Welcome to g-moves 

These pages are a space for me to share with you some thoughts, reflections, curiosities, explorations and questions as an invitation for you to contemplate your way of being in the world.   

These pages are also a reflection of my approach and way of being in dance movement psychotherapy practice, supervision and research.       

I hold in mind that this is a publicly accessible website so great consideration of what is shared in a public space is an integral element of the content on these pages.

My intent is to stimulate positive thinking and hopefully some inspiration for us to develop our reflective and creative processes in response to what we learn from and share with one another.

In my personal and professional life I keep alive the possibility for and acceptance of change in our personal identity and social interactions.This is underpinned by my belief that we are continually learning and forming our identity and way of life.

I bring my enthusiasm and passion for sharing my knowledge and skills of dance movement and psychotherapy, of social relationships, and of the choices for daily life.

I bring curiosity about the language we use to co-create a shared sense of our relationships and how we can and do reshape ourselves in the development of our responsive expressive realities with the world around us.

I hope that with my words and images we are able to initiate a spark! 

A spark to renew our beliefs and acts that empower our positive, nurturing and respectful interpersonal relationships.

I will have images, words, and prose to share. I may be able to offer advice and consultation if asked and agreed with specific terms and conditions depending on the context.

ABOUT ME...

I was born in Western Australia in a family of Mum & Dad and five boys. I began dance lessons around the age of six. Why I began dance lessons is a mystery

to me and to my family and friends as we cannot decide how this came about! It is certainly an anomaly, as in 1962 Australia boys did not do dance lessons!

However, a dancing seed was planted and this remains a core element of my way of being in the world.

Dance has always been a joy for me, a place where I was accepted for my dance capabilities and passion to express my self in movement.

Commencing a professional dance career on television at the formative and impressionable age of 15 led me to finding out how I could

be in different contexts and so I developed a curiosity about life and relationships.

My professional dance career began in my teens working on a children’s television variety show in Western Australia.  I was a member of the Perth City Junior Ballet Company and did a season with Perth City Ballet. At sixteen I choreographed and performed as the tap dance soloist in Morton Gould’s Tap Concerto with the ABC Symphony Orchestra at Perth Concert Hall. I then went on to tour Australia and Asia with the Snow White Production of Disney on Parade for eighteen before dancing a short contract with Regmat Productions.

                                         One of the most exciting dance performance experiences of my life was playing Mark Anthony in the 1977 Australian production of A Chorus Line. This

                                         show strengthened my dance capabilities which meant between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two I gained an immense amount of dance experience                                           working with international dancers, directors and choreographers. After 'A Chorus Line' I moved into dance on television and to working in London with                                                 the very talented English choreographer Jeff Richer.

                                         After four years of consistent work with Jeff and other London based choreographers I wondered where my whirlwind of a dance career had taken me! 

                                         I loved the dance and the thrill of exploring what my body could do, however I was becoming less able to tolerate being ‘told’ what to do in the manner in                                               which it was told. Some choreographers were abusive in their use of language and delegation of dance roles, abusive in their demands on individual’s                                                 physicality. Some choreographers, directors and producers were unknowingly and/or explicitly abusive in their attitudes toward women and homosexuals. I                                           found myself in a ‘top-down’ hierarchy where the abuse of power was prevalent. This was really unsettling in such a creative industry and one of the                                                     reasons I turned to choreography and teaching at the age of twenty five.

I was then able to explore my ambitions through working with a much more inclusive approach to teaching and choreography that was not about power or being the most aesthetically pleasing dance object; but more about incorporating individual choice and difference.  My choreographic career  in the commercial sector had its limits due to my experience of the continuing  abusive attitudes of directors and producers who did not appreciate individuality, progressive approaches to dance performance, or respectful attitudes to dancers and choreographers.

Eventually, I turned to fulltime dance education where I could develop and implement a more holistic approach to dance education and performance.

Not wanting to replicate my own negative experiences I chose to celebrate each individual’s skills and artistry as a starting point, so I was then able to

strengthen and support dance trainee’s individuality, self esteem and self expression to enhance their perception of technique and artistry.

Dance education took me to many countries, and to local and international dance schools and colleges where I was always welcomed and applauded

for my methods and capabilities. Eventually I began exploring what I might do instead of teaching as the rigours of regurlaly teaching jazz dance

technique while maintaining flexibility and a degree of athleticism meant that I was heading toward repetitive strain injuries.

My personal and professional adventures have taken me to many places in which I have danced, shared and explored  personal  and professional ways of being.

Outdoor green spaces in all these places have enchanted, revitalized, humbled, and inspired my life and movement experiences:

                                                                Hong Kong     Taipei     Tokyo     Hiroshima     Kuala Lumpur     Singapore     Manila     Djakarta     Bangkok     

                                                                Perth     Sydney     Melbourne     London        Los Angeles     Las Vegas     Milan     Berlin     Chiang Mai     Oslo     

                                                                Cape Town     Salvador     Gawler     Ilhabela     Zagreb     Korcula     Bucharest     Kyiv     Seattle     Tri-Cities    

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The versatility of my life experiences in urban and rural locations has helped me appreciate the varied personal resources we can call on for self-care and choices made. 

Making choices, having choices taken away from me, giving choice away, coincidental happenings and accidental discoveries have all led me to this moment.

What choice/s could I make in finding a place to move holistically, relationally and creatively?

Could it be dance examining ...  chiropractic ... ostepopathy ... Feldenkrais practitioner ... eventually, I found dance movement psychotherapy

 ... or did it find me!  Creative, expressive, holistic, challenging, exhausting, revitalising, provocative, nourishing, educational and performative are all aspects of my dance movement psychotherapy experience.  I completed my DMP training at the University of Roehampton in 2004, where I also completed a supervisors training programme in 2010. 

Movement continues to be an integral aspect of my life journey, where I find that as we move through relationships with self and others this performative act is a dance of ever-changing shapes and dialogues. I believe that improvised dance movement provides a malleable space in which to explore our interactions through creative movement.  This creative endeavour allows spontaneity of self-expression that bridges the space between the stories we live and the stories we tell, and this explorative space provides the chance to experiment with our individual identity.

From moment to moment our life-worlds are sculpted by the choices we make and that we express in our verbal and non-verbal communication; these spontaneous and/or considered interactions are further shaped by cultural perceptions of gender definitions that exacerbate or strengthen identity survival. My intent is to empower those I meet to explore choices available to them and to acknowledge how these choices shape our space in the world. While honouring our similarities and differences we can celebrate the versatility of expression in our gendered way of being.