Workshop: Plant Gestures - Movement System in a Garden

Two immersive, outdoor workshops exploring movement, dance, ecology, and an awareness of our bodies and nature. Join one, or join both.

Through a series of inclusive workshops, students will engage in sensorial practices that attune the body to the rhythms of the surrounding landscape.

Moving with and alongside plants that inhabit the System Garden at University of Melbourne, participants will explore breathing, listening, and subtle forms of attention that reveal the shared temporalities of human and vegetal life. 

Rather than observing plants as passive background, the practice invites participants to encounter them as active moving presences and collaborators.

Led by gardener, dancer, choreographer and photographer Gregory Lorenzutti (UMSU’s 2026 Artist in Residence) and drawing on ecological awareness and embodied research, these workshop series cultivate a movement practice of interdependence with nature — where gestures emerge from the textures, growth patterns, and quiet movements of plants. 

This workshop is perfect for students with experience — or interested in exploring — contemporary dance, physical theatre, creative movement, ecosomatic practice, plant studies, contact improv and ecological mindfulness.

When: Thu 16 and Thu 23 April
Time: 2pm-3.30pm
Where: The System Garden, Parkville Campus, University of Melbourne

A note on attire for participants:

Please wear enclosed shoes, pants and long sleeve tops which allow free movement. Hats and sunscreen are recommended. 

Photo credits: Victorian College of the Arts dance students performing PLANT NATION directed by Gregory Lorenzutti. Photography: Gregory Lorenzutti.