AUSTRALIAN CONTACT FESTIVAL 2026
TEACHERS AND FACILITATORS
BIOS AND CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
TEACHERS AND FACILITATORS
Martin Hughes
Melbourne
Anat G. Yariv
Mullumbimby
Joey Lehrer
Melbourne
Lee-anne and Alejandro
Sydney
Catriona Davies
Bellingen
Jacob Lehrer
Perth
Angi Bowles
Sydney
Tom Hope
Melbourne
Lena Grayson
Denmark, WA
Rowan Worth
Perth
Joanna and Jonathan Lin
Newcastle
Kimberley Mcintyre
Mullumbimby
Clare Luiten
New Zealand
Noa Rotem
Mullumbimby
Eamonn McHarty
Sydney
Jim Mant
Mullumbimby
Hamzah Mas
Bellingen
ABOUT
Martin Hughes
Martin Hughes started learning CI in New York in the late 1980s where he was taught by some of the founders and the early “second generation” of CI practitioners. On returning to Australia in the early 90's he helped found the teaching and performing group State of Flux who started the Melbourne Jam and ran the first residential CI jams in Australia.
He has been lucky enough to teach CI all over Australia and elsewhere and in many different contexts. For more than 30 years Martin has found CI intriguing, exciting and fun! He enjoys nothing more than sharing that fun and excitement, and digging into the interest with others.
CLASS TITLE
What ARE we doing?
SUITABILITY:
Experienced
LENGTH: 3 hrs class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
Steve Paxton classically described CI as a dance "based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia". This is a perfectly wonderful description but it's a bit like describing a cheesecake (the no-bake kind of course) as cream cheese, sugar, cream, biscuit crumbs and butter. These are the ingredients, but not the cake and certainly not the experience of eating it.
CI, at its best, is so much more than the sum of it's ingredients.
We spend so much time on the HOW (as we should). We also have the WHERE and WHEN and WHO e.g. Monday nights 6-8pm in Melbourne with as many bodies we can get there. But WHAT are we doing with those 2 hours? What are WE doing? What are we DOING?
In this workshop we'll bring all our CI ingredients and tease out the what of it. We'll explore how to articulate it. How to find it and nurture it.
ABOUT
Anat Greenberg
A contemporary dancer, teacher, and Dance Movement Therapist, Anat first discovered Contact Improvisation over 20 years ago. Since then, it has remained a deep source of research, practice, inspiration, and personal growth.
Over the years, she has been dancing, teaching, learning, performing, and organizing within the CI community across Israel, Europe, and Australia. Her approach to movement is rooted in exploration as a practice of presence — a meeting of body, heart, and mind within both a kinetic and holistic awareness.
Her background began in gymnastics and evolved into contemporary dance, with a strong focus on improvisation and Contact Improvisation. Alongside this, she has trained and practiced in yoga, capoeira, Pilates, Gaga, Authentic Movement, and the Ilan Lev Method.
Anat brings a deep curiosity for anatomy and detail, while also embracing the freedom and poetic nature of movement. She is drawn to the unspoken dialogue between people, nature, and the collective field where movement becomes a shared language and a living, breathing experience.
CLASS TITLE
Web of Connection
SUITABILITY:
All Levels
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
A movement-based exploration of fascia as the body’s connective web linking muscles, organs, and systems into one continuous, responsive whole. Through touch, movement, and awareness practices, we’ll explore how this inner network supports fluidity, sensitivity, and coordination.
At the same time, we expand this understanding into the group space, sensing how we connect, communicate, and move together as a shared field. This class invites both anatomical curiosity and embodied experience, bridging inner connection with collective awareness.
ABOUT
Joey Lehrer
Joey Lehrer has been dancing as far back as he can remember. He is an improvisational performance artist and teacher. With over 2.5 decades worth of Contact Improvisation experience, he is a respected teacher, writer and performer of the form - having taught and performed extensively across Australia, as well as in New Zealand, Malaysia, Germany and the United States. He is one half of the artist duo Two For Now, with Emily Bowman - an artist duo who research, teach and perform Contact Improvisation. He enjoys creating a sense of playful focus, a space for exploration and fun, where improvisation does not get lost in concepts or skill.
