Danceography
Alice Cummins is a dance artist and Master Somatic Movement Educator & Therapist with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). She is the director of Somatic Wisdom an ISMETA Approved Training Program in Australia.
Education
2005-08 Master of Arts by Research, Victoria University
1995-98 Certified Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering® USA
1981-83 Diploma of Performing Arts Dance/Teaching, WA Academy of Performing Arts
Performance and Choreography
2024 terra - Holmes à Court Gallery, solo performance, direction Nikki Heywood
2023 Dancing Space - dance film by Narelle Benjamin
2022 Sex and Death and the Internet, by Samara Hersch, Adelaide Festival
2021 A Walking Dance a Moving Lecture, Bus Projects, performed and wrote solo performance - presented as part of Walking in the configuration of infinity
2021 Now Pieces, Dancehouse
2021 Conversation with Alice and Paea - Victorian Seniors Festival - video documentation
2020-23 terra research and development of concept for solo work
2019-22 Carnal Plenitude, work in progress - collaboration with writer Brenda Downing
2020 PAUSE - The Home Project dance film by Narelle Benjamin
2020 I Came Here to Dance - Notes on Survival by Paea Leach
2020 The Mountains Are a Dream That Call to Me, Sundance Film Festival
2019 dancing matters with Jude Walton, Care Project, Melbourne University
2019-21 Alice with black mattress, Riddells Creek, May 2019, film directed by Siobhan Murphy
2018 The Mountains Are a Dream That Call to Me, directed by film maker Cedric Cheung Lau, Nepal and NYC
2018 Tarcutta Shade, Video clip with musician and song writer Stan Woodhouse, directed by Isaebella Doherty 2017 Evanescence, directed by film maker Amos Gebhardt, choreography Melanie Lane, Biennial of Adelaide 2018
2017 Mentored Ryuichi Fujimura - development of his solo work How I Practice My Religion
2016-17 Collaboration with Perth visual artist Michele Theunissen's film installation disappearance with dance artists
Narelle Benjamin, Jacqui Otago and performance artist/architect Chris Hair - Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery
2016 In Memory of the Last Sunset, performance|collaboration with visual artist Neha Choksi, 20th Biennale of Sydney
2015 In the Company of Others, Footfall Ensemble, The Yoga Lab, Melbourne
2014 Impro Symposium, Critical Path, Sydney – workshop, performance & performance paper
2014 Sound Body, Conduit Art Space, curated by musician Ren Walters
2014 The Little Con-ference, Deakin University – performance paper, workshop and Footfall Ensemble
2013 MOV-E-MENT, La Mama Musica, with Ren Walters, Scott McConnachie and Jenny Barnes
2013 What to do with the time we have left, Footfall Ensemble, The Yoga Lab, Melbourne
2012 Where Our Edges Meet, with musician/composer Anita Hustas, Dancehouse 20 Year Anniversary
2011-12 aperture, co-creator and director with Brenda Downing, performer/PhD candidate, Perth
2011 lumbar, with Sarita Beraha, Festival of Experimental Film, Paris
2011 Impro-Exchange with Tess de Quincey and Martin del Amo
2011 Where the Image Meets the Body, Symposium – Monash University
2011 The Little Con – gets square, Dancehouse
1999-14 Improvised performances in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth
2009 alicec, solo performance, choreography with RoseAnne Spradlin, West Broadway, New York City
2009 Where Our Edges Meet, with musician/composer Anita Hustas, Earobics Project, Dancehouse
2009 Choreographic mentoring Nicola Eddington, Solo Residency Program, Victoria University
2009 Threshold, choreographic development with Phillippa Clarke – ArtsWA fellowship grant
2008 hear her breathe: a rhapsody of gravity, space and the body, Melbourne and Perth
2003 & 05 The Dance Card, Dancehouse, Melbourne
2004 Beauty and the Brute, Research & Development project with dance/theatre director Nikki Heywood
2004 Groundwork, Memories and Letters to the Editor, Co-director, PACT youth theatre, Sydney
1999 No Fixed Point-An evening with Alice and Tony a retrospective for Dancers Are Space Eaters, PICA
1999 knocking at an empty house, multi media project with visual artists Michele Theunissen and Sharon Barker
1999 Orbit, with Ros Crisp, Helen Clarke-Lapin and Ion Pearce, Antistatic Dance Festival, Performance Space, Sydney
1997 Lullaby Antistatic Dance Festival, The Performance Space, Sydney
1997 Giselle Guest Artist, WA Ballet Co, Bertha
1997 & 95 The Bargain and Colourblind, choreographer and director, Ran Dan Club, Big Foot Dance Project
