For these 7-weeks I am interested in exploring the intimacy of being ‘at home’ in our bodies.  To find ways of moving that support and sustain wellbeing and a feisty engagement with the world.

Somatic foci opens a portal of discovery, generating wonder & curiosity, inspiring us to live with courage and compassion. We will integrate our discoveries through breath, touch and dancing. These 90min Zoom classes support you maintaining your somatic practice whilst creating an opportunity to be in a richly diverse community. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, reach and wriggle.
*Links will be sent for missed classes.

Time: Thursdays 11.00am. – 12.30pm (AEST)
Dates: 3 April – 15 May (7 weeks)
Venue: Online
Fee: $280

Image: Soula Vouyoucalos-Veyradier - precursor with Andrew Stumpfel

Creative Practice & Somatic Movement Workshop

In this time of environmental and ecological loss, I am interested in supporting my community, through embodied practices that cultivate reciprocity and kindness.

Learning to listen to our bodies is profoundly intimate but we are also social and political bodies. Somatic practice is listening underneath to the subterranean topography of our bodymind. Finding our voice, expressing our originality and humanity is subversive. It is an adventure not a destination.

How we live in the world begins with our bodies. Through breath, moving and playful enquiry you will gather insight and knowledge, discovering an elusive quality of beauty and an aesthetic that originates in our body.

Time: Saturday & Sunday 2 – 5pm
Dates: 8 & 9 March 2025
Venue: North Fremantle Community Hall
2 Thompson Road North Fremantle
Fee: *$300 (Earlybird 14 February)
$450 Full Fee

terra (installation) by Cobie Orger with Alice Cummins
Supported by a Banyule Arts & Culture Project Grant

Inspired by the live work of the same name by influential choreographer/performer/educator, Alice Cummins, this immersive screen work weaves sound, sculpture and dance into a choreographed sequence of topographic and physical landscapes expressing relationship with, and concern for, country.
Unveiled through three disparate perspectives, encounters of tenderness and disquiet are swept into the tectonic forces at play.

Exhibition Dates:
20 February - 3 March 2025
Opening Event:
Thursday 20 February, 6:00-7:30pm
Artists in conversation and Q&A:
Saturday 22 February, 3:00-4:30pm

Loft 275
@ Ivanhoe Library & Cultural Hub
275 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe

Image credit: video still from terra by Cobie Orger

Soma-time dancing: Enliven your body & spirit through guided practices of breath; engage through poetic movement scores and explore your originality. Alice’s approach is inclusive of all bodies, engages the imagination and cultivates pleasure.

PERTH MOVES is presented by STRUT Dance in association with Perth Festival and is assisted by Arts Impact WA Inc, the State of Western Australia through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, City of Perth, the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and the Plus1 program, and STRUT’s generous donors.

image: Siobhan Murphy

As Artist in Residence at PICA from December 2024 to January 2025, I will draw on my extensive embodied and theoretical knowledge to collate and create scores for dancing and making: a resource for dancers and artists interested in embodied performance making and an introduction to somatic explorations for the general public. My creative process includes movement, touch, writing, listening and conversation. The scores and provocations will be realised through somatic attunement, connecting the interiority of studio practice with a deep listening to the natural and built environments.  The materiality of the work emerges from this attention to inner and outer worlds, inviting an intimacy with the body and place.

image: Johannes Reinhart

Gallery Central presents precursor: one piece at a time, a collaboration between Alice Cummins and Andrew Stumpfel.

precursor: one piece at a time explores how an artist works compositionally; the steps taken to create a body of work; from concepts formed and tested, to experimentation and curation of ideas and materials, and including in the journey the many relationships and networks formed along the way.

Alice will engage compositionally and choreographically with the residual objects Andrew leaves in the space. The presence of her body invites potentially new ways of perceiving and experiencing the objects and how they relate spatially and temporally to each other, the dancer and space itself. Dance realizes the temporal nature of form and matter revealing the capacity for being with.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

• Alice is present with objects: Mon 11 - 13 Nov, between 11am-12noon and 1-2pm.  

• Presentation/performance with Alice: Wed 13 Nov, between 1-2pm.

• Panel discussion with Soula Veyradier, Andrew Stumpfel, Alice Cummins and Andre Lipscombe, Thursday 14 Nov, 2-3.30pm. Moderated by Brendan Hibbert.
  
