Workshops 2026

KINESTHETIC ANATOMY AND BIOMECHANICS OF MOTION: THE SPINE & TRUNK

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date: Tuesday's, September 22 - December 8, 2026 (12 weeks)

Time: 2:30-4:00pm

Fee: $810

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

In this course we will review the anatomical bone structure, joint motion, muscles and potential actions of

the spine/trunk. Focus will be on joint motion (kinematics) and on movement choreographies that

engage all the muscles of the spine and trunk.

*Emphasis will be especially on how each bone of pelvis, each vertebra, each rib, skull and bones

of skull move at their various joints. We will locate each of these joints in our own body

and visualize all the potential motion that can take place at each of these joints.

*Learning a series of short movement sequences choreographed by Irene will not only give us a

kinesthetic experience of all of our spine/trunk muscles, but can potentially enhance our

dynamic stability, mobility, control, coordination, and readiness to move our spine/trunk in

all directions - including our head, rib cage, pelvis.

*We will consider such issues as hypermobility/hypomobility of spine, spine/pelvis asymmetries,

functional postural concepts, etc. Common daily life and skilled activity challenges will be

considered and addressed as time permits - potentially inducing the creation of some

new training choreographies.

Weekly plan – subject to slight changes:

#1 - SPINE AS A WHOLE & LOCATING EACH VERTEBRA
#2 - BONY LANDMARKS OF PELVIS, MOVEMENTS WITHIN PELVIS
#3 – BONY LANDMARKS OF LUMBAR SPINE, MECHANICS OF JOINT MOTION OF LOWER SPINE #4 - MUSCLES OF THE BACK
#5 - MUSCLES OF THE ABDOMINAL WALL
#6 - ROLE OF TRUNK AND SPINE MUSCLES IN SUSTAINING VARIOUS LOWER SPINE ORIENTATIONS & MOVEMENTS OF THE LOWER TRUNK
#7 - BONY LANDMARKS, MUSCLES AND MOVEMENTS OF THORACIC SPINE & THORAX
#8 - MOVING THE VOLUME WITHIN THORAX: INTRODUCTION TO RESPIRATION

#9 - MUSCLES OF RESPIRATION, MUSCULAR PATTERNS INVOLVED IN BREATHING
#10 - BONY LANDMARKS AND JOINTS OF SKULL & CERVICAL SPINE, MOVEMENTS OF HEAD, JAW AND NECK; MECHANICS OF JOINT MOTION OF UPPER SPINE & TRUNK
#11 - MUSCLES AND MOVEMENTS OF POSTERIOR NECK & UPPER THORACIC SPINE
#12 – MUSCLES AND MOVEMENTS OF LATERAL AND ANTERIOR NECK AND UPPER THORACIC SPINE

Note: Zoom recording will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

WALKING: TRADITIONAL LITERATURE ON IDEAL GAIT JOINT MOTION PLUS INDIVIDUAL VARIATIONS BASED ON PERSONAL NEEDS AND PREFERENCES

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date, Wednesday's September 23 - November 25, 2026 (10 weeks)

Time: 2:30-4:00pm

Fee: $675

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

There is so much one can consider with regard to walking that includes much of interest: patterns of usage of each part of body in "ideal" and "compensatory" usage (which may be due to neurological and musculoskeletal conditions), Variations in individual body structure (both visible externally and invisible internally), pain when walking and how one might address it, habits with regards to how one inhabits the space around one out on the street or anywhere one is located, how one's gait might change in different kinds of weather, speed, cadence, phrasing and other kinds of dynamics pertaining to one's own walking, enhancing observational skills and problem solving skills, etc. The way we are walking may be a way of communicating our intentions – and accurately figuring out what someone’s else’s intentions are can save lives (although we can often be wrong too). All of us must locomote and walking is one if the best ways of doing that (and doesn't use up any oil, gas, nuclear fuel, or other type of fuel).