1996 Broadcast Dancing a season of solo work at PICA.
1996 Lullaby Tasmanian Poetry & Dance Festival, Launceston curated by TasDance
1996 Art, Medicine and the Body Multi-media installation with visual artist Michele Theunissen, PICA
1995 Lullaby solo performance: written & performed for Dancers Are Space Eaters, PICA
1995 Romeo & Juliet Guest Artist as Lady Capulet, West Australian Ballet Co
1995 There’s A Desert In My Teapot, performing and choreographing with Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, Perth International Arts Festival
1994 In The Spotlight solo work ‘Putting On An Act’, PICA
1994 Home Husband 8 Children What More Could A Woman Want? Solo performance/installation, ‘Absence of Evidence’,
Fremantle Arts Centre
1994 Portrait Independent New Choreographers, PICA
1994 Giselle Guest Artist in the role of Bertha, West Australian Ballet Co
1993 You Are Not Watching... We Are Not Performing, Artrage, West Australian fringe festival, PICA
1992 Shifting Surfaces with Rachel Fensham as part of ‘Feminisms’, PICA
1992 Working With the Interface a collaborative EVOS new music project
1991 No Fixed Point, with Tony Osborne
1991 My Ersatz Heart, with Terri-ann White, writer/performer
1991 Axion Esti, Perth International Arts Festival, composer Mikis Theodorakis, design Tolis Papazoglou, choreographer Jean Tally
1990 She’s My Kind of Woman, ‘Bodysong’, PICA.
1990 Wayward Dancer, a dance/talk for ‘Active Expressions’
1984-88 Performed, choreographed and taught with Still Moves Dance Laboratory
1983-86 Guest Artist West Australian Ballet Co, Artistic Director Barry Moreland: Giselle; Alice in Wonderland; Cinderella and Romeo & Juliet
Community projects & teaching
2020-23 Online Zoom Somatic Movement workshops - accessing people in regional and remote areas of Australia
2012-23 Somatic Wisdom - Somatic Movement Education - ISMETA Approved Training Program
2000-21 Nationwide workshops: Improvisation & Performance; Body-Mind Centering®
2017 Between our heart and hands, Workshop, Tokyo, with Kuniko Yamamoto as interpreter and facilitator
2012 Established Riddells Creek Studio, Victoria – a venue for artistic residencies, teaching and performances
1999-23 Private Practice as Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) Practitioner/Somatic Movement Educator
2005 A Spacious Body, guest teacher, Ricochet Dance Co. London
2005 Workshops for the imPACT Scholarship Ensemble, Sydney
1992 Public Sector Union, Art in Working Life dance project, WA
1984-88 Still Moves Dance Laboratory community workshops: The women’s prison Bandyup; Women in the Community; Senior Citizens; Contact Improvisation
Academic teaching
2021 Master class for Honours students, VCA, Melbourne
2013-19 Post Graduate Examiner VCA, Melbourne
2011-14 Mentor and Performance Consultant - Brenda Downing, PhD candidate, Edith Cowan University
2009 Professor of Dance, Denison University, Ohio, USA
2007 & 09 Lecturer Movement, Theatre and Drama Studies, Ballarat University
2008 Lecturer, Critical Practice, Performance Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne
2002 Lecturer, UNSW, Department of the Built Environment. Created the elective: Body, Space & Architecture with Sara Chesterman
