Zac Jones has spent a life immersed in movement
Zac Jones is a graduate of the Australian Ballet School, a former soloist with the Queensland Ballet and Expressions Dance Company. Zac has also served as a coach at the Australian Ballet School for over five years and in 2018, completed his Masters of Fine Arts in Choreography at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Zac has always shown a keen interest in diversifying his training and techniques and has subsequently pursued his passion for movement in an array of other disciplines alongside dance.
As a martial artist, Zac has taught and holds a 2nd degree black belt in Yoshinkan Aikido, is a Lakan 1st degree black belt and licensed teacher in Filipino Arnis and has undertaken extensive and ongoing private tuition with Kung Fu and Russian Systema masters.
As a body-mindfulness and somatic teacher and practitioner Zac has studied Continuum, Ideokinetics, Skinner Releasing, Body-Mind Centering, Contact Improvisation and many other practices to expanding the potential of the body and mind together.
For many years Zac has run a Pilates and Movement Rehab Studio in Melbourne CBD that specialises in merging the many different styles of training he has learnt and taught into one integrated system that helps heal and improve the ease and quality of movement for any body at any age.
A former Pas de Deux Strength and Conditioning coach and Contemporary Ballet teacher at the Victorian College of the Arts, he began to apply these methods to elite dance students, consistently achieving outstanding improvements. As a result of these successes, Heal Yourself + Move was conceived.
Drawing on his varied experiences, Zac’s teaching style focusses on relaxation and trains the body to be the teacher. This has gone on to help countless individuals overcome injury, increase range of motion and develop strength without strain.
Testimonials
As a former professional dancer now nearing the age of 50, I’d become concerned about losing my flexibility. Over a number of years this had slowly become a significant problem particularly in second position splits, with the muscle of my right leg increasingly responding like knotted rope and impossible to push into a stretch without pain.
Yet after only 1 session of 15 minutes working with Zac and his Heal Yourself & Move method I was again able to increase my stretch pain-free more than I’d been able to in years. While I had been dubious when Zac first told me he could help, afterwards I felt like a mini-miracle had occurred.
Since that time I’ve come to better understand Zac’s philosophy and how he guides and allows the body to release and engage the correct muscles and alignment rather than fighting and pushing. I’ve seen his method in action with young dancers and witnessed the improvements they’ve been able to make in a relatively short time. In Heal Yourself & Move, Zac has combined traditional elements with the latest research, coupled with his own unique spin to develop a method that can be successful for dancers just starting out or for those whose bodies are rebelling after years of pushing unnecessarily hard.
Josef Brown – former Soloist with the Australia Ballet, leading dancer with Sydney Dance Company, lead in Musical Theatre and actor.
After suffering a hip fracture 3 years ago, and being diagnosed with hip dysplasia more recently, my daughter (who dances) has been plagued by chronic pain in her hips, knees and sometimes ankles. Zac’s training has allowed her to continue to dance extended hours whilst remaining pain free.
Deanna Stein
In our first two weeks of training our dancers are feeling less tension and gaining better extensions! The exercises have been well explained and we have all learnt more about training our deeper muscles to work smarter, not harder!
Jacqueline Tsamoudakis – Principal of ASAP Studios
Zac Jones is phenomenal! My daughter has had the pleasure of working with Zac for a year now and the results are outstanding. Working with Zac has increased her strength tenfold and her flexibility has improved no end.
Teresa Geraghty – Principal North Balgowlah School of Dance