In this course we will also spend a lot of time enhancing our skills in observing individual walking patterns and cuing to address concerns that the walker may have (such as pain or poor balance or inadequate speed)

Week #1 – Introduction to walking and historical “norms”

Week #2 – Movement of the foot and ankle and coaching including movement sequences

Week #3 - Movement of the knee and coaching including movement sequences

Week #4 - Movement of the hip joint and coaching including movement sequences

Week #5 – Movement of the pelvis in conjunction with hip joint and coaching including movement

sequences

Week #6 – Potential challenges to the sacro-iliac joint and strategies for addressing those

Week #7 – Movement of the lumbar spine in relationship with thoracic spine and strategies for enhancing

freedom of motion between these

Week #8 – Movement of the shoulder girdle and shoulder joint and coaching including movement

sequences

Week #9 – Movement of the neck coaching including movement

Week #10 – Putting it all together and review of movement sequences

Note: Zoom recording will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

PRACTICE DRAWING THE BONES COMPOSING OUR SKELETON

{Hybrid Workshop, In-person or Live on Zoom)

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date Saturday July 18, 2026

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

In this workshop, we will practice drawing individual bones of the skeleton. Instructor will also show adjoining bones so that participants can see and draw the joints between bones as well as the inside of the articular surfaces of each of these bones.Then we will look at the skeleton as a whole and practice drawing that. We might add muscles and other tissues to the bones to produce our externally visible bony contours.

Instructor will also show ways of finding the proportions of different areas of the body as seen from different views points, which entails drawing what we actually see - be it foreshortened or not. We will also practice drawing all sides of an area of the body as if it were translucent – creating an impression of three-dimensionality in what is actually a two-dimensional drawing.

Drawing the human body, with special focus on bones and muscles and their relationships with each

other, gives us a clearer understanding of our anatomy. It allows us to “see with x-ray eyes” when we are seeing/touching another person or ourselves. It also affords us the ability and perceive the world around us and connect with it in new ways.

This workshop is structured so that it is as valuable taken on-line via zoom as it is in person. If you are present in person, we can provide you with paper, pencils and colored markers, or you can bring your own preferred drawing materials. If you are on zoom, you will have to provide your own materials.

ZERO drawing experience or skill is required. All are welcome and all can gain something.

Note: Zoom class will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

FASCIAL ISSUES AND STRATEGIES FOR MANAGEMENT: WITH FOCUS ON PLANTAR FASCIA, FASCIAL SHEATH OF LOWER LEG, FASCIAL NETWORK SURROUNDING KNEE CAP, ILIO-TIBIAL BAND, AND THORACO-LUMBAR FASCIA

{Hybrid Workshop, In-person or Live on Zoom)

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date Saturday June 6, 2026

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

What is fascia?

Fascia is connective tissue that is formed mostly of collagen which is highly resistant to being

pulled apart – thus, fascia holds each of our bodies together
There are different types of collagen and the relative preponderance of each on in a specific

individual is mostly genetic, although fascia can be overstretched or traumatized or

inflamed.

In this workshop, we will consider:

*Plantar fascia that supports sole of foot
*Fascia that functions like a compression sock on lower leg
*elaborate web of fascia that supports stability of knee joint and helps maintain optimal tracking of

kneecap
*ITB fascia that crosses and supports the outside of knee and hip and is essential for standing on

that leg
*Lumbar fascia that connects all the muscles that surround the lower trunk from back muscles to

abdominal wall.

For each of these, we will review:

*Nature of the problems that can develop
*Symptoms of having a problem
*Strategies that can ameliorate the problem
*Specific movement practices that can be part of solution to the problem

Note: Zoom class will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

PRACTICE DRAWING THE BONES COMPOSING OUR SKELETON

{Hybrid Workshop, In-person or Live on Zoom)

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date Saturday May 9th 2026

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

In this workshop, we will look at skeleton as a whole and also select individual bones to practice drawing. We will also look at our own body contour or body contour of someone else and draw the bone inside that visible surface with guidance from the instructor.

Instructor will show ways of finding the proportions of individual bones as seen from different views and viewing orientations relative to those bones (front or back view, side view, view from above or below, oblique view, etc.)