2002 Lecturer Movement for Actors, Theatre program, Eora Aboriginal College, Sydney.
1993-97 Lecturer Movement, Theatre and Drama Studies, Murdoch University
1991 Lecturer Movement and Performance, Theatre Arts, Curtin University
1985-99 Lecturer Dance & Theatre, WA Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA)
Professional Development
2023 Bundanon Residency, NSW
2020-24 Practice with Jude Walton - Studio and Zoom
2003-24 Registered Master Somatic Movement Educator & Therapist (ISMETA)
2016 Choreographic intensive with RoseAnne Spradlin, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and experimental choreographer, NYC
2016 SenseLab Artist-in-Residency, Concordia University, Montreal
2016 Residency with philosopher Ana Ramos engaging in a dialogue of dancing, thinking and writing, PAF, France
2016 Learning Curve with Myriam Gourfink, Dancehouse, Melbourne
2016 Writing Workshop with Deborah Jowitt, Dancehouse, Melbourne
2014 Residency with dance artist Jacqui Otago, The Chapel Space, Perth
2013 Body-Mind Centering® studies, Italy
2011-12 Impro-Exchange with Tess de Quincey and Martin del Amo
2010-11 Solo Residency, Victoria University
2010-11 Performing Arts Forum (PAF), France and Tanzfabrik, Berlin - research with Sarita Beraha
2010-11 Workshop with Julyen Hamilton, Spain
2003 & 16 BMC Conferences in Mass, USA and Koln, Germany and Montreal, Canada
2003 Improvisation and Contact Improvisation workshops – Movement Research (NYC), Moving East and Jerwood Space (London)
1995-98 Body-Mind Centering® program Mass, USA
1993 Three months study and travel including:
USA: A Cappella Motion, Studied with Nancy Stark Smith, Christina Svane and Julyen Hamilton
Italy: BMC with Patricia Bardi and Voice with Vera Schlenker
Amsterdam: Improvisation as Performance with Katie Duck
Seminars & publications
2022 The Saturday Paper, The Influence - conversation with Kate Holden
2022 Entwined Being - eco-somatic workshop with Fiona Harrisson - Sentient Performativities: thinking alongside the human - art.earth, Dartington Hall, UK
2019 of the body, Presentation-Body of Knowledge: Art and Embodied Cognition, Deakin University
2018 How might we become more human? Currents Vol 21 No 1, BMCA Journal, Mass, USA
2017 being and becoming animal: how might we become more human? Dance and Somatic Practice Conference, Coventry University, UK
2016 The Radical Touch of BMC: Taking responsibility in the Anthropocene, presentation, BMCA conference, Montreal
2015 this interests me - Ethics of Touch, Dancehouse Diary Issue #8
2014 no beginning – the intimacy of breath and movement, Dancehouse Diary Issue #05
2014 Peer Assessment panel, Dancehouse
2013 Brenda Downing, Alice Cummins, The Catastrophe of Childhood Rape: Traversing the Landscape between Private Memory and Public Performance
MC Journal Vol. 16, No. 1
2011 Where the image meets the body, Paper and Performance, Monash University
2003 From the Periphery to the Centre, Paper and Workshop at BMCAssoc. Conference, Mass, USA
2003 This Body is Enough Speaking with Fiona Maclean, Contact Quarterly Vol 28 No 2, Mass. USA
2003 Improvisation in Dance, Companion to Music and Dance in Australia, Currency Press
1995 Paper, Dancers Are Space Eaters Forum Don’t Stop at Movement - pt 2, PICA
1995 Moving Meanings, with Christine Owen Contact Quarterly Vol 20 No 1, Mass. USA
1990-93 Peer Assessment panels, Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia
Grants
2023 West Australian Government (DLGSC) - Creative development & performance presentation of terra
2021 Commission RMIT - A Walking Dance a Moving Lecture, solo performance, presented as part of Walking in the configuration of infinity
2021 Regional Arts Victoria - Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative 2021
2016 Ausdance NSW - Innovative Dance Practice with dance artist Ryuichi Fujimura
2009 Commission: Earobics Project with musician/composer Anita Hustas, Dancehouse
1999 Commission: retrospective with Tony Osborne, Dancers Are Space Eaters, PICA, Perth
1999 Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia: multi media project
1999 New South Wales Ministry for the Arts and Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia
1998 Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia: BMC Study Program, USA
1996. Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia: season of solo work at PICA
1995 Australia Council: 4 Year Independent Study Grant Recipient - BMC Study Program, USA
1994 Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia: New Work – Independent New Choreographers
1992 Australia Council and the WA Department for the Arts - Public Sector Union, Art in Working Life
1992 EVOS new music project
1991 Artrage West Australian fringe festival grant: New Work
1991 Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia: New Work
1990 Ministry for Culture and the Arts of Western Australia, ‘Active Expressions’, Festival for women in sport & the arts