- COVID NEWS UPDATE-
in-person options are back! zoom options still here too
scroll down to see the options!

I teach a variety of different movement technique modalities as well as dance and live performance composition. I completed my Feldenkrais certification in June 2011, and find that what and how I teach is more and more influenced by this work and way of thinking. I also see clients privately for one-on-one Feldenkrais sessions - feel free to email me if this is of interest to you.

Beginning/Intermediate Adult Ballet

These ongoing class/labs are fun, relaxed, but very serious explorations of ballet based on my understanding of the Corvino approach, which I have been exploring for the last 30+ years. In small classes with a relaxed learning atmosphere and personal attention, I work on the fundamentals of this classical western technique, alignment, and principles of movement, with an emphasis on clarity and ease, so that my students can experience the joy of movement embodied in ballet as well as the satisfaction of understanding the principles governing it. Using a quiet eye, an open mind, and Feldenkrais principles, I also try to carefully untangle the illusions, noxious rigidities, and patriarchal underpinings this highly complex movement form has developed over its 500 year life, so that its wealth of information about the physics of the human body in movement is available to all bodies. 

these classes are in-person at the moment
Intermediate 6:15-7:45pm Wednesdays, 1/2 hour optional pointe class after
Beginning 6:15-7:45 Thursdays
Beginning 11-12:30 Sundays
Ballet Fundamentals Workshops happen several times a year - 7+ weeks of exploring the very basic building blocks of ballet technique
at Danspace
473 Hudson St. Oakland
510 420 0920 or www.danspace.com for more info 

Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement (ATM) Classes

The Feldenkrais Method (TM) is a wide ranging system for understanding how the human being functions and learns how to learn, using the body as its primary laboratory. It is also a wide ranging, elegant, and deeply probing system for understanding the myriad layers of how movements in the human body work, and of how you can learn to manipulate the structure of those movements. Learn to deeply experience - from the inside out - how different parts of your body move and work together. Discover how very subtle changes can fundamentally alter and refine all the movements you do - from sitting to walking, to making a cup of coffee, to double pirouettes or standing on you head - and how this can release inefficient patterning, chronic tension, and pain, and increase awareness and flow. This is a wonderful opportunity for dancers and non-dancers alike to bring greater felt understanding of how their body is constructed, as well as greater ease and articulation, into the execution of all their movements, from the everyday to the highly complex. wear loose and comfortable clothing

On-going weekly ATM classes through my own private ZOOM channel
Mondays 10-11am
Fridays 1-2:15pm
Sundays 4-5:15pm
Cost: sliding scale $0-25 per class, pay what you can
If you are interested, email me at ma@maryarmentroutdancetheater.com and I will send you the links and payment options

On-going weekly ATM classes at Mountain Yoga in Montclair Village
currently happening only on ZOOM
Saturdays 11:30-12:45
Sundays Feldenkrais for Better Sleep 8-9pm
www.m-yoga.org for more info

On-going weekly ATM class IN PERSON at Danspace in Rockridge
Tuesdays 5:30-6:45pm
This class works in on-going sessions, find more info at danspace.com

Occaisional ATM Workshop Series at Shawl Anderson Dance Center
Call 510 654 5921 or www.shawl-anderson.org for more info

Feldenkrais your Dancing

Nina Haft and Mary Armentrout team up to co-teach occaisional on-going intensive workshops exploring how the Feldenkrais Method can deconstruct and support contemporary dance technique. Nina Haft teaches contemporary technique drawing upon aspects of Limon and Release-based techniques, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and martial arts. Mary Armentrout is a Feldenkrais practitioner. The Feldenkrais Method is a wide ranging system for understanding how the human being functions and learns how to learn, using the body as its primary laboratory. Together Nina and Mary interweave elements of Feldenkrais and dance technique in these workshops. Working within this fusion, we continually discover how very subtle changes can fundamentally alter and refine all the movements we do -- and can release inefficient patterning, tension, and pain, and increase awareness and flow. This is a wonderful opportunity for advanced dancers working in any style to bring greater felt understanding of how their body is constructed, as well as greater ease and articulation, into the execution of their movements. 

at Shawl Anderson Dance Center
Call 510 654 5921 or www.shawl-anderson.org for more info 

being here and not here at the same time

expanded compositional practices with Mary Armentrout
Summer Intensive Workshop 2023

In this week long workshop we will unfurl, follow, coax, and crash live performance from multiple starting points: refiguring the body and the self through the Feldenkrais Method, reconstructing the performance space and the performance contract through site specific, technological, and critical strategies, and utilizing intermedia ideas to push collage and embodiment into new configurations.

some logistical thoughts: we will be using the environs of our studio as our giant site-specific laboratory - bring good shoes and clothing for outside work and messy work. probably best to bring your lunch as there is not much available in the neighborhood, but we will have a small fridge, microwave and hot beverage options. We will work all week and have an informal showing Saturday night at the space with a potluck before. The showing will combine work from this workshop with work from Ian Winters' Isadora workshop which will be running during the same time, in the evenings. Ian and I are hoping there will be some overlap between the two workshops - people taking both, or performers corralled into being in video projects - who knows! we'll see how it plays out! The new milkbar studio is in Richmond and is easy to get to by car, and is also accessible by BART/bike.

this year we will again add a sleep over as a way to deepen our experience of the studio and its environs. it is totally optional, but super fun! One night during the week, after the workshop we will continue to make work into the darkness, eat together and camp out in the studio.

at the Milkbar in Richmond
which is at 241A S. 1st St., Richmond CA 94804
Monday 7/31 - Friday 8/4 2023
5 FULL DAYS: Monday to Friday, from 10:30 to 5:30
with a potluck and informal showing on Saturday, August 5th, in conjunction with Ian Winters' "Extended Now" Isadora Workshop
Cost: $400
Early bird: register before July 1st: $350
drop ins possible for single days - $80 per whole day
1/2 days also possible - 10:30 to 1:30, or 2:30 to 5:30 - $40 per half day
some work study available, email for details
to register: email me at ma@maryarmentroutdancetheater.com
questions: ma@maryarmentroutdancetheater.com or 510 289 5188
{photo: Jacques Sirot}

The Field East Bay

I am committed to facilitating one round of fieldwork in the East Bay each year, and think it likely to happen this summer! Locations change from year to year. This is a ten week workshop with an informal showing at the end. Fieldwork is an effective and elegant process-based method of giving feedback on new work and is open to all artists working in live performance: dance, theater, music, film/video, new genres. email me for more information.