Bones we will select from might include:

femur (thigh bone)

pelvic half (coxa bone)

humerus (upper arm bone)

scapula (shoulder blade)

a vertebra

two vertebra in relationship with each other including their conjoining intervertebral disc rib cage and thoracic spine

Note: Zoom class will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop
Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING OUR EQUILIBRATING/BALANCING SKILLS

{Hybrid Workshop, In-person or Live on Zoom)

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date: Saturday April 18th 2026

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

Balancing involves constant motion in response to change, necessary to equalize the constantly changing forces our bodies are experiencing. The changes may be subtle or abrupt, involving a negotiation with gravity, other moving objects and people, as well as our own body shifts in relationship with ourselves and with the environment.

In order to negotiate a relationship of constant change, one is generally highly dependent on proprioception (sensory perception of motion and body orientation), especially that which arises from our vestibular mechanism (inner ear), vision, and sensors located in our joints, muscles and skin (especially those in our ankle joints, muscles of our neck and trunk, fingertips and soles of feet). Our ability to keep our balance is also affected by our emotional and mental state – being upset or unhappy or being distracted can also greatly alter our ability to balance.

Our goal is to be maximally successful in achieving equilibrium throughout our daily life in our own challenging environment. Some ways in which we can gain balance skills include:

*learning how to make simple adjustments to decrease risk of falling and increase stability as we negotiate our personal world of interactions

*developing habits of considering all our functional choices before testing our limits (i.e. looking before we leap)

*expanding our physical limits through various trainings including targeted and progressive equilibrium and strengthening protocols that especially serve our ability to balance on one leg, change levels, reach into space, or move very rapidly through a congested space.

Note: Zoom class will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

BASIC REFLEXES AND HOW WE CAN USE THEM TO INCREASE OR DECREASE OR FIND DESIRED BALANCE OF ACTIVITY IN OUR MUSCLES
{Hybrid Workshop, In-person or Live on Zoom)

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date: Saturday March 28th 2026

Time: From 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

In this workshop we will focus on the reflexes we can utilize to maximize our potential to most successfully achieve of action goals that might involve engaging some muscles more, other muscles less, and in refining the activity level of any of these muscles in coordination with each other.

We will consider the following reflex responses in this workshop and the effects that they might produce:

*Stretch reflex

*Reciprocal inhibition

*Golgi tendon reflex
We will also consider ways in which those reflex responses can be altered and what those changes might

mean such as:
Conscious inhibition of those reflex responses
Having a strong intentional goal that supersedes the reflex response Nerve injury

Specific movement practices to address reflex responses in muscles at specific joints, selected by instructor and workshop participants such as enhancing: ability to move at ankle joint when ankle can’t flex (dorsi-flex) as much as needed to squat or

lunge while keeping heels on the ground, releasing hamstrings to bend forward farther and kick leg higher, increasing freedom of rib cage and shoulder girdle to breathe more easily and fully and appear more emotionally engaged, releasing neck muscles so that head can move freely in all directions.

Note: Zoom class will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of Motion: The Limbs

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date: January 20 - May 5, 2026

Time: Tuesday's, 2:30pm-4:00pm (16 weeks)

Fee: $1,080 must be made to Stephen Williams

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

This course has been created to provide participants with functional and kinesthetic comprehension of our musculoskeletal system of the extremities, i.e. the legs and arms. We will study the bones, joint biomechanics (kinematics) and muscles of the limbs. We will practice choreographed sequences created to provide a kinesthetic understanding as well as physical training of our hip, knee, ankle, foot, shoulder girdle, shoulder joints, elbows, forearms, wrists and hands. We will also consider how these joints move and the patterns of muscle coordination that move them in the activities of daily life, such as walking, lifting, carrying and manipulating objects with our hands.

Note: Zoom class will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

Back, Neck, and Head Pain: Identifying Possible Causes and Investigating Strategies To Diminish The Pain

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Instructor: Irene Dowd

Date: January 21 - March 11, 2026

Time: Wednesday's, 2:30pm-4:00pm (8 weeks)

Fee: $540 must be made to Stephen Williams

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com

Back pain, neck pain and headache are extremely common in this country and are often the cause of misery, lost work and both time &/or money spent on multiple MD visits, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, and other therapeutic interventions. In this workshop series we will consider some of the common sources of pain in spine, neck and head - such as sacro-iliac hypermobility/disfunction, disc herniation, spinal arthritis, facet joint syndrome and arthritis, spondylolisthesis, retrolisthesis, spinal stenosis, dysfunctional postural habits, asymmetrical usage, and other causes. We will review some of the symptoms and anatomy/kinesiology that are commonly associated with each of these potential pain sources.