CLASS TITLE
Irreverent Intentions
SUITABILITY:
All Levels
LENGTH: 3 hrs class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
This class will work with an approach of irreverent intentions. This is the generative tension between a commitment to detail, alongside a willingness to disrupt it. Intentionality brings the rigour, the precision, the loyalty to the moment. Irreverence brings the openness, the weird and giving less f**ks in the dance. How to stay with what is happening, and also to let it skew, slip, undo?
At times attending to a micro-scale, at times moving in a macro-scale; I will offer scores and situations where dancing becomes a site for experimentation.
ABOUT
Lee-Anne and Alejandro
Lee-Anne and Alejandro combine their multidisciplinary training in gymnastics, circus, physical performance and harnessed aerial-dance with over 20 years of collaborative research in the core principles of Contact Improvisation.
Impulsed by the rigour of their professional careers in the performing arts, often dancing on walls or leaping from platforms metres above ground, the duo’s Contact Improvisation practice has always permeated their every style, influencing their research into unique methodologies for training safely within the disorienting mechanics of their dance.
All of these, mixed with their deep interest in science, conjures a teaching style that combines theory and practice, modulating otherwise obscure concepts of physical phenomena into the realm of sensations and poetry.
CLASS TITLE
Cancelling Gravity
SUITABILITY:
All Levels (Curiosity in Inversions recommended)
LENGTH: 3 hr class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
Lee-Anne and Alejandro will lead us through a journey of practical and conceptual investigations.
What are the core principles of Contact Improvisation?
What gives form to this form?
What is that we are really doing when we separate from the floor?
Is CI a way of paying attention?
From the simple perception of weight, to the sophistication of cancelling gravity at will, we will embark on a journey of practical techniques, conceptual discoveries and deep somatic explorations..
Lee-Anne and Alejandro deliver this material together, deconstructing their own dance, to expose the gems discovered through decades of sustained practice, attempting to embody the dance qualities of those who first developed and still carry the heart of this fascinating form.
To get the most of this session, a level of physical condition and curiosity towards inversions (upside-down movement) is recommended.
ABOUT
Catriona Davis
Passionate about fostering attentive and caring CI environments, Catriona first got hooked on CI in 2006. Dancing, teaching, learning and collaborating with inspiring teachers and dancers ever since.
In 2015 Catriona co-established the Bellingen Contact Improv community.
Catriona is also a singer, performing artist, homeschooling mama and homesteader. Contact Improvisation is the one steady, dependably enriching long-life practice that quickly gets her into a state of embodied play and creativity, a truly necessary life skill and resource in these times!
CLASS TITLE
Is this ok??
SUITABILITY:
Beginners, All Levels
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
To know one's own consensual bandwidth ("yes"...."maybe"... "no!") AND to read that of our partner, is an important skill In CI. When we feel "ok" we have the capacity to enter into ever-deepening landscapes of dynamic weight-play. When we don't feel "ok" or know if our partner is "ok", the territory becomes murky.. At best we get confused, disconnected or irritated, at worst we feel used or get injured.
So.....in this class we will dance the question "Is this is ok?".
Starting low and slow. we will play a dynamic yet subtle game of under- and over-dancer in a single committed duet. By feeding our attention with cues for deeper listening, we will tune into the nuances of danced consent.
HINT: it's all about weight.
ABOUT
Jacob Lehrer
Jacob Lehrer is a movement artist, performer, and teacher whose practice is grounded in dance, contact improvisation, physical theatre, and collaborative performance making. Basically he spent a life mucking around. His teaching explores listening through touch, weight, momentum, and shared risk, inviting dancers into a space of curiosity, play, and embodied awareness.With a long-standing commitment to ensemble and improvisation-based processes, Jacob creates classes that support both technical exploration and creative freedom. His work is informed by a love of spontaneity, poetic movement, and human connection, fostering environments where dancers can discover new pathways of expression, trust, and responsiveness in relation to themselves and others. He looks forward to getting on the dance floor at this festival.
CLASS TITLE
Falling Structures -1
SUITABILITY:
Beginners
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
In this beginner-friendly class we will explore body structure in movement through mass, weight, and shifting centre. Using experiential anatomy and simple principles of falling, we begin with the most basic fall: taking a step, falling, and catching. Starting gently, we will ease our way in and out of the floor, discovering how the body organises itself to yield and recover. Working first with the floor as a supportive surface, we will then move into contact with another body, introducing the fundamental CI principle of the rolling point of contact and exploring how structures fall into each other and the ground.
