Weekly Professional Class with Helen Herbertson

Helen Herbertson will teach the weekly professional class whilst she in residence at Dance Cork Firkin Crane this September.

Gather up (and move)

Helen's work focuses on the dynamic flow between people and place, the interaction of body and landscape or situation with light, form, space. She have always been fascinated by performers and performance whatever the genre, the simplicity/complexity of human to human connection, distilled into that splendid moment of sharing.

These classes share some of her tools and strategies for ‘turning the motor on for moving, making and performing’, easing the body into action with a gentle warm up, games, images, sounds and extracts of her choreographic vocabulary. The class will focus on the simplicity and physical intelligence of a body in action while moving, travelling & engaging with each other. At the same time focusing on the three dimensional qualities of a figure, in relation to others and to the space.

Helen Herbertson comes to Dance Cork Firkin Crane to undertake a legacy residency. DIG brings choreography, performance, diverse records (photo, video, media, paper-based) and an intergenerational team into dialogue. Drawing on Helen's body of creative work, an interest in dance history, documentary formats and archival record-keeping processes, it immerses us in the richness of the physical, performative, conceptual & storytelling focus of the work, while asking - what is it to remember, what is it to forget.

hhprojects is a vehicle for cultivating & nurturing the joy of creating, presenting, sharing & experiencing dance. Conceived across genres and forms, with diverse creative teams & participants, projects are carefully crafted to celebrate the complexity and simplicity of human to human connection. 

 Melbourne-based performer, choreographer and creative collaborator, Helen Herbertson's imaginative, highly theatrical work is regularly presented at both local and international festivals. She began creating works as a freelance choreographer in the 1980s and has played a key role in several seminal organisations that shaped the development of contemporary dance in Australia. 

Her work has received multiple awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Australian Dance Awards, and the 2022 Australia Council Award for Dance.