MSMS Presents: Irene Dowd

PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) Sequences for the Entire Body

Course Description

This workshop, taught by Irene Dowd in collaboration with Stephen Williams, 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 coach ways in which the patterns can be adapted to physical limitations such as poor balance, very limited pain-free range of motion, joint hypermobility, muscle weakness, and other challenges – as requested by the class participants. Irene will emphasize maximizing both concentric and eccentric contractions to enhance control, and building strength by increasing resistance using gravity, self-resistance, and weights. At the end of the workshop, participants will have a whole-body workout that can be practiced solo on a regular basis.

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) patterns are full-body, goal-orientated, purposeful movements/actions initiated by distal points of the body along spiral and diagonal motion pathways. These movements are designed to enhance integrated response of muscular systems by exerting muscles from most elongated to shortest length, then immediately releasing and lengthening those same muscles. Force, phrasing, timing, etc. can all be specified according to movement requirements and resistance is modulated to accommodate the physical condition and health of the mover. 


Irene Dowd retired in 2023 from the Juilliard School after 28 years teaching there in the program in dance. She continues to guest teach the Juilliard opera students in a performance coaching course with Stephen Wadsworth. This past year, she organized and donated all her teaching archive to the Juilliard Library and Archive. She currently teaches at Movement Research, and independently in conjunction with Stephen Williams, and maintains her own private practice in one-to-one neuromuscular retraining and movement coaching begun in 1968.

Irene has been a guest teacher in academic and dance institutions throughout the US, Canada, and Europe and has received many awards for her work. She has created a website, free to all: irenedowdchoreographies.com It includes a pdf of her book Taking Root to Fly, and many videos of her teaching choreographies, created to address various dance training needs and issues. She plans to continue adding materials to this in the future, as well as adding to her archive housed at the New York Public Library Dance Collection at Lincoln Center as well as the archive at the Juilliard School Library.