A black-and-white photo with text overlay reading 'The Aligned Dancer' in bold red and pink outlined letters, with a decorative sunburst above the text.

THIS IS NOT JUST A WORKSHOP

This is not just a workshop—it is a seed planted at a pivotal moment in a young dancer’s life. It is a remembering of why they dance. A return to the place within them that does not measure worth by achievement, but by authenticity. These practices will serve them far beyond the studio, helping them dance not just beautifully, but truthfully, and sustainably, for years to come.

“The Aligned Dancer” is a grounding, soulful workshop designed to support young dancers as they prepare to enter the high-pressure, competitive world of professional dance. While dance education typically focuses on refining external technique and performance, this workshop shifts the focus inward, offering tools that strengthen emotional resilience, embodied self-connection, and inner alignment.

Students will leave with a personal toolkit of grounding, breath, embodiment and reflection practices that they can return to throughout their careers, helping them stay connected to their passion, navigate rejection with resilience, and maintain their mental and emotional wellbeing within a challenging industry.

The Aligned Dancer is a heart-centred workshop created and led by Claire Karitzis, designed to support dancers at every stage of their journey, whether stepping into the professional world or deepening their existing practice.

Rooted in Claire’s rich experience as a professional dancer, from modelling at age four and performing with The Royal Ballet as a child, to touring the world for nearly 15 years with Kylie Minogue. This offering bridges the physical, emotional, and spiritual demands of dance. It is a sacred container for dancers to reconnect with the soul of their art beyond technique and competition.

The workshop blends guided breathwork, somatic exploration, reflective inquiry, and practical tools to cultivate resilience, grounding, and authenticity. It invites dancers to remember who they are beneath the performance and to nurture a sustainable, soul-led career that honors their truth.

Offered in formats ranging from 2-hour masterclasses to full-day immersions and wellbeing curricula, The Aligned Dancer has been embraced by schools, colleges, and professional companies alike.

Claire’s mission is to hold space for dancers to return to their core - to dance from soul, not survival.

For dancers aged 16+
At this stage, dancers are stepping into pre-professional or professional spaces where the stakes feel higher, and the pressure to prove themselves is constant. This is often the age where:

  • Comparison becomes chronic, measuring themselves against peers, social media, and casting decisions.

  • Rejection stings more deeply, as dreams feel closer yet more fragile.

  • Identity becomes entangled with performance, when they’re not dancing well, they may not feel worthy.

  • Injury, burnout, or mental health struggles begin to emerge, with an unspoken expectation to push through.

Without practices of self-connection, grounding, and emotional regulation, these dancers risk:

  • Becoming burnt-out bodies in motion.

  • Dancing without joy or passion.

  • Leaving the profession altogether.

With the right tools, they can:

  • Anchor deeply within themselves.

  • Remember they are more than a body, more than a role, more than applause.

  • Dance from a place of truth, not survival.

This is a sacred invitation to cultivate soul integrity, that deep inner alignment that allows a dancer to keep returning to why they started in the first place.

This workshop creates space for:

  • Embodiment over exhaustion

  • Self-trust over self-comparison

  • Creativity over conformity

  • Sustainability over sacrifice

Because grounded dancers are resilient dancers. A connected dancer is a magnetic performer. And those who can meet their inner world with compassion are the ones who not only survive but thrive in the industry long-term.

This isn’t just about surviving the industry. It’s about changing it.

By nurturing dancers to hold boundaries, know their worth, and trust their inner compass, Claire is helping reshape what it means to be an artist in today’s world. When dancers are deeply connected to their truth, they create work that transcends technique. They inspire. They lead. They shift the culture.

And perhaps most importantly — they stay well.

Inspirational quote on a pink background with a minimal sun illustration at the top, reading: "Together, we return to the origin of why we dance—planting roots deep enough to weather the industry's storms, and resilient enough to stay aligned with the love that called us here in the first place."