Powerplay & Status: Presence, Power, Connection | Matías Avaca
About this Event
Every interaction has a hidden choreography.
Before we speak, we are already communicating through posture, eye contact, timing, silence, tone, space, listening, and behaviour.
People are constantly reading us, and we are constantly reading them, often without realising it.
This hands-on workshop explores status: the invisible shifts in power, confidence, authority, vulnerability, and connection that shape every conversation.
Status is NOT about being dominant. It is not about becoming louder, colder, or more forceful.
It is about becoming more aware of what you are signalling, how others are positioning themselves, and how to respond with more choice.
Using tools from applied improvisation, participants will explore:
- How status moves in real time: how we step forward, step back, hold space, lose authority, invite trust, resist pressure, or accidentally disappear in important moments.
The session is active, practical, and genuinely fun. No performance experience required.
You will not be asked to “act powerful” or perform on stage. This is about using improvisation as a practical tool for communication, confidence, leadership, and human connection.
What You’ll Learn
- How to recognise status shifts in real time
- How body language, voice, timing, and silence shape presence
- How to build authority without becoming aggressive
- How to stay grounded when dealing with difficult personalities
- How to shift between leadership, collaboration, and support
- How to notice when you are unintentionally lowering your own status
- How to listen for power dynamics beneath the words being spoken
- How to respond with more confidence, flexibility, and awareness
Who This Workshop is For
- Leaders, managers, and emerging leaders
- Facilitators, educators, trainers, and coaches
- People who want to communicate with more confidence and presence
- Anyone who struggles with being interrupted, overlooked, or talked over
- People who want to understand difficult personalities without escalating conflict
- Performers and creatives interested in status, presence, and human behaviour
- Anyone curious about the hidden dynamics shaping everyday interactions
Who is Matías Avaca? 🧔♂️
Matías Avaca brings together theatre, leadership, systems thinking, and human behaviour.
By day, Matías works as a Senior Team Lead in software engineering, where he leads people, delivery, and cross-functional collaboration across complex digital products. His work involves communication, stakeholder alignment, decision-making, and helping teams navigate pressure, ambiguity, and different personalities with clarity.
Alongside his work in tech, Matías is an Argentinian improviser, director, performer, teacher, and producer based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, New Zealand.
For over 15 years, he has performed, directed, and taught across more than 15 countries, creating workshops and formats that connect performers and audiences beyond words, borders, and backgrounds.
His work sits at the intersection of language, identity, and unscripted theatre. Working across cultures and languages has shaped his understanding of how much is communicated before words: through rhythm, gesture, silence, tension, and presence.
This workshop draws directly from both sides of his life: the lived reality of leading people in complex professional environments, and the theatrical tools that make hidden human dynamics visible.
This is a rare opportunity to work with him in Sydney for one weekend only!
Connect with Matías on Insta
What students have said about this workshop...
“Matías is a generous and attentive improviser, who cares about the ensemble of the people present in the room. He is a thoughtful director, bringing his ideas to life with direction and precision, as well as a true connection to the moment, the context and the group.”
— Gael Doorneweerd-Perry, Flock Theatre Co-Founder and former IMPRO Amsterdam Artistic Director
“Matías is a thoughtful individual, both in his kindness and in the way he organises and presents his ideas and creative processes. He invites us to observe the mechanisms rather than simply use them, which leads to subverting them in a creative and purposeful way.”
— Luana Proença
⚡BOOK NOW - Spots are limited!
Spots are limited to keep the workshop practical, personal, and highly interactive.
Join Matías for a rare Sydney workshop exploring how status shapes the way we communicate, lead, listen, and connect, and how becoming more aware of those dynamics can help you move through work and life with greater confidence, presence, and choice.
Agenda
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Welcome & The Hidden Signals We Miss
Info: Gain an understanding of how applied improv can help you recognise, navigate, and influence real-world status dynamics.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Presence & Body Language
Info: Interactive group exercises exploring posture, eye contact, tone, silence, space, and how status is communicated instantly.
🕑: 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Reading Status Shifts in Real Time
Info: Group Activity: Learn how authority rises, collapses, transfers, and changes during conversations
🕑: 12:30 PM - 01:05 PM
Lunch Break
🕑: 01:15 PM - 03:15 PM
Applied Scenarios & Group Reflection
Info: Practical tools for handling interruption, pressure, dominant personalities, awkward tension, and emotional reactions while staying calm.
🕑: 03:15 PM - 03:30 PM
Break ☕
🕑: 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Applied Improv Scenarios: Human Chess in Action
Info: Pair and group scenarios where participants experiment with status, confidence, vulnerability, trust, negotiation, and presence in action.
🕑: 04:30 PM - 04:45 PM
Reflection, Integration & Practical Takeaways
Info: Leave with practical awareness you can immediately apply in conversations, leadership, relationships, teamwork, and high-pressure situations.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
AUD 202.50