CLASS TITLE
Falling Structures -2
SUITABILITY:
Advanced
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
This advanced class explores body structure in motion through weight, momentum, and shifting mass. Drawing on experiential anatomy and principles of falling, we will investigate how falling becomes a pathway into lifts, flights, and dynamic partnering. Together we will explore structured falling into another surface and into another body, using timing, alignment, and responsiveness to support our partner's dance. Previous experience in Contact Improvisation and solo dance practice is recommended. This class will also include moments of witnessing and being witnessed as part of the creative and performative inquiry.
ABOUT
Angi Bowles
Angi Bowles is a Sydney-based Contact Improvisation facilitator, bodyworker, and aspiring dancer-researcher. She has been part of the CI community for over eight years, including four years of teaching, and is interested in how the foundations of the form are experienced, shared, and sustained over time.
Her current interests explore touch as a relational entry point - as trigger, information, and sensing and how this can shape timing, responsiveness, and relating in improvisation. She is particularly drawn to the shifting relational states that emerge between dancers, from clear, responsive exchanges to moments of moving as one larger form.
Angela’s approach is informed by a background in dance, martial arts, and more recently bodywork, where she continues to refine her sensitivity to the ways touch can listen, communicate, and reorganise experience.
Alongside her creative practice, she works as a Project Administrator at the Brain and Mind Centre, and is interested in how embodied practices can be sustained within everyday life, supporting a steady, long-term creative practice.
CLASS TITLE
Relational States - An Exploratory Lab
SUITABILITY:
All Levels
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
In this session, we will work with touch as a point of entry into Contact Improvisation. We’ll explore touch as a trigger for action, as information to respond to, and as a way of sensing the environment, and notice how this shapes timing, responsiveness, and relating as we move with others.
Working between solo and shared practice, we’ll stay close to how attention, contact, and listening influence the unfolding of the dance. There will be space to notice different relational states as they emerge, from clear, responsive exchanges to moments of moving as one larger form.
The class is informed by my ongoing interest in relational states in improvisation, with a focus on direct, felt experience. Simple structures and invitations will be offered, with space to engage at your own pace and stay close to what is perceptible and present.
ABOUT
Tom Hope
Tom Hope has 20 years Contact Improv experience. He has also trained in Free Form Martial Arts and Jui Jitsu, and facilitates Playfighting workshops. As a Buddhist, he is interested in how contemplative practises can support and enrich CI and vice versa.
Tom enjoys the edginess and vulnerability of contact improv, which allows for authentic human connection and realness in showing up for the other and oneself, in a way that potentially leaves us transformed by the encounter. His CI teaching style is fun, engaging, and interactive. When he is not coming into civilisation for dance, he can be found living off-grid in the mountains.
CLASS TITLE
Playfighting Meets CI
SUITABILITY:
Intermediate- Advanced
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
In playfighting meets CI we explore the edges of contact improv where it becomes rough and ready play. We will discover ways to navigate and activate your primal playfightfighting instinct. We will enter into wildly fun and feisty territory, before returning you back again into the trust and flow CI's gentle fold.
ABOUT
Lena Grayson
Weathered by Ocean and Wind, Invigorated by culture jumping, Shaped by Mothering, Sustained by music and dancing, Building Permaculture and community in rainy Denmark, WA.
I studied Dance and Choreography at Chichester Uni, UK. My love affair with Contact Improvisation began in 1998; 3 years of daily CI class. My long-lived body of knowledge is refreshed by regular CI, Ecstatic Dance, Circus, Clowning, Acro and Flow Arts practice. Absolutely love working on choreographic projects and also re-creating retro choreography, Kate Bush being my favourite!
My first-hand study of human development over 20 years of mothering, primary teaching and dance work, focussed on holistic growth, gives me perspective, compassion and humour when it comes to being human.
I recently qualified in Gymnastics coaching, to learn about the physics and anatomy of human movement potential.
I am a dot-connector; also love sci-fi and keeping bees.
CLASS TITLE
Head-Tail-Hands-Feet connection
SUITABILITY:
All Levels
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
Exploring the Head-Tail axis for support and articulation.
