Katherine Mitchell has maintained a full-time private practice teaching the Alexander Technique in St. Louis since 1989. She works with people of all ages and from all walks of life, from opera singers to accountants. Her goal is to help people improve their lives through the Alexander Technique.
Katherine gives workshops and lecture demonstrations for many groups. For example she has worked with The National Association of Teachers of Singing; physical and occupational therapists at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, HealthSouth, and Christian Hospital NW; Post-Polio Conference; SIU-E Music and Theatre Departments; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and the USAF Band of Mid-America.
She taught the Alexander Technique (AT) at the Conservatory for Theatre Arts at Webster University for eleven years, where her class was required for all acting and musical theatre majors. She taught AT at Washington University for dancers and for the general student population.
Katherine gives workshops for AT teachers and trainees, often teaching the Dart Procedures she learned directly from Joan and Alexander Murray. In 2001, she was certified to train Alexander Technique teachers by the American Society of the Alexander Technique, AmSAT. She has trained AT teachers at SLAT and been a guest teacher at the Dimon Institute in Boston, the Constructive Teaching Center in Melo Park, CA and the Balance Arts Center in New York City.
Katherine has an ongoing interest in interdisciplinary teaching and learning. She co-developed the Act of Writing conferences in New York City and taught movement for writers at Washington University and at the Indiana Writers Consortium. She has taught Alexander Technique/Agentine Tango workshops in New York, Las Vegas, and Galway, Ireland.
She graduated from the three-year certification program at the Alexander Technique Center Urbana in 1989 and continues to study with directors Joan and Alex Murray. Other influences include Ed and Linda Avak, Walter Carrington, and Marjorie Barstow.
Katherine holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2012. Her poetry has been published in 2River View and The Southern Review and was nominated for Best New Poets 2016.
She has a Bachelor of Professional Studies, “Developing Choreography through Literary and Photographic Media” from the University of Memphis, 1981.
Katherine has a background in dance. She presented environmental dances in such diverse settings as a racquetball court, a rooftop, a meadow and a 19th century farmhouse. Her work has been performed in a range of venues from MoMing Dance and Arts Center in Chicago to the Orpeum Theatre in Memphis. She performed with the Harry Bryce Dance Theatre, Radis Dance Strata, and Hedwig Dances.
Katherine has an interest in community and social dance and worked as a contra dance caller at festivals throughout the mid-west. She and her husband, Michael, taught Argentine Tango at Washington University.
Volunteer work includes serving as chair of the Training Directors’ Committee for AmSAT, 2007-2011. She has volunteered for the Urbana Free Library selecting books for homebound patrons and for the rare books library at University of Illinois. She has volunteered as an English tutor for non-native speakers.