Justin

Multidisciplinary mover, therapist, teacher and creator of Moving Stillness - School of Somatics, Justin has been a passionate explorer of movement and somatic arts for most of his life.

Thai Massage (TM)

My journey with TM began in London in 2006 through the fusion practice of AcroYoga, where I found my first community of "touch-positive" people. Through regular practice I soon fell in love with the profound depth of the moving meditation that is Thai massage. I took my first course in 2007 (in the tradition of the Sunshine Network) and found my main teacher, Krishnatakis, in 2008 in Greece. Since then, I have completed well over a thousand hours of direct training with various teachers across Europe and in Thailand, including; Laurino Bertelli, David Lutt, Pichest Boonthume, Sinchai, Németh Balázs (Bali), and others. I began assisting beginner courses at Sunshine House in Greece in 2011 and have since assisted and taught on dozens of courses over the last 13 years.

Contact Improvisation (CI)

My journey with CI started in 2014, attending workshops held by Simonetta Alessandri and others in the London CI community. I soon realized that this free-form improvised dance, with touch at its core, was exactly what I had been unknowingly searching for. From the start, so much of the touch-based sensitivity, receptivity to momentum, and sense of "the center" of self and other (that is present in CI) felt deeply familiar to me from Kung Fu. However, I lacked the movement vocabulary and full-body fluidity of contemporary dance.

Over the last decade, I have danced and trained extensively in the UK and Europe, gradually opening pathways to fluidity and expression. More recently, I've undertaken dedicated contemporary dance training with Lee Smikle in Hove. In 2018, I started assisting classes and then co-taught in collaboration with Marie Chabert at Chisenhale Dance Space. Since then, I have taught CI classes and festival sessions at Goldsmiths, for Rick Nodine in London, and independently in London and Sussex.

Background

My journey began with the physical awakening of regular Judo practice as a child, which flowed through a general love of sports, athletics, and mountain biking until my mid-20s. In 2005, I rediscovered martial arts through Kung Fu, studying intensively in London with trips to Hong Kong and China in 2006 and 2008. Along the way, besides Thai massage and Contact Improvisation, I have explored a variety of other movement practices, becoming a competent juggler and double staff fire-spinning artist.

I have also explored performance, including joining a fire-spinning troupe in Portugal in 2008 and performing the slow-motion duet "Kiss" by Tino Sehgal at the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki in 2017.

I also have a career as a Software Consultant and weave these two worlds together in a mutually supportive and positive way, and frequently enjoy helping desk-bound beings to move more and to explore the embodied life!