Contact Improvisation- Deepening the practice
About
DEEPENING THE PRACTICE – Contact Improvisation with Justin HollandIn this series, we focus on three core elements: practice, prayer, and play.
PRACTICE- as refining skills, deepening technique, and developing clarity in how we meet the form.
PRAYER- as surrendering to the present moment—listening deeply to the rolling point of contact and entering a state of flow where effort softens, perception widens, and the dance unfolds through us rather than from us.
PLAY- as openness, curiosity, and risk—the willingness to not know, to follow impulse, and to surprise and be surprised.
This is a space for dancers with CI experience to work as a lab for practice and inquiry. Together we will explore questions that arise in our dancing, share discoveries from our own learning edges, and support one another in deepening our understanding of the form.
Each session begins with guided exercises and focused explorations before opening into a spacious jam—a place to explore the material, enter the flow of the dance, and follow what emerges in the moment. Part of the jam will be accompanied by live piano, offering another layer of listening, responsiveness, and play within the dance.
About the Facilitator – Justin Holland
I am a dancer, musician, and teacher with over 30 years of experience in the performing arts. I have studied with Nancy Stark Smith, Martin Keogh, Helen Clarke-Lapin, Rinske Ginsberg, and Martin Hughes. I am a founding member of Bird On A Wire Dance Theatre, a Contact Improvisation performance ensemble, and have performed extensively throughout Australia and internationally.
After more than 30 years of dancing Contact Improvisation, the form continues to keep me curious. There is always more to learn—new bodies to dance with, new sensations to track, and a deeper listening at the point of contact. An ongoing question in my practice is how we care for ourselves and our partners in ways that allow both the form and our bodies to be sustained over decades.
My teaching is grounded in practice, prayer, and play. Together we refine technique, cultivate presence, and explore the unknown through movement and contact. I aim to create a space where dancers can deepen their relationship to the form, trust their experience, and continue discovering what is possible.
I am a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), a qualified yoga teacher, and work across dance, improvisation, and music. In recent years, I have devoted much of my practice to the TaKeTiNa Rhythm Process, teaching workshops throughout Australia and Asia and undertaking senior training with founder Reinhard Flatischler. I currently work as Musical Director and Choreographer with Somebody’s Daughter Theatre Company, a Melbourne-based community arts organisation working with women in prison and marginalised young people.
Dates
Thursday 9 July 2026 - Thursday 27 August 2026 (UTC+10)Location
community church of St Mark
100 Hodgkinson St , Clifton Hill VIC 3068
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Contact Improvisation- Deepening the practice
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