  Image: Soula Vouyoucalos-Veyradier

6-week Zoom series : Classes can be explored in your home with my guidance. Zoom classes support you maintaining your somatic practice whilst creating an opportunity to be in a richly diverse community. Links will be sent for missed classes.
From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, reach and wriggle.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Thursdays 11.00am. – 12.30pm (AEST)
Dates: 10 October – 14 November (6 weeks)
Venue: Online
Fee: $240

Somatic practices enable us to transform habitual psychophysical patterns and realise the creative potential present in the relational field as we engage with self, other and community. In bringing these qualities to our lives we enable and deepen our connection with the living world, cultivating and sustaining our capacity for aliveness. Insight and learning create the ground for engaging with clients in a professional context.

The developmental movement patterns establish the foundation for attachment, language and communication. In these two modules you will be guided through the different stages of human evolution from pre-vertebral to vertebral, from pre-birth to locomotion.

Alice Cummins is the director of the Somatic Wisdom program – an ISMETA Approved Training Program enabling graduates to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators & Therapists (RSME/T).

Sept 23 – 27 | 2024 (5 days): Basic Neurocellular Patterns Part A (45 hours)
Oct 1 – 5 | 2024 (5 days): Basic Neurocellular Patterns Part B (45 hours)

Navigating the Ineffable: Creative Practice & Somatic Movement Workshop

Our body is held together in an illusory solidity by the membrane of our skin. This sensuous, elastic, porous, protective boundary navigates our point of contact with others and the world. Moving in our skin refines our sense of touch with the ‘skin of the world’ – this slippery fluid place where one becomes the other and yet … defines who we are. *Somatic scores will cultivate moving consciously as a practice and invitation, gathering insight and knowledge through embodied enquiry as we navigate the ineffable.   

Alice’s teaching enriches the creative practice of many different kinds of artists and practitioners: dancers, performers, visual artists, sculptors, writers, poets and musicians. Discover an elusive quality of beauty and aesthetic that originates in your body. Somatic practice cultivates agility of imagination, philosophical awareness, and a deepening engagement with the living world.

Time: Saturday & Sunday 2 – 5pm
Dates: 6 & 7 July 2024
Venue: Green Monday Studios
73 Grattan St, Carlton
Fee: *$300 (Earlybird 14 June)
$450 Full Fee

Image: Emma Fishwick - terra 2024

7-week Zoom series : Classes can be explored in your home with my guidance. Zoom classes support you maintaining your somatic practice whilst creating an opportunity to be in a richly diverse community. Links will be sent for missed classes.
From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, reach and wriggle.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Thursdays 11.00am. – 12.30pm (AEST)
Dates: 4 April – 16 May (7 weeks)
Venue: Online
Fee: $280

Perception is a psychophysical process and perceiving is the process of how we receive and respond to new information. With the recognition that our moving body is perceiving, we begin to realize an embodied kinaesthetic knowing through our organs of perception and their relationship to the planes of existence, gravity and space. Through the specificity of our sense organs we feel and sense the role they contribute to the expression of self and engagement with others. This includes the bonding and defending response in every act of perceiving and its influence on learning.

Alice Cummins is the director of the Somatic Wisdom program – an ISMETA Approved Training Program enabling graduates to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators & Therapists (RSME/T).

Oct 2 – 6 | 2023 (5 days): Senses & Perceptions (45 hours)

Somatic practices enable us to transform habitual psychophysical patterns and realise the creative potential present in the relational field as we engage with self, other and community. In bringing these qualities to our lives we enable and deepen our connection with the living world, cultivating and sustaining our capacity for aliveness. Insight and learning create the ground for engaging with clients in a professional context. Students will be prepared for professional practice through mentorship, business skills development, practical application, and understanding ethical practice. This module encourages critical reflection of practice, collegial learning and relationship building to support ongoing professional development.

Pre-requisite: 7 completed modules

Alice Cummins is the director of the Somatic Wisdom program – an ISMETA Approved Training Program enabling graduates to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators & Therapists (RSME/T).

Sept 25 – 29 | 2023 (5 days): Psychophysical Integration & Professional Practice (45 hours)

7-week Zoom series : Classes can be explored in your home with my guidance. Zoom classes support you maintaining your somatic practice whilst creating an opportunity to be in a richly diverse community. Links will be sent for missed classes.

*My focus for these 7-weeks will include the buoyant resiliency, ease and sequential integration organs bring to our voice, expression and locomotion - integrated through dancing, sounding and playful application of the neuro-cellular movement patterns. From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, reach and wriggle.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Thursdays 11.00am. – 12.30pm (AEST)
Dates: 20 July – 31 August (7 weeks)
Venue: Online
Fee: $280

7-week Zoom series : Classes can be explored in your home with my guidance. Zoom classes support you maintaining your somatic practice whilst creating an opportunity to be in a richly diverse community. Links will be sent for missed classes.

