A dancer, he danced in the José Limón and Merce Cunningham companies in the early 1960s, and rapidly went on to cofound several collective choreographic adventures: the Judson Dance Theater, Grand Union, and Contact Improvisation, a form of art-sport practiced today in many countries around the world. An improviser and performer, he has collaborated with many visual and dance artists, including Robert Rauschenberg, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, Deborah Hay, Simone Forti, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, and many more.

His research notably led him to develop a somatic practice, Material for the Spine, as well as to the writing of many articles, most of them published in Contact Quarterly (USA).

Since 1970, he has been living in Mad Brook Farm, an artists and farmers commune in Northern Vermont.