About Dancehousing

Mondays

On Mondays all spaces at Dancehouse are filled with local dance communities to practice in parallel and proximity with each other. Each group is allocated time and will determine how they want to use the space. Together the groups determine how they respectfully share the building through quarterly ‘Housekeeping’ meetings.

Housekeeping dates 2023: 1 May, 31 July.

Community Events

Community Events will be curated and organised by the supported Dancehousing groups throughout the calendar year. Please visit the Dancehousing or What’s On page to stay updated with Dancehousing events.

Finalé

Finalé is an annual event celebrating the Dancehousing communities and their events. Centering improvisation and street dance and involving over one hundred performers across the season, Finalé celebrates dancers from all over Melbourne for doing what they do best. Finale is scheduled for 8-17 December 2023. 

2023 Participating Groups

BURN CITY WAACK (BCW) 

Burn City Waack is a community based in Melbourne dedicated to the art form Waacking. Waacking is a culture that began in the underground LGBT clubs of Los Angeles and later spread out into the world. It’s a safe space for all individuals who want to learn/share in the culture of the dance in a respectful environment for the past eight years connecting locals with international leaders in the form.

Dancehousing 8pm Mondays

Dancehousing events 2023: 

Axelle Ebony – Burn City Waack x Club Culture Workshops – 23, 24, 25 April
10 year Anniversary Event 9 December (details coming soon)

Casual classes: O2 Dance Studio (Fridays 7-8pm), Passion Dance Studio (Tuesdays 8:30-9:30pm)
Follow: Burn City Waack on Instagram (@burncity.waack)
Key Contacts: Andy Kuramoto & Jonathan Homsey

HOUSE OF DÉVINE (HOD)

The noble House of Dévine (HOD), a queer collective and family of artists, is known for creating safe spaces for QTBIPOC to thrive in, often through mentoring, training, performing and hosting inclusive events. The ballroom house consists 11 POC queer and trans individuals, together creating inclusive spaces and facilitating pathways for the LGBTQIA+ community. Currently HOD continues to create Balls focusing on the intersections of the New York Ballroom culture with the queer social culture of so called Australia, including their Housewarming Ball in 2019, funded by City of Melbourne’s Signal.

Dancehousing 8pm Mondays

Dancehousing events 2023: 

TBA

Follow: House of Dévine (HOD) on Instagram (@_houseofdevine_)
Key Contact: Kianna Oricci

KWABO EVENTS

Kwabo Events is a social enterprise promoting African dances which benefits culture and practice for individuals’ mental and physical health. Using different African dances such as Afro dances, Afro-house, Afro Cuban and traditional Togolese dances, Kwabo Events organise weekly dance classes, community dance workshops, private and corporate events helping participants to reach happiness.

Dancehousing 8pm Mondays

Dancehousing events 2023: 

TBA

Follow: Kwabo Events on Instagram (@kwaboevents)
Key Contact: Grace Kwabo

CONTACT IMPROVISATION MELBOURNE

Contact Improvisation Melbourne are a collective of experienced Contact Improvisation (CI) practitioners, committed to keeping the richness of the CI form alive in Melbourne. For more than a decade, The Jamstas have care-taken and nourished the Melbourne CI Jam – which itself has been running on a consistent weekly basis for over 25 years; the longest running CI Jam in Australia, held for most of it’s life at Cecil Street Studio. Being involved in the Dancehousing program, offers The Jamstas time and space to deepen and nourish their own CI practices, in order to further support both the CI community of Melbourne and the broader CI community in Australia, as well as be part of the exciting dance ecosystem at Dancehouse.

Dancehousing Mondays 6pm

Dancehousing events 2023: 

The Bill (multiple dates)

Key Contacts: Martin Hughes and Caroline Ellis
Martin Hughes ([email protected])
Caroline Ellis ([email protected])

IN THE MOMENT

In the Moment, 2022 builds on the lineage of improvisation in contemporary dance practice in Melbourne, and opens up to forms and methods of improvisation in other creative fields and cultural practices. Improvisation as a performance technique is the disciplined exploration of embodied practice that leads to crafted, spontaneous, and artful communication made on-the-go. This monthly platform invites a range of intergenerational practitioners who–in one way or another–prioritise movement to incorporate body, sound, vocalisation, memory, image and energy, responding to each passing moment in relation to the space where they are dancing in relation to the audience.  Monday nights are an opportunity to practise performing.

Dancehousing Mondays 6pm

Dancehousing events 2023: 

On the Verge #5

Follow: In the Moment on Facebook here
Key Contacts: Peter Trotman & Bronwen Kamasz
Peter Trotman ([email protected])
Bronwen Kamasz ([email protected])

ON THE TABLE

On The Table, is a weekly event for artistic exchange and collaboration run by Caitlin Dear and Rebecca Jensen. Dancers of any training background, as well as people curious about movement though new to dance, are welcome.

Dancehousing Mondays 6pm

Dancehousing events 2023: 

On The Table #1 (April-June 2023)

Key Contacts: Caitlin Dear & Rebecca Jensen
Email: [email protected]

Sister Sessions is a Melbourne-based collective with the vision of creating a strong, evergreen female dance community in Australia through innovative events and projects designed to connect, challenge and empower female dancers in their individual and collective journeys. Since launching in March 2018, their Ladies Only battles have successfully recruited first timers into the battling practice, as well as increased the participation and visibility of female dancers across the broader dance scene. Seeing more than 150 female dancers across 6 events (and counting), Sister Sessions is the most prominent and consistent female dance event in Melbourne.

Follow: Sister Sessions on Instagram (@sistersessionsmelbourne)
Key Contact: Marnie Newton
Email: [email protected]
Each Sister Sessions event is part of their practice. Community members engage with Dancehousing across multiple different groups on Mondays. 

 In 2017 Jam on Toast (JOT) was hot out the toaster, lathered in jam and served in Melbourne’s dance community by Oliver and David. It acts as an open styles dance jam that occurs every Wednesday in Melbourne’s CBD and now Monday’s at Dancehouse – catering for all levels, styles, ages through the lens of empowerment and celebrating uniqueness.

Follow: Jam On Toast on Instagram (@jamontoast_melbourne)
Key Contact: David Prakash and Oliver Le
Each Jam On Toast event is part of their practice. Community members engage with Dancehousing across multiple different groups on Mondays.