*My focus for these 7-weeks will include the structural support of our bone and skeletal system integrated through the feeling life of our fluids and playful application of the neuro-cellular movement patterns. From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, reach and wriggle.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Thursdays 11.00am. – 12.30pm
Dates: 4 May – 15 June (7 weeks)
Venue: Online
Fee: $280

The endocrine system is closely aligned with the nervous system and is the first system to mature in our development underlying its critical role in our survival through relationship and attachment. It is the system that connects us at a personal level through the expression of our sexuality. It is also the system that connects us to a more impersonal universal state of awareness. A highly selective communication system – the endocrine glands rely on the fluids to transport the desired chemicals to specific cells – it is the system underlying the paradox of our existence - spirituality, play and spontanaeity. As a field of energy it constellates the attraction and magnetism of relational life – the sensual Eros of love. We manifest our state of being through our breath and we communicate with the world through the expressive qualities of our voice. Our voice reflects the functioning of our whole body and being.

This module will be co-taught with Nikki Heywood a Sydney-based interdisciplinary artist working across dance, performance, writing and live art. Nikki is a graduate of the Somatic Wisdom program.

Alice Cummins is the director of the Somatic Wisdom program – an ISMETA Approved Training Program enabling graduates to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators & Therapists (RSME/T).

Nov 14 – 18 | 2022 (5 days): Endocrine System, Breath & Voice (45 hours)
* Please Note: Students will need to be fully vaccinated to be able to attend.

In tandem with my Melbourne BMC weekly workshops I am running a 7-week Zoom series that will include elements from the Melbourne BMC series. Classes can be explored in your home with my guidance. Links can be sent for missed classes. Zoom classes will support you maintaining your somatic practice whilst creating an opportunity to be in a community.

*My focus for these 7-weeks will include a range of BMC material – development movement patterns integrated with fluid, skeletal and organ systems. From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, reach and wriggle. Join me in moving, sensing and feeling.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Fridays 10.00am. – 11.30pm
Dates: 22 July – 2 September (7 weeks)
Venue: Online
Fee: $280

7-WEEK SERIES: Beginning with the premise that movement is perception, we will engage with different Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) principles and Somatic practices. BMC engages the bodymind through the poetics of moving, touch and experiential anatomy, inviting change that is an integration of our physical, psychological, intellectual and imaginative life. The classes will include guided movement, anatomical information, imagery and directed self-touch, followed by Authentic Movement, shared discussion, and journal writing to integrate the material.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Wednesdays 10.30am. – 12.30pm
Dates: 20 July – 31 August (7 weeks)
Venue: Green Monday Studios - 73 Grattan St Carlton

In tandem with my Melbourne BMC weekly workshops I am running a 5-week Zoom series that will include elements from the Melbourne BMC series. Classes can be explored in your home with my guidance. Links can be sent for missed classes. Zoom classes will support you maintaining your somatic practice whilst creating an opportunity to be in a community.

*My focus for these 5-weeks will include a range of BMC material – development movement patterns integrated with fluid, skeletal and organ systems. From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, reach and wriggle. Join me in moving, sensing and feeling.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Fridays 10.00am. – 11.30pm
Dates: 13 May – 10 June (5 weeks)
Venue: Online
Fee: $200

How do we begin again – to meet, dance and touch one another? In the aftermath of the past two years how do we gather into our selves and cultivate the practice of being with one another to move, create and find our belonging? I propose that this practice can support us redefining ourselves and how we navigate our way through. The vulnerability we have all experienced is at the heart of our return and renewal, remaining present as we renogotiate our lives. My teaching is infused with the philosophy of self-organisation and relational life. As we find our deepest connection to ourself, others and the lived world we re-pattern our belief systems and invite questions about our role and place in the lived world. The offerings are infused with ethics|aesthetics and the capacity for transformation is cultivated between us all.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Wednesdays 10.30am. – 12.30pm
Dates: 4 May – 15 June (7 weeks)
Venue: Green Monday Studios - 73 Grattan St Carlton

We are essentially a fluid dynamic body, changing from breath to breath and moment to moment. As we bring awareness to the potential of these changing states of being, we become more flexible and responsive, bringing our inner and outer environments into dynamic relationship. When we move from our fluid mind we find availability to self and others through feeling, developing the capacity for empathic responses appropriate to the exchange.

Alice Cummins is the director of the Somatic Wisdom program – an ISMETA Approved Training Program enabling graduates to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators & Therapists (RSME/T).

April 4 - 8 | 2022 (5 days): Fluid System (45 hours)
* Please Note: Students will need to be fully vaccinated to be able to attend.

