Alex Svoboda
Alex Svoboda, Ph.D. is a conscious dance teacher, facilitator, and founder of freedomDANCE, a school and method of dance meditation and conscious movement founded in 2009. He is known for developing an accessible yet depth-oriented approach to movement-based meditation that integrates embodiment, emotional awareness, and personal inquiry.
Alex Svoboda lives in London and teaches internationally through classes, workshops, retreats, and teacher training programmes.
Background
Alex Svoboda has lived and worked in Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He studied at multiple universities and colleges and completed a Ph.D.. Prior to focusing fully on conscious movement, he worked as an analyst and manager in major international organisations, including the global management consultancy McKinsey & Company.
Alongside his corporate career, Svoboda worked as a university instructor and as a corporate training facilitator, experience that later informed his structured yet experiential teaching style in conscious dance.
Dance and movement training
Alex Svoboda trained directly with several pioneers of modern conscious dance, including:
- Anna Halprin
- Gabrielle Roth (founder of 5Rhythms)
He has also trained with other prominent teachers in the conscious dance and movement field. His work is influenced by somatic practice, movement improvisation, meditation, and experiential learning.
Svoboda is also listed as an Open Floor teacher and is associated with the wider international conscious movement community.
freedomDANCE
Alex Svoboda is the founder and principal developer of freedomDANCE, a method of dance meditation built around a repeating structure known as the freedomDANCE Cycle:
- Opening
- Transformation
- Freedom
The method emphasises spontaneity, absence of choreography, and movement as a direct pathway to awareness beyond habitual thinking. freedomDANCE is designed to be accessible to people without prior dance or meditation experience, while still supporting deep personal and emotional exploration.
Through the freedomDANCE School, Svoboda trains teachers and supports an international network of practitioners. As of the mid-2020s, the school includes approximately 25 core teachers and trainees and offers programmes in multiple countries as well as online.
Teaching philosophy
Svoboda frequently describes freedomDANCE as an opportunity to experience different dimensions of freedom, including physical, psychological, and relational freedom. In his own words, each class offers:
- “Freedom for the body to take over.
- Freedom for the mind to notice and accept what is happening inside ourselves and around us.
- Freedom to open to something bigger, something that transcends everyday ideas and calculations.
- Freedom to be yourself and share yourself with others.”
His teaching style is characterised by guided improvisation, carefully structured movement journeys, use of music and soundscapes, and an emphasis on presence rather than performance.
Teacher training and professional affiliations
Alex Svoboda has led freedomDANCE teacher training programmes since 2014. These programmes are fully accredited by the International Conscious Movement Teachers Association (ICMTA). He is an individual member of ICMTA, and freedomDANCE teachers and trainees adhere to the ICMTA Code of Ethics.
Reception
Participants frequently describe Svoboda’s teaching as grounded, present, and transformative. Publicly shared feedback highlights his clarity of guidance, musicality, emotional sensitivity, and ability to support both individual and collective processes.
Selected participant statements include:
- “You have real, soft, palpable presence… When you speak, I listen. It’s always worth it.”
- “I felt stretched in a really beautiful way — dancing outside my usual patterns.”
- “Your workshop was a marathon of the heart and soul.”
- “I left feeling more fully human.”