Bartenieff fundamentals floor work, spirals through the body,
Gentle touch, exploring and observing human articulation
Monkey stance, centre of gravity and pivoting, weight play, tone experiments
Offering pathways to explore and integrate
ABOUT
Rowan Worth
Drawing on a rich history of movement grounded in parkour, gymnastics, and tree-climbing, Rowan has found a deep love for the unique expression that is available through dance and contact improvisation. In particular he values the nuanced non-verbal communication that CI explores, which forms a landscape full of satisfying, precious moments.
CLASS TITLE
Coupled Centres
SUITABILITY:
All Levels
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
How do we find connection to another's centre?
And how do we maintain it as we navigate dynamic shifts in momentum and orientation?
This session seeks to blur the boundaries between bodies, to dissolve the notions of "my movement" or "their movement" and get curious about what roles need to be filled in each moment to facilitate "our movement." We will build foundations of kinesthetic awareness and intentional weight sharing to explore how to "stick" to a partner while allowing them freedom of movement, and when it makes sense to shift between supporting and steering roles.
ABOUT
Joanna and Jonathan Lin
Jonathan and Joanna Lin are a father daughter team who have been collectively dancing and sharing CI for over 30 years. Mutually supportive and inspired by each other’s dance practice, in recent years they have collaborated more closely (with Joerg Hassmann and a heartful team) to share their passions for earth-based connection, CI, dance improvisation, and community, through the Woven and Understory retreats.
They are excited to share inspiration and fruits from the these retreats and their ongoing research at this Australian Contact Improv Festival.
CLASS TITLE
Layering - An Immersive Outdoor Workshop
SUITABILITY:
All Levels - Limit of 30 participants
LENGTH: 3 hrs class
This 3hour outdoor session invites participants to deepen connection and presence through being with the land and each other.
Joanna and Jonathan will offer somatic earth-based practices, inviting participants to open senses, slow down, expand their edges and welcome the unknown.
It is not about dancing CI outdoors, however the practices can heighten presence and awareness that supports our CI practice and dances.
ABOUT
Kimberley Mcintyre
Kimberley was introduced to CI in 1995 at a performance in Sydney. Years of classes & workshops & overseas trainings filled her cup. She taught her first series of classes in 1999. CI has featured throughout her dance career, sometimes taking a hiatus, sometimes organising huge festivals. Kimberley’s practice is grounded in Curious Body a weekly Improvisation class she has taught for over ten years, peer practice & performance making.
CLASS TITLE
Subtle CI - Exploration In and Out of Contact
SUITABILITY:
All Levels
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
CLASS DESCRIPTION
This class is for dancers curious about exploring light touch as a vehicle for improvisation & contact that is creative and geared towards enhancing listening & waiting, as much as responding & initiating We will explore solo movement, teetering weight exchanges, playful mood swings. We will dance and witness.
This class could be a good option if you would like to lighten your load & expand into nuance of telescoping in & out.
Language from the Underscore will be used a lot in this session.
ABOUT
Claire Luiten
I don't really remember a time when I wasn't dancing. I most likely started in my mother's womb. I danced with nature in the hills and paddocks of the far north in NZ with my dog, then in training schools in NZ and Europe. I performed on many stages, collapsed and celebrated in many rehearsals spaces, and then returned to Aotearoa. For years now, I've been rebuilding and reexploring my original love of my body moving through space, with others, notably a dance partner of ten years Rachel Ruchstuhl-Mann. I also found a place in the landscapes and energies of Craniosacral Therapy. The journey of the body and soul continues...
CLASS TITLE
Domestic Listening
SUITABILITY:
All Levels
LENGTH: 1.5 hr class
Working with principles and scores, dreaming and breathing. Somewhere delicately balanced between technique and imagination. Dropping into presence, spaciousness, what emerges, what can be harvested. What can be replanted, transformed, what emerges from the collective intelligence of our knowing, moving bodies.
This is a sharing of a distillation of years of work exploring these ideas.
Pens and Card required.
ABOUT
Noa Rotem
Noa Rotem is a theatre and dance artist, facilitator, and Somatic Movement Educator (Body-Mind Centering®) based on Bundjalung Country in Northern NSW. She has worked extensively across Australia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East as a performer, director and teacher, facilitating processes with professional artists, students and communities.
