Led by the New York Times dance critic Roslyn Sulcas, this week-long workshop will explore the components of writing a dance review, develop tools to approach a range of different dance forms and look at the importance and impact of cultural context when writing about any art form. Participants will be asked to review Dance …

Witness a celebration of urban dance culture, and a battle on the streets of Melbourne! Dance Massive’s flagship free outdoor event BATTLE MASSIVE will create an engaging environment to showcase the diverse street dance communities that give our city vibrancy all year round. BATTLE MASSIVE has partnered with local dance communities including Brothers in Arms, …

Do you remember your first dance? From baby steps and blue-light discos to bridal waltzes and professional debuts, First Dance takes you back to that exhilarating, nerve-wracking or fun moment that you may not even recall. Do you move like a panther? Or more like a projectile? Or would you say your style is more like …

Book to see a show, then enjoy an after-drink and an informal but facilitated conversation with the critics from WITNESS performances. WITNESS SALONS are all about what you think: it’s a chance to talk through your responses and articulate your ideas in a relaxed conversation. WITNESS is one of Australia’s most exciting new critical initiatives, opening up conversations …

For millennia, in many cultures, scribes have held sacred administrative roles – offering written transactions and brokering exchanges between parties. Led by Leisa Shelton, Scribe is a public participatory work bridging the experience of audiences, the intentions of artists and the extraordinary meetings that occur between the two through performance. Throughout Dance Massive, audiences are invited to have their …

Choreographer James Batchelor’s workshop will explore some of the processes behind his latest creations. Since his involvement as a voyage artist on an expedition to sub-Antarctic Heard and McDonald Islands in 2016, James has been questioning how the body participates in spatial inquiry; how it senses, measures and maps the unknown. Together with his collaborators …

Marrugeku’s co-artistic directors, choreographer/dancer Dalisa Pigram and director/dramaturg Rachael Swain will introduce their devising approaches drawing on personal and cultural backgrounds to create contemporary movement. They will experiment with techniques to layer and structure movement, ideas, characters and cultural influences. The workshop will draw from the processes Marrugeku used to create Le Dernier Appel / …

In this workshop Kristina will share methods and processes in making work that deals with environmental change. Addressing how to translate an idea to an embodied state, Kristina asks, how can we work beyond the limitations of our human form to achieve transformation in performance? Based on her work A Faint Existence, she will lead the …

Lucy Guerin’s workshop will be based on ideas and methodologies that have been employed in current works. Recent interests include purely choreographic and rhythmic dance phrases and improvised material based on narrative, drama and conflict. One is purely physical and experiential, where the other brings different qualities into the body through imagination, emotional states and …

I am aware of myself, my connection to mother earth, the space around me and all energies in the room, physical and spiritual. How do you connect with a lineage that stems thousands of years into the past whilst simultaneously branches far into the future? Thomas E.S. Kelly will provide the tools to develop an …

LECTURE PERFORMANCE In her solo lecture-performance, Rosalind Crisp asks how dance might embody, understand and connect to the unfolding extinction crisis in East Gippsland. A response to Crisp’s profound sense of loss and responsibility for the devastation of the country that has allowed her to share in the spoils of colonialism, DIRtywork has arisen from years …

PROCESS SHARING & CRITICAL DIALOGUE Sandra Parker uses this somewhat unconventional platform for intimate sharing and critical dialogue to dig deeply into the interrogations raised by the process, theme and production of her work-in-progress Adherence. Drawing on themes of power and authority, this new work examines the potential for change through human persistence, endurance, will and …

Expanding on Dancehouse 2018 artist-in-residence Rhiannon Newton’s We Make Each Other Up, Dance Massive artists are invited to contribute excerpts from texts that have influenced their practice and thinking. Each text is accompanied by a score and short note from the artist, shared in a one-to-one reading. Mapping webs of thought and care threaded through …

WE MOVE YOU gives audiences new ways of appreciating choreography by first experiencing it corporeally. Upon arrival, audiences will be guided into experiencing the dance of the artist with their own body before watching the performance. This invitation embodies the idea that dance is the most participatory art form, best understood through dancing. *Tickets for …

WHAT NOW is a series of timely and incisive facilitated conversations aimed at contextualising the deep and subtle connections that the choreographed body fosters – in its multiplicity of forms and meanings with the social, ethical and political. *This is a free event but please book here to secure your place Mon 18 March: What’s your discourse? …

After wowing audiences and critics alike with the sell-out performance of OVERTURE in August 2018, Lloyd returns to Arts House bringing this dance show to life onscreen. Join her as she introduces these special screenings. When dance artist Jo Lloyd was young, she would pretend to interview famous people she’d like to meet. OVERTURE is …

WE MOVE YOU gives audiences new ways of appreciating choreography by first experiencing it corporeally. Upon arrival, audiences will be guided into experiencing the dance of the artist with their own body before watching the performance. This invitation embodies the idea that dance is the most participatory art form, best understood through dancing. *Tickets for …

WE MOVE YOU gives audiences new ways of appreciating choreography by first experiencing it corporeally. Upon arrival, audiences will be guided into experiencing the dance of the artist with their own body before watching the performance. This invitation embodies the idea that dance is the most participatory art form, best understood through dancing. *Tickets for …

Created by Running Man (Nathan Smith and Max Pollard) and inspired by the Japanese literary classic Botchan and the Matsuyama locale, The Botchan Retreat is a darkly comedic dance film about the detrimental effects of corporate culture on vibrancy, freedom and happiness. Presented by Dancehouse and Japan Contemporary Dance Network as part of Dance Massive 2019 …

Cinematic Experiments is a playful interactive multi-media installation in which early cinema techniques and digital dance are layered and animated. Starting with a library of analogue and digital source material, media artists Margie Medlin, Rhian Hinkley, Olaf Meyer and James Wilkinson will devise a series of experiments that combine motion graphics with digital dance choreography by …

A solo for 401. SIMULCAST is a study in simplicity. Young, old, trained and untrained dancers will work together to create this murmuration, taking place in Melbourne at Birrarung Marr. Created and produced by Chunky Move in association with Tasdance and Yellow Wheel, SIMULCAST is a solo for celebrated Australian dancer James O’Hara, supported by …