Having this information can perhaps give us insight into how to understand what is going on in our own bodies and to create strategies that may help alleviate or control the pain. I will teach protocols that may serve to enhance what a person might do to achieve their goals of decreasing pain and increasing physical function. The protocols will include: physical activity programs that can be practiced without any special equipment, as well as with special equipment, alternatives to current physical activities that may cause pain (e.g., swimming instead of running), suggestions for changes in how one performs whatever one is doing throughout one’s daily life by changing focus (and thus re-interpreting how to manage pain), and using imagery any time to reconfigure postural and work strategies.

Note: Zoom class will be available to all participants for viewing for 7 days after workshop

Payment: Venmo, Paypal, Cash or Check (Made out to Stephen Williams 80 5th Ave Room 1403, NY, NY 10011)

Workshops 2025

November 15, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Positive Functions Of Eccentric Contraction And Ways Of Creating Eccentric Contraction Programs For A Specific Indivdual Muscle

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Eccentric contraction is activation of a muscle while it is elongating, such as lowering our spoon slowly into our soup by eccentrically contracting the muscles that cross the front of our elbow. Eccentric contraction has many benefits including: building strength more efficiently and quickly, increasing control and decreasing impact when landing from jump/running/walking, recovering from muscle injury, increasing bone building, enhancing muscle awareness, and more. We will learn how to create personal programs of utilizing and enhancing eccentric contraction of each and any muscle of our body, without involving special equipment or settings.

Date: November 15, 2025

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

Instructor(s):Irene Dowd is on the dance faculty of the Juilliard School and Hollins University graduate program, and a regular guest at academic and dance institutions throughout the US and Canada. Author of Taking Root to Fly, she has maintained a practice in kinesthetic anatomy and neuromuscular re-education for 48 years in NYC. Irene has been awarded the 2014 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching at the American Dance Festival, and the 2015 Julliard John Erskine Faculty award, and the 2016 Dance Science and Somatics Educators Lifetime Service Award from DSSE (Dance Science and Somatic Educators),and 2018 Honory Fellowship from Trinity Laban Cocservative of Music and Dance. Free access to her digital archive is available at: irenedowdchoreographies.com

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

November 1, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Optimizing Our Teaching Strategies: review of what we are likely to already know but might sometimes forget to do

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Even if you don’t formally think of yourself as a teacher, we all are teachers: of ourselves, our children, the people we physically train or coach, and whomever we interact with. Sometimes our communication with others is much more effective and felicitous than other times which makes us remembered as revered or reviled. In this workshop, we will focus on teaching/learning physical movement and daily life strategies for functioning effectively and with minimal unhappiness or discomfort. In this workshop, we consider the findings of motor learning research and my own findings in the teaching of movement since 1968. Particularly useful teaching strategies for optimizing learning.

Date: November 1, 2025

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

October 18, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Perceptual Mobility: expanding our perceptions, points of view, and perspectives on our world icluding the people around us

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

We all have preferential ways of perceiving and therefore understanding the world around us, including everything and everyone. To name just a few, we might tend to:

*orient our bodies in space relative to whatever we are attending to (e.g. looking out to the right side or to the left side when looking at something/someone)

*rely more on our eyes, or our ears or our kinesthetic senses to receive information and remember it consider our observations from an anatomical, kinesiological, biochemical, motor learning point of view based on our training and interests

*focus particularly on elements that were drilled into us by our parent figures, our teachers, our doctors, our friends (both for ourselves and for those we observe – e.g. always keep your spine straight and notice if others keep their spine straight also) perceive through the lens of what we were brought up to believe regarding physical well-being (such as western, alternative, oriental, indigenous, or folk medicine)

Any of these ways of perceiving and understanding can potentially be meaningful and might help us find a way to be harmonious within ourselves and in relationship with the world we live in. However, different ones can be most apt in different circumstances. If we have more ways of perceiving and understanding, then we may have more ways of harmonizing and functioning in a rapidly changing world.

