Embodied Score Study: From Notation to Gesture
Clinic Synopsis:
Most conductors have felt it—the rehearsal where you keep stopping, keep explaining, but the musicality just isn’t there. Conductors are trained to analyze a score but rarely taught how notation becomes physical gesture. This session closes that gap—connecting score study to embodied decision-making using principles from Laban Movement Analysis. Directors leave with a repeatable, actionable process for catalyzing a score into clear rehearsal leadership and a more responsive ensemble.
David Vickerman
- Biographical Information
Dr. David Vickerman
is Director of Bands, Professor of Music, and Associate Director of the School of Music at San José State University. He conducts the Wind Ensemble and Disrupt, SJSU’s new music ensemble, and teaches instrumental conducting. He is coauthor with Alexandra Beller
of The Embodied Conductor: A Somatic Approach with Laban
and Bartenieff, forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2027. Since
2023, he has served as Music and Artistic Director of the San José Wind Symphony, becoming only its third director since 1958. His honors include
The American Prize in Conducting, the CMEA Bay Section Outstanding Music Educator Award, and CMEA’s John Swain College/University Music Educator Award. Under his leadership, the SJSU Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at CASMEC and the CBDNA Western/Northwestern
Division Conference. Previously, Vickerman
was Director of Bands at The College of New Jersey, where the Wind Ensemble performed at CBDNA and NAfME conferences. He also held conducting positions at Johns Hopkins University and with Washington, D.C.’s Great Noise Ensemble, and has led honor bands nationwide.An advocate for
contemporary music, he has commissioned and premiered numerous works and arranged music by Gabriela Lena Frank, Philip Glass, Mason Bates, Sigur Rós, and others. He presents on conducting pedagogy, ensemble engagement, and socially conscious repertoire. He
holds degrees from the Peabody Institute, the University of Oregon, and CSU Stanislaus.
Alexandra Beller - Biographical Information
Alexandra Beller, MFA, CMA, is a leading expert in movement analysis, somatics, and embodied pedagogy, specializing in Laban/Bartenieff. She was on the faculty at Princeton University for seven years (2016–2023), developing courses in movement analysis, composition, and performance. She is Core Faculty at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies and artistic director of Alexandra Beller/Dances, focused on choreography, pedagogy, and movement research.
A proponent of trauma-informed, nonviolent pedagogy, Alexandra’s work integrates inclusive, culturally responsive approaches to movement education. She has mentored artists, conductors, and educators internationally, reshaping how movement is understood across disciplines. Her research bridges the gap between technical precision and personal expressivity, ensuring that movement vocabulary is not prescriptive but adaptable to individual identity, cultural context, and artistic voice.
She has been an Adjunct Faculty at Rutgers, Barnard, and Montclair State and a guest lecturer at Yale, Harvard, MIT, The Ailey School, and many more. A former principal dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (1995-2001), she has choreographed for Lincoln Center, A.R.T., and Folger Shakespeare Library. Her book, The Anatomy of Art: Unlocking the Creative Process for Theater and Dance, launches through Bloomsbury in June 2026. She co-authored The Embodied Conductor: A Somatic Approach with Laban and Bartenieff with Dr. David Vickerman, to be published by Oxford University Press in August 2027.
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