A practical webinar program for performers who want to understand how the body tells a story - covering physical presence, spatial awareness, and the mechanics of expressive movement, all delivered live and accessible from anywhere in New Zealand.
Most acting training focuses on voice and text. This program starts with the body - because physical presence shapes how an audience reads every line before it is spoken.
Over eight weekly sessions, you work through the fundamentals of Laban Movement Analysis, neutral mask work, and physical characterisation. Each session builds on the previous one: you begin by mapping your own habitual movement patterns, then gradually expand your range. By session four, most participants notice a clear shift in how they hold weight and use space - not because they have been told to stand differently, but because they have felt the difference in their own body.
The live format matters here. Movement work done in isolation, without feedback, tends to reinforce existing habits. The webinar structure allows the facilitators to observe and respond in real time, which is closer to a studio environment than most online formats manage.
Each 90-minute session follows a consistent structure: warm-up, guided practice, facilitated feedback, and a short reflection period at the end.
The warm-up is not optional filler - it is where much of the perceptual work happens. Participants are asked to notice specific things: where tension accumulates, which joints initiate movement, how breath changes with different qualities of effort. This observational layer is what separates the program from a standard exercise class.
Guided practice runs for roughly 45 minutes per session. Exercises are demonstrated first, then participants work through them independently while the facilitator observes via video. Feedback is given both in the moment and through written notes sent after each session.
Between sessions, participants receive a short movement task - usually 10 to 15 minutes of daily practice - to consolidate what was covered. These tasks are deliberately low-commitment because the goal is consistency over intensity.
The program suits performers who feel physically self-conscious on stage - those who know their instincts are there but cannot access them reliably under pressure.
Participants in past cohorts have included drama school graduates returning to training after time away, community theatre performers looking for more rigour, and people who came to acting later in life and missed the physical training that formal study provides. The program is not designed around any single tradition, so it works across theatre, screen, and applied performance contexts.
It is also useful for directors and movement coaches who want a shared vocabulary to use when working with performers. Several past participants have been practitioners rather than performers, and the conceptual framework translates well into facilitation work.
What it requires is a genuine willingness to slow down and pay attention. The exercises are not difficult in a physical sense - most require no particular fitness or flexibility. What they do require is patience with a process that does not produce immediate visible results.
Movement direction, physical theatre
Tomás has spent fifteen years working with ensemble companies across Ireland and the Pacific. His approach draws on Viewpoints and Feldenkrais alongside Laban, and he has a particular interest in how performers adapt physical work to screen contexts.
Physical characterisation, mask work
Rémi trained in Paris and has been based in Aotearoa since 2017. He leads the mask and neutrality modules and is known for giving feedback that is precise without being prescriptive.
Alistair Pemberton
Community theatre performer, Palmerston North
I had done plenty of text-based workshops before this. What I had not done was spend an hour just noticing how I walk. By session three I understood things about my own movement that I had been oblivious to for years.
Dariusz Wojtek
Drama school graduate, Christchurch
The online format was my main hesitation. Movement work over a screen felt like it would lose something essential. It did lose something - the physical proximity - but it gained something too. Watching myself back in the recordings was uncomfortable and genuinely useful.
Ngahuia Tūhoe
Director and facilitator, Rotorua
I joined as a director rather than a performer. The vocabulary I got from the Laban modules has changed how I give notes in rehearsal. Instead of describing results I can now describe qualities, and performers respond to that differently.
These are the questions that come up most often in enquiry emails. If yours is not here, the contact page is the right place to send it.
For enrolment and scheduling questions, email contact@bodycuestudio.com or call +64 4 234 6212 during business hours.
No prior experience is required. The program is structured so that beginners can follow along from the first session, while those with stage experience will find depth in the later modules. The exercises scale to where you are, not where you think you should be.
Sessions run via live broadcast with real-time interaction tools. You can ask questions, receive feedback, and participate in guided exercises from wherever you are in New Zealand. A stable broadband connection and a device with a working camera are the only technical requirements.
A clear floor area of roughly 2 by 3 metres is enough for the exercises. You do not need specialist equipment or a sprung floor. Comfortable clothing that allows free movement is all you need to prepare before the first session.
Yes. Each session is recorded and made available to enrolled participants within 24 hours of the live broadcast. Missing a session occasionally does not mean falling behind, though the live format is where most of the feedback and interaction happens.
The between-session tasks are designed to take 10 to 15 minutes of daily practice. There is no heavy reading or written work. The investment outside sessions is modest - the program is built around the idea that short consistent practice is more useful than occasional long sessions.
The foundational material - body awareness, spatial dynamics, physical characterisation - applies across performance contexts. Tomás, one of the facilitators, has a specific interest in how physical training translates to camera work, and this comes through in the later modules.