Date: October 18, 2025

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

October 1 - November 19, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Common Challenges During Aging Process And Stretegies For Adapting

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Aging is inevitable but a positive attitude and seeking out what we can do that makes us happy and life good is most important and keeps us younger in spirit and function. Each week, we will focus on a different common issue and specific life-style strategies that can address each issue.

themes for each week:

– introduction to reality of mortality and slowing down/decreased efficiency of all systems – learning strategies for embracing and pursuing change (rather than being rigid and fighting change that is inevitable)

– bone loss, i.e., osteoporosis and strategies for enhancing bone architecture and strength

– muscle loss, i.e., sarcopenia of aging and strategies for maintaining as much muscle mass and ability to exert muscle force as possible

– wearing out of joints, i.e., arthritis and finding ways to carry on with essential activities while managing pain (which may involve an anti-inflammatory lifestyle)

– increased collagen laxity, i.e., hypermobility, decreased proprioception from joint receptors, poorer motor control and finding ways to enhance control of desired joint motion and coordination

– decreased sensory acuity (seeing, hearing sense of smell, sense of taste, sense of touch and kinesthetic sense) and compensatory strategies for coping with these loses

– decreased equilibrating skills and practicing balancing practices

- slower and poorer cardiovascular function, thus colder extremities, leg/foot cramps during sleep, more swelling in feet when sitting for a long time, feeling of exhaustion all the time - all these are improved by increasing moving around and exercising body as much as possible and at whatever speed is possible, while gradually increasing duration, speed, and intensity of exercise

– slower neurological processing, thus more challenge in learning new things and therefore refraining from action before one has prepared and allotting more time to achieve any task, looking to the future

Time: Wednesday's, 2:30pm-4:00pm (8 weeks)

Fee: $540 must be made to Stephen Williams

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

September 23 - December 9, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of Motion: The Spine & Trunk

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

In this course we will review the anatomical bone structure, joint motion, muscles and potential actions of the spine/trunk. Focus will be on joint motion (kinematics) and on movement choreographies that engage all the muscles of the spine and trunk.

*Emphasis will be especially on how each bone of pelvis, each vertebra, each rib, skull and bones of skull move at their various joints. We will locate each of these joints in our own body and visualize all the potential motion that can take place at each of these joints.

*Learning a series of short movement sequences choreographed by Irene will not only give us a kinesthetic experience of all of our spine/trunk muscles, but can potentially enhance our dynamic stability, mobility, control, coordination, and readiness to move our spine/trunk in all directions - including our head, rib cage, pelvis.

*We will consider such issues as hypermobility/hypomobility of spine, spine/pelvis asymmetries, functional postural concepts, etc. Common daily life and skilled activity challenges will be considered and addressed as time permits - potentially inducing the creation of some new training choreographies.

Time: Tuesday's, 2:30pm-4:00pm (12 weeks)

Fee: $810 must be made to Stephen Williams

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

July 19, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Review And Practice Of All The Classic PNF Sequences For Entire Body

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

This workshop will consist of the practice of all the PNF patterns for the entire body: foot/ankle, lower limb, pelvis, trunk/spine, shoulder girdle, hand/wrist, upper limb, head/neck. Irene and Stephen will demonstrate and participants will be carefully watched and coached (if they are in the room or on-line at the time of the workshop). Irene will demonstrate and coach ways in which the patterns can be adapted to various physical limitations including poor balance, very limited pain-free range of motion, joint hypermobility, muscle weakness, and other challenges – as requested in the class. She will emphasize building strength increasing resistance using gravity, self resistance and weights. She will also emphasize how to maximize both concentric and eccentric contraction when performing the sequences in order to enhance control and also efficiently build strength. At the end of the workshop, participants will have a whole body workout that can be practiced solo on a regular basis.

