Alicia Head began her Pilates journey in San Francisco with Elizabeth Larkam and Nora St. John at the Pilates studio contained within St. Francis Memorial Hospital’s Sports Medicine division. Alicia was fascinated by the Pilates Method and discovered it to be immediately applicable to her dance technique, establishing connection and control and removing the tension that unsupported movement patterns show.
In 1994, Alicia began studying with Marie-José Blom at Long Beach Dance Conditioning, receiving her comprehensive Pilates certification two years later. Continuing education in these early teaching years included workshops led by Alan Herdman and Jean-Claude West as well as Marika Molnar, Eric Franklin, and Tom Myers. Alicia began specializing in working with ballet dancers, applying Marie-José’s depth-oriented approach to generations of ballet students at the Lauridsen Ballet Centre in Torrance, CA, where she taught for 17 years. Students of Alicia’s (including Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre) are dancing professionally at such companies as Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet. In 2010, Alicia became a Master Teacher for Balanced Body.
From 2012-2016, Alicia was the principal teacher for the LBDC Teacher Training course under the direction of Kendel Pink and from 2013-2021, Alicia became the owner/director of Up Studio (formerly Long Beach Dance Conditioning). Alicia is also a Specialized Master Trainer for the GYROKINESIS® Method, and the GYROTONIC® Archway and Jumping Stretching Board. Alicia has been a presenter at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science in 2018 and 2022. Alicia taught at the American Ballet Theatre and LINES summer intensives for eight years and remains on the year-round faculty of the ABT William J. Gillespie School in Costa Mesa, CA. In 2021, Alicia launched The Inner Life of Ballet™, a continuing education program for dance teachers and movement educators.