At Boston’s Human Movement Lab, the arts and physical health are ‘one and the same’

For many Boston dancers, finding an affordable space to create is a challenge — especially in smaller neighborhoods like Hyde Park, Roslindale and Mattapan.

That’s where this week’s Joy Beat honoree comes in. The Human Movement Lab is a one-of-a-kind space and community hub that blends dance and fitness, where movement is for everyone. 

Founder Kim Holman is also behind the Human Movement Project, a human-centered dance theater movement that also encourages community conversations and exploring universal themes through personal lenses. Holman joined GBH’s All Things Considered guest host Judie Yuill to share more about the joy and uniting power of dance and movement. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Judie Yuill: You have a unique background as a choreographer and personal trainer. What inspired you to create a space that brings together dance, fitness and community engagement?

Kim Holman: Sure. Really, as many of us did, I had a lot of time to think over the pandemic. And it really let me dream about ways I could bring everything that I do into one place and create a really sustainable center for each of those endeavors.

I’ve been making dance in Boston for about 15 years, and I’ve seen a number of other spaces not be sustainable and, very sadly, go under and run out of time. After a lot of thought, I thought about the fact that I have: a pretty exciting and lucrative personal training business; I have this career as an artist, a dancer and a community arts organizer. That really kind of fits together.

So, I have a gym that is constantly welcoming clients in, and that part of the business model gets to sustain a performing arts creation space. I can bring in some of Boston’s movers and shakers and dance-makers, and they can come have a space that feels like it’s not going anywhere — like they can have affordable rent to create dance.

It really lets me share what I have with my peers with the hope to kind of better the whole scene.

Yuill: Now, as I mentioned, finding affordable rehearsal and performance spaces in Boston can be a challenge. Tell us more about how the Human Movement Lab is helping to fill that gap.

Holman: Yeah, it’s hard. Space in a major city is expensive at the end of the day. What I’m able to do is inventory the hours I have available — you know, the budget that I’m able to give back with — and constantly check myself to see what I can do.

We’ve had a couple of artist residencies over the last year where we were able to offer folks really discounted rehearsal rental space. I’ve been able to give some time away for free over the next two weekends. I’m hosting a lot of free or no-cost programming as we officially launch our arts programming, where most of it is honestly either free to attend or under $10 to attend, so hopefully, we can get more folks in and curious about dance as well.

So, [we are] trying to sustain both the creation part of the process and also build an audience for dance in the neighborhood. Both of those feel really important to me. The goal is to kind of share a new way to move the body, to discover what it means to give yourself permission and maybe take some notes on physical autonomy.

Yuill: What does it mean to you to make movement accessible for everybody — not just professional dancers, but also those who might not have a dance background? And what does that look like in practice?

Holman: That’s an incredible question. I really think that dance is a little bit scary to a lot of folks because there’s a bit of an unknown around it, and [there is] this expectation that one needs to be an athlete and perhaps look a certain way, which is wildly untrue. Any body can be a dancing body, and I’m really trying to work through that in practice.

We’re having a — I’m calling it “Contemporary Dance for Curious Adults” in about a week, where hopefully folks will come on in, drop their shoulders, give it a chance and realize that they actually can dance. They don’t need a decades-long career to come in and learn a new, exciting way to move their body.

We’re also really trying to focus on what accessibility means. We work frequently — for things that we’re creating to put in a show, eventually — with an audio describer and user experts coming through to check our work in real time.

Physical space-wise, we are on the first floor, and there’s a ramp to enter. Everything is an appropriate grade so we can ensure that every human — regardless of whether you’re using a mobility device, or even coming in with a stroller or something like that — can physically make it into the space, which was a really important part of finding our rental.

So, between programming being accessible and approachable for all humans, the freedom of thought, being able to identify as someone who dances or goes to see dance, and then, just the idea of physically making it into the space — [we are] really trying to sustain accessibility on all of those fronts.

Yuill: You emphasized that movement is both an art form and also a tool for wellbeing. Tell us about the balance between supporting artists while also promoting physical health.

Holman: Yeah, I really feel like these two things are almost one and the same. My overall goal with making a performing arts creation space inside of a fitness studio is that there’ll be some cross-pollination as we go.

I really hope that the dancers who come through can be affected by learning more about the body and becoming stronger and more capable in that way. And I really hope that the fitness folks who come through are able to indulge their curiosity about dance and grow interest in audiences for dance in that kind of way.

Both of them are physical. Both of them really give grounds for expression, enjoyment and joy. They’re really more similar than anyone would think.

Yuill: Your work has brought a lot of joy to the community. Are there any moments or memories that remind you of the power of movement, and why it is you do what you do?

Holman: Oh my goodness, yes. About a year and a half ago, we were taking a show developed as a resident artist for the Boston Center for the Arts around the Roslindale neighborhood. It was kind of a traveling show. We started at a community center, and then we were going from small business to small business.

Earlier in the day, we were doing a little dress rehearsal — a little trial run — and we were in a coffee shop in Roslindale working on a part of the show. Someone came up to me, and they were like, “Oh my goodness, I know what this is! This is Common Circus. I saw that at the Boston Center for the Arts.”

They just wanted to tell me how it affected them, and that was... I mean, I’ve been doing this for 15 years, but I think that was the first time somebody wanted to come up maybe a full year after they saw some of my work and just talk about it — especially unprovoked, out of nowhere in my own neighborhood. It was really special and very overwhelming, but I’m so grateful that I got to have that moment.

If you’d like to make a nomination for the Joy Beat, leave us a voicemail at (617)-300-BEAT [2328].