Her practice is grounded in a long-standing enquiry into the relationship between embodiment and performance, and is shaped by contact improvisation and Body-Mind Centering® alongside a range of movement and performance disciplines. She is interested in how bodies meet, negotiate and move together, and in the conditions that support clarity, attentiveness and relational awareness within that exchange.
Noa is particularly interested in how improvisational practice cultivates deep listening- supporting both individual articulation and a shared field of awareness. Her work invites a wide spectrum of experience: from subtle attunement to dynamic exchange; from the pedestrian to the poetic. She is also interested in how attention moves- between self and other, structure and spontaneity, yielding and initiating- within a responsive collective. Alongside her independent practice, she has taught widely at international companies, tertiary institutions and long-term training programs, and continues to facilitate workshops across Australia and abroad.
TITLE
Reflection circle Facilitator
SUITABILITY:
Everyone
LENGTH: 30 minute check in Every Morning on Saturday, Sunday and Monday
Contact Improvisation is a physical practice where all bodies in the space create a dynamic playground for movement, exploration, and learning.
During the festival, Noa will facilitate short morning reflection sessions designed to help the group integrate the previous day’s experiences — new information, new people, new sensations, and new discoveries in the dance.
The purpose of these sessions is to:
highlight positive experiences
share insights and things learnt
strengthen group cohesion
support the assimilation of the practice
offer a light, structured space for participants to check in with themselves and the group
Noa will guide the group in a way that keeps the focus on learning, curiosity, and constructive reflection, helping everyone arrive in the day with clarity and connection.
ABOUT
Eamonn O'Flaherty
Eamonn sees Contact Improv as a pinnacle activity; something which brings all of your self into its practice, and all of your life and learning can be brought to bear upon its path- and in turn it can impact your entire life. It is life changing, powerful, important and deeply human.
Eamonn has been dancing since 2010 and teaching since 2012. Ever since beginning his practice of the form he has passionately spread its uptake in Sydney and beyond. In the last two years he has led a performance troupe- ‘Body Choir’ – at Woodford Folk Festival, seeing it as an excellent
opportunity to delight in and share the form.
He will be facilitating the Lab at the Australian Contact Festival, drawing on his interest in improved Democratic process and the motto ‘teach what you know’.
TITLE
Lab Coordinator
SUITABILITY:
Everyone
Eamonn throughout the festival will be coordinating CI Lab Queries and Teachers involvement in those enquiries.
There will be a community white board in which everyone can write questions and curiosities for Movement Research. Eamonn will be managing and grouping people and queries such there would be concrete questions to work that by lab time we have some concrete questions to work with.'
ABOUT
Jim Mant
Jim has danced and taught CI and Feldenkrais movement awareness classes for about 20 years. He initiated the Mullumbimby CI class & jam and has helped manage that community over the past 14 years.
CLASS TITLE
Performance Jam Coordinator
SUITABILITY:
Everyone
Jim will be coordinating the Performance Jam night in collaboration with Hamzah. The Performance Jam will be held by a collective of teachers and facilitators interested in the space where Performance meets CI.
The Performance Jam will offer a mix of "open scores" and "pre-set scores".
There will be a white board set up throughout the festival where the various "pre-set scores" are proposed and dancers may opt to participate in these scores.
ABOUT
Hamzah Mas
Hamzah is a multidisciplinary artist and performer. He has been dancing Contact Improvisation for 8 years with experience as a teacher and space holder in Newcastle and Bellingen for 5 years.
He is interested in the integration and cross-pollination of concepts across various disciplines from music, dance and physical theatre. He began his journey in the arts as a musician in Singapore and has since diversified his work in the arts as dancer, director and composer in a broad history of works. At the heart of his works are the sharing of stories that touch souls and stir the imagination. He enjoys weaving community together to create inclusive spaces for collective expression and effervescence in the arts.
Separate yet informing of his work in the arts, he is an avid clinician who advocates for mental health and holistic wellbeing.
TITLE
Live Music Jam Coordinator
SUITABILITY:
Everyone
Hamzah will be coordinating the Live Music Jam. He seeks to weave in various Music x CI practitioners in collaboration to hold an inspiring musical soundscape. One that balances silence and sound. That calls upon the invisible dance that happens in between music and the listener.
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