Move Through Life Dance Studio

Move Through Life Dance Studio offers recreational dance classes for adults in ballet, contemporary, jazz and tap dancing. The aim is to dance for pleasure and enhance mental, physical and emotional health and wellbeing. Classes take place in a variety of locations and are suitable for adults of all ages and dance abilities.

Dancing with a partner relies heavily on physical communication, body language and trust, making dance an ideal non-verbal communication skill to learn as a couple. It is a great way of expressing yourself by broadcasting your mood and energy, while enabling others to pick up on a wide variety of non-verbal clues about who you are and how you’re feeling. This builds a strong bond between you and your partner.

Dance is heavily based on touch, which is the first sense that humans acquire. Touch connects us more deeply to another person, and accurately conveys a wide range of emotions. Not only does dancing connect you through touch, but it also releases oxytocin in the brain – the hormone that triggers feelings of trust and happiness, which is released when we fall in love. This enables us to feel more connected and bonded to the person we dance with, which is why adult dance classes can be a great way of rekindling and strengthening the relationship between you and your partner, without needing to speak a single word.

Myomasters Therapeutic Massage

Run by experienced practitioner David Clayton, Myomasters offers a wide variety of different massage techniques tailored to meet the needs of each client. It also provides massage classes for couples, teaching you how to relax and nurture one another using massage skills.

Massage is one of the simplest and most effective ways to communicate with another person and convey the way you feel. Often physical touch is neglected in relationships, which can be particularly damaging if you have difficulty with verbal communication.

Touch is something we all crave – it is highly reassuring and lets us know we are loved and cared for. Massage, even if it’s simply rubbing each other’s shoulders and feet, is a powerful way to create emotional closeness between you and your partner. It helps you both to de-stress and unwind, and communicates your love for each other without the need for spoken words.

Taking a couples’ massage class can be a great way of easing any tensions between you and developing effective communication, as it teaches you how to convey all-important messages through touch, without the fear of embarrassment as you’re learning together.

Charcoal and Champagne

Perth-based Charcoal and Champagne is run by portrait artist Aneta Wnek. It offers pop-up life drawing classes for adults, enabling them to reconnect with the creativity that many of us enjoy as children, but often lose as the hectic business of adult life takes over. Sessions are guided and suitable for all levels of experience, with newcomers often producing results that can surprise themselves.

Art is a great way of communicating without the need for a common spoken language. It alters and improves the ways in which we look at and see things, teaching us to pay closer attention to every detail and to communicate intuitively through gestures.

As a form of non-verbal communication, art requires you to connect and engage with all your senses, “feeling” your way through the creative process. It gives you the opportunity to get your hands dirty with paints, run your hands through clay and smudge charcoal or pastels with your fingers as you learn to observe and interpret things in new and creative ways. Trying something new and stepping out of your comfort zone with your partner offers a unique opportunity for freedom of expression – and even sensuality – as you reconnect with your creative side.

Life drawing can also be very good for improving your self-image and the ways in which you relate to others, as you are observing and interacting with models who are confident with their own bodies.

If you approach an art class with a sense of fun and adventure, it can become an amazing shared experience in a space where you can support your partner and learn a lot about each other without words.

Denise Daffara

Denise Daffara is an artist who uses creativity as a healing process, enabling others to feel nurtured, energised, validated and liberated. Her Creativitea Time sessions, run in person and online, offers a space where participants can learn to feel confident about themselves and their creativity.

Art is a very diverse sensory form. It speaks directly to our senses and can open the parts of us that may often be restricted and shut down. Creating art together can be a powerful way for couples to communicate without words, enabling you to express what you’re feeling inside. When you create something from the heart, you are sharing a piece of your soul with the other person. This can take your relationship to new levels of intimacy and depth of connection, opening up a whole world of possibilities for both of you.

As creating art together can often make you feel vulnerable, it’s important to put some agreements in place before you start. The point of the exercise should be freedom of expression – it’s not about providing feedback on each other’s work. This is why it’s important to find a safe space where you can enter this process together.

Creative play gives you the opportunity to break all the rules and enjoy the privilege of sharing the experience with each other. Seek out materials and ways of creating that bring you joy and find wordless ways to release your grip on worries and concerns, allowing yourselves simply to be.

Making art alongside a partner can be a brave act for some, but when approached in the right way, it is a hugely positive collaborative experience producing great rewards.

Putia Pure Food Kitchen, Pantry and Cooking School

Run by Brisbane-based chef Dominique Rizzo, Putia Pure Food is a multi-purpose space for dining, creating and learning. With a unique al fresco dining space and home-grown produce that features on the ever-changing seasonal menu, it also offers a variety of affordable cooking classes suitable for all ages and levels of experience.

The acts of cooking and eating are hugely important in helping us relate to others. Cooking together is a way of uniting people and building a sense of togetherness by increasing respect and understanding.

Cooking shouldn’t be a chore – it can be a highly effective way of communicating without words. Creating a recipe takes time, patience and cooperation, and it’s always more fun with an extra pair of hands! There is always a defined end goal in cooking, where you wait for the other to perform the necessary steps before moving on to the next stage. This teaches couples to be more considerate to one another and mindful of each other’s needs, bringing you closer together.

Savouring the finished food together is a highly sensual experience, as well as enabling you to share a sense of accomplishment at having created it together. Above all, it gives you the opportunity to spend quality time together, learning how to communicate without words. Even the washing up can be fun if you have a strong bond between you!

Taste Budds Cooking School

Perth-based Taste Budds Cooking School ,run by experienced chef Sophie Budd, offers catering, corporate events and a wide variety of cooking classes and experiences.

Cooking together strengthens the bond between a couple as it is a shared activity. It requires you to share jobs and work as a team, creating a flow and enabling you to spend time together. Cooking can be a calming, cathartic activity as you are creating something that nourishes you both. It gives you a much-needed respite from the craziness of everyday life, providing an opportunity to relax together, which of course carries over into enjoying the food once you’ve prepared it.

The most effective way in which cooking together builds a bond between you is that no words are needed in a kitchen – you communicate through actions and tasting different flavours. Taking a cooking class together can also be a highly effective and enjoyable date night!

There are numerous ways to learn to communicate effectively with your partner without needing words. Finding common ground and interests that you can both share, is often the best way of cementing your bond as a couple and strengthening the unity between you, for a happier and more secure future together.