Dallas Wright describes the work as cultivating bodily understanding, together — and the together is the part he means. He runs Body Alignment Maintenance, which he shortens to B.A.M.!, out of two places: a satellite studio on Stanton Avenue near Lawrenceville, and a farm studio in Allison Park near Hartwood Acres.
The farm studio has 109 Google reviews at a 5.0 average. The Stanton Heights one has 16. That’s a lot of people driving out past Hartwood for a massage.
The technique
He calls it the B.A.M.! technique, and it’s a blend rather than a single school: Swedish, trigger point, myofascial, craniosacral, manual lymphatic drainage and sports massage, aimed at getting you to your strongest functional range at your maximum flexibility.
He trained at the Pittsburgh School of Massage Therapy, where he also studied Shiatsu and Thai. Before that he spent seven years as a private caregiver, which he credits with teaching him to read a body’s long-term needs rather than only today’s complaint.
How he works with you
The first session is an assessment against your goals, and each one after builds on it as things shift. He’ll help you read your own body’s signals and set up self-care you can keep doing between visits — the aim being to broaden your sense of what you’re capable of, not to make you dependent on the table.
Office workers and serious athletes both turn up here, and he tailors to activity level rather than sorting people into types.
The two studios
Stanton Avenue is 4721, with free street parking, preferably near the red door. There are stairs; a chair lift is in the works. The farm studio is at 436 Church Lane in Fox Chapel with free driveway parking, also with stairs, and he offers travel massage where that’s easier.