Somatic Classes designed for your bedroom
living room or kitchen

My next series of  Zoom classes will maintain your practice whilst creating an opportunity for people to be in a somatic community. My focus is on moving and movement: bringing awareness into our bodies, through self-touch and the pleasure of moving. From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes where I will focus on what feels critical for remaining resilient in these uncertain times. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, lengthen, reach and wriggle.

The 5-week series develop somatic awareness and cellular consciousness. These are powerful resources for any body any time. Body-Mind Centering® is the ground of my somatic practice and teaching. As a study of the experienced feeling body it offers resistance to the idea of the objectified mechanical body.

Time: Mondays 11am – 12.30pm (EST)      
Dates: 4 October – 1 November (5 weeks)

Organs are the contents of our musculo-skeletal container, providing us with a sense of volume and weight. They are about process, fullness and emotional expression. They provide multidimensional support for our movement, breath and voice. Organ tone underlies alignment, presence and our sense of vitality.

Alice Cummins is the director of the Somatic Wisdom program – an ISMETA Approved Training Program enabling graduates to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators & Therapists (RSME/T).

Dates 5 Sept - 18 Sept: Organ System (45 hours)
This module is now available online through Zoom for students. A full outline and schedule will be sent to students who enrol.

7-WEEK SERIES: Beginning with the premise that movement is perception, we will rigorously engage with different Body-Mind Centering® principles. Through a practice of listening and attention you will develop somatic awareness. The workshops will include guided movement, anatomical information, imagery and directed touch, followed by Authentic Movement, shared discussion, and journal writing to integrate the material.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Wednesdays 10.30am. – 12.30pm
Dates: 14 July – 25 August (7 weeks)
Venue: Green Monday Studios - 73 Grattan St Carlton

presence vitality sensuality

Listening to the body is like learning to see and feel beneath the surface of things. Perhaps like listening to the ocean when you bring a shell to your ear – Alice C

Do you know what is inside you? Do you know where your organs are? Would you like to know?

Integrating organs into our embodiment brings vitality and spaciousness. Their liveliness underlies our capacity for pleasure, joy and expressiveness. Organs give us a voice. They are about process, fullness and emotional expression. As we map, navigate and explore the life of our organs we support our immunity and resilience.

In 2021 Alice is offering two workshops to map, navigate and explore the life of our major organs:

Workshop 1 (29 & 30 May): introduction to organ mind; digestive system and brain as an organ.
Workshop 2 (4 & 5 September): heart & lung support; kidneys and sexual organs

Dates:     29 & 30 May 2021                                      
Time:      Sat & Sun 10-5
Venue:    The Chapel Space, North Perth

7-WEEK SERIES: Beginning with the premise that movement is perception, we will rigorously engage with different Body-Mind Centering® principles. Through a practice of listening and attention you will develop somatic awareness. The workshops will include guided movement, anatomical information, imagery and directed touch, followed by Authentic Movement, shared discussion, and journal writing to integrate the material.

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a study of the experienced body in contrast to the objectified body. It is an embodied approach to learning, living and knowledge making.

Time: Wednesdays 10.30am. – 12.30pm
Dates: 7 April – 19 May (7 weeks)
Venue: Dancehouse, North Carlton

Skeletal System

Embodying bones offers an experience of our inner structure and architecture. We discover the skeletal system’s capacity to stabilize and mobilize. How as a basic framework it gives form and structure to our body; contains our organs; offers qualities of clarity and effortlessness; provides stability, leverage and mobility through space; and supports our articulation of form in space. Through anatomical and somatic exploration we discover both the specificity of our articulating bones and their global organization in locomotion through space.

Alice Cummins is the director of the Somatic Wisdom program – an ISMETA Approved Training Program enabling graduates to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators & Therapists (RSME/T).

March 23 – 27 | 2021 (5 days): Skeletal System (45 hours)
This module will now be made available online through Zoom for students. A full outline and schedule will be sent to students who enrol.

Somatic Classes designed for your bedroom
living room or kitchen

My next series of  Zoom classes to maintain your practice whilst creating an opportunity for people to be in a somatic community. My focus is on moving and movement: bringing awareness into our bodies, through self-touch and the pleasure of moving. From the comfort and chaos of your home you can participate in these 90min classes where I will focus on what feels critical for remaining resilient in these uncertain times. Make sure you have enough room to roll, spread, lengthen, reach and wriggle.

The 5-week series develop somatic awareness and cellular consciousness. These are powerful resources for any body any time. Body-Mind Centering® is the ground of my somatic practice and teaching. As a study of the experienced feeling body it offers resistance to the idea of the objectified mechanical body.

Time: Mondays 11am – 12.30pm (EST)      
Dates: 1 – 29 March (5 weeks)