Date: July 19, 2025

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $90

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

January 21 - May 6, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of Motion: The Limbs

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Time: Tuesday's, 2:30pm-4:30pm (16 weeks)

Fee: $1,100 must be made to Stephen Williams

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

February 15, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Chronic Pain: Factors That May Contribute To It And How We Might Manage It And Perhaps Lessen Its Power To Degrade Our Lives

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Chronic pain is generally defined as pain that lasts for more than 3-6 months. It can be due to habits that require over-use of certain muscles, injury to any of our tissues that results in swelling or inflammation, hypersensitization due to experiencing too much physical &/or emotional trauma, fear of the implications and losses entailed in an injury or illness, inability or resistance to deal with a trauma, too many stressors or crises taking place at once, sustained increased physical demands, excessive physical weakness that creates vulnerability to injury in daily life. We will consider ways of creating strategies for dealing with chronic pain that are suitable to ourselves. This sometimes means transforming the “meaning” of the pain, managing our fear, finding alternative lifestyle activities that do not stress the painful areas, building strength, becoming more aware of unconscious habits of usage that cause us pain, transforming our physiological stress reactions, or creating different new strategies.

Date: February 15, 2025

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $80

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

March 8, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Positive Functions Of Eccentric Contraction And Ways Of Creating Eccentric Contraction Programs For A Specific Individual Muscle

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Eccentric contraction is activation of a muscle while it is elongating, such as lowering our spoon slowly into our soup by eccentrically contracting the muscles that cross the front of our elbow. Eccentric contraction has many benefits including: decreasing spasticity due to some neurological conditions, building strength more efficiently and quickly, increasing control and decreasing impact when landing from jump/running/walking, recovering from muscle injury, increasing bone building, enhancing muscle awareness, and more. We will learn how to create personal programs of utilizing and enhancing eccentric contraction of each and any muscle of our body, without involving special equipment or settings.

Date: March 8, 2025

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $80

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

April 5, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Identifying Personal Dynamics And Phrasing Patterns: Considering Their Effect On Physical Condition And Performance Of Our Chosen Activities

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

Think of music and consider the way in which it can be performed in entirely different ways so that our listening and our reaction to the music is affected differently, even though the notes are the same. Similarly, the way we move through time when we are walking can vary greatly, even though we are performing the same skeletal joint movements and shapes in space. We can be recognized (even from a distance) by our preferential dynamics/phrasing when we are walking, and our friends can generally also determine our state of mind by just looking at how we are moving at the moment. In this workshop, we will identify each of our own personal phrasing/dynamic preferences and repertoire, as well as explore additional new repertoire that is unfamiliar. We will probably explore just a few elements such as: moving fast or slowly, accelerating or decelerating, moving smoothly/sustainedly or sharply/ballistically/in sudden bursts (think of the slow loris in contrast to the squirrel, for example).

Date: April 5, 2025

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Fee: $80

To Register: email Stephen Williams at nohostudio@yahoo.com. Download the flyer for this workshop here.

Workshops 2026

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Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of Motion: The Limbs

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

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Instructor: Irene Dowd

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Back, Neck, and Head Pain: Identifying Possible Causes and Investigating Strategies To Diminish The Pain

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

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Instructor: Irene Dowd

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Date: January 21 - March 11, 2026

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Workshops 2025

November 15, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Positive Functions Of Eccentric Contraction And Ways Of Creating Eccentric Contraction Programs For A Specific Indivdual Muscle

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

November 1, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Optimizing Our Teaching Strategies: review of what we are likely to already know but might sometimes forget to do

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

October 18, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Perceptual Mobility: expanding our perceptions, points of view, and perspectives on our world icluding the people around us

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

October 1 - November 19, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Common Challenges During Aging Process And Stretegies For Adapting

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

September 23 - December 9, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of Motion: The Spine & Trunk

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

July 19, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Review And Practice Of All The Classic PNF Sequences For Entire Body

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

January 21 - May 6, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of Motion: The Limbs

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

February 15, 2025 ​

Irene Dowd presents:

Chronic Pain: Factors That May Contribute To It And How We Might Manage It And Perhaps Lessen Its Power To Degrade Our Lives

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

March 8, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Positive Functions Of Eccentric Contraction And Ways Of Creating Eccentric Contraction Programs For A Specific Individual Muscle

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

April 5, 2025

Irene Dowd presents:

Identifying Personal Dynamics And Phrasing Patterns: Considering Their Effect On Physical Condition And Performance Of Our Chosen Activities

Hybrid Course: In Person & On Zoom

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February 15, 2025