Background

I became interested in movement out of necessity as a result of physical problems that I had with myself ever since I was born. I have been working consciously with movement now for over 17 years and these days people don't see that I had such problems before.

My journey back towards recovery began when I was 24 and suffering from terrible back pain. At the time I was working as a journalist in London (1989). I turned to osteopaths for help who encouraged me to swim. This was contrary to medical advice I had received when I was 14 which was: "to lead a sedentary life; not move to much; avoid lifting things; and to never ever lift anything heavy."

Swimming not only made me feel better but rekindled a childhood passion for movement which had always been thwarted by frequent injuries. After a year, I was advised to take up a sport. Not wanting to get into the competitiveness of sport and being interested in the arts, I instead started going to acrobatics, trapeze and trampolining classes at Circus Space in London (1990)

I studied mime and physical theatre, the went on to study circus arts and physical theatre full-time at what is now Circomedia (1991). By the time I arrived there, I had begun to get interested in improvisation as a performance mode. There I soon discovered the Feldenkrais Method, followed by Contact Improvisation, and finally Post-Modern Dance - the areas that I continue to work with.
My interest in Post-Modern Dance and the somatic disciplines associated with it took me to the SNDO (School For New Dance Development) in Amsterdam for two years (1993-95). When I left, I continued to study with many leading teachers in this field. In 1996, I settled in Bristol, UK, where I began to teach. I also continued to travel abroad to study, to take part in performance and research projects, and later increasingly to teach.

I moved to Finland in September 2001 attracted by an exciting and growing contact improvisation community. Besides teaching open workshops in Contact Improvisation, the Feldenkrais Method and something I call BodySchool, I teach regularly in a number of Finnish dance and performing arts educations including: the Theatre Academy of Finland which offers the highest level performing arts educations in Finland; the dance department of the North Karelian Vocational Institute in Outokumpu which offers a well-regarded three-year Post-Modern Dance education; and at ISLO in Joensuu which offers a one-year creative dance leader programme. I also continue to travel abroad to teach.

Living in Finland has also offered opportunities to teach outside of the performing arts. For example at Helsinki University I led the practical component of a year-long Somaesthetics seminar and I also teach somatic approaches to embodiment to various groups of psychotherapists.

I have made many improvised performances. For many years I often made solos that mixed words and movement. In the last three years I have become interested in how dance is interpreted and this has led to a series of solos where I dance to spoken word soundtracks. I also created a duet with Giorgio Convertito called Spacialize.it which has been performed at a number of festival, have collaborated off and on with Pia Lindy for the last 14 years, and have performed in open group improvisations with musicians.

Last year I began a combined MA/PhD programme at the Theatre Academy of Finland.

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• Move to Learn
• Interests
• Somatics
• Post-Modern Dance
• Background
• Movement forms that I teach and teachers who taught them to me
• Movement forms and teachers that influence my work