballet alongside somatic movement and anatomy classes. She is a certified Alexander Technique teacher with the American Society for the Alexander Technique and a certified Functional Awareness® Movement Educator; she runs a private studio in addition to teaching group Alexander classes for Iowa’s performing arts students. Marrs researches the intersections of ballet pedagogy with Alexander Technique, philosophies of writing across the curriculum, and self-reflective learning practices. As a choreographer she explores the evolution of ballet as a technique, somatic practice, and narrative form. Her most recent work is Assurance of Things Unseen (2022), performed in collaboration with the UI Symphony Orchestra.Notes1 Nancy Topf, “The Anatomy of Center by Nancy Topf: An Introduction to the Practice of Topf Technique® and Dynamic Anatomy (Excerpts), with a History of Release Technique and Writings by Barbara Clark, Marsha Paludan, Melinda Buckwalter, and Jen Harmon,” CQ Chapbook 3/37, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2012).2 Martha Eddy, Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action (Chicago: Intellect 2017).3 Pamela Matt, A Kinesthetic Legacy: The Life and Works of Barbara Clark (Tempe, AZ: Clark Manuals Trust, 1993).