About Kevin Polak
Thirty years on stage and thirty years in the therapy room — a career that began as a professional dancer with Nederlands Dans Theater and became a lifelong study of what the body knows before the mind catches up.
"The body already knows. The mind just needs to catch up."— Kevin Polak
The Story
Kevin Polak is a choreographer, therapist, and educator who has spent more than three decades bridging Eastern and Western models of the self — first through the body in motion, and for the last decade through the written and spoken word. His work draws on clinical psychology, movement therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and systemic family constellation — not as separate disciplines, but as one language.
Kevin trained at the Brabant Conservatory (Fontys) in Tilburg and the High School of the Arts in Amsterdam, graduating cum laude in 1990. He was invited to join Nederlands Dans Theater II, where he worked under choreographers including Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato, Amanda Miller, Martino Müller, and Jean-Christophe Maillot — earning a reputation, in the words of a leading Dutch newspaper, as a "universal high-level dancer." He went on to dance with every major contemporary company in the Netherlands — Introdans, Djazzex, NND Galili Dance, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Rogie & Company, Conny Janssen Danst, and Panama Pictures — the only Dutch dancer to have worked across all of them.
In 2006, he co-founded 2moveDanceCompany, touring internationally and across China, before relocating to China himself in 2013 and founding KheN, a Sino-Dutch artistic collaboration. There, his emotionally direct choreographic work earned him the nickname "挖心人" — the Heart Digger — and led him to develop his own movement technique, Human Contact Improvisation (HCI), fusing physical improvisation with psychological and theatrical principle. He has since created 46 choreographies, served as resident choreographer for Tang Dynasty Physical Theatre in Xi'an, taught at institutions from the Beijing Dance Academy to the Xi'an Conservatory of Music, and co-founded the dance company Didi & Gege in 2025. His screen work includes a Gouden Kalf (Dutch Golden Calf) nomination for a leading dance role, a Gold Camera award for choreography, and selection of the VR dance film Oblivius at the Dubai International Film Festival and Festival de Cannes.
It was the same conviction that drives his choreography — that the body holds what the mind cannot yet speak — that carried him from the stage into the therapy room. The Polak Therapy method was developed through direct practice with clients across Europe and Asia, from CEOs navigating organizational breakdowns to individuals carrying ancestral trauma they couldn't name. Kevin reads every assignment himself: no algorithm, no assistant, only the practice of being genuinely seen.
He has lived and worked across Asia and Europe for over two decades — still very much on the move — running his private practice, creating his books and courses, and operating KEVINCARES LTD, the company through which all his work is offered to the world.
His approach, on stage and off, has always been the same: meet the body first. Everything else follows.
The Approach
Kevin draws from both traditions — not to blend them into something vague, but to use whatever is most honest for the person in front of him.
Every session starts with the body. Not with what you think you feel — but what the body is actually doing. Breath, tension, posture, impulse. The body doesn't lie.
Thirty years working with Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Five Elements, 520 hand mudras, meridian theory, and the ancient understanding that illness lives in blocked energy before it lives in the body.
The ABC model, Transactional Analysis, the Dilts Pyramid, VAKOG, the Drama Triangle, Byron Katie's 4 questions. Real psychological tools, not motivational shortcuts.
Ancient wisdom from Proverbs, the Psalms, and Eastern traditions runs through Kevin's work — not as religion, but as the distilled experience of thousands of years of human suffering and healing.
Kevin's work is available in English, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch — because the need to be known crosses every border.
Books, courses, and guided workbooks that deliver the same depth as a private session — in a format anyone can return to, alone, at their own pace, anywhere in the world.
The Journey
Every decade deepened the work. The body, the books, the courses, the students — all pointing toward the same thing.
Graduates cum laude from the Brabant Conservatory and the High School of the Arts Amsterdam, and joins NDT II — working under Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin, and Nacho Duato.
Dances with Introdans, Djazzex, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Conny Janssen Danst, and more — the only Dutch dancer to work across all of them. Co-founds 2moveDanceCompany in 2006.
Relocates to China, founds KheN, and develops Human Contact Improvisation (HCI) — earning the nickname "挖心人," the Heart Digger, for emotionally resonant choreography.
The Healing Hand (520 Mudras of the Five Elements) and Enlightened Essence are published — in English and Chinese. Polak Therapy Exercises follows. Resident choreographer, Tang Dynasty Physical Theatre.
ADEPT is published. The BE YOU 12-Day Journey, VERDICT personality insight, Flip That Script, and Kevin's Cards are built and launched globally across six languages. Full-time teacher at Jackie Chan Movie and Media College.
Kevin continues to run private sessions, create new products, co-direct the dance company Didi & Gege, and reach people across six languages and five continents — based wherever the work takes him.
Three decades working with individuals one-on-one — through the body, the mind, and the spirit.
The complete Five Elements mudra system, documented in The Healing Hand. "520" in Chinese means "I love you."
All major work available in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch.
ADEPT · Enlightened Essence · The Healing Hand · Polak Therapy Exercises — all available in English and Chinese.
From NDT II to resident choreographer roles across China — an original movement language performed on five continents.
The complete inner journey — science, scripture, and daily exercises that uncover who you really are.
New books, new courses, new tools — all rooted in the same thirty-year commitment to real healing.
Begin
A private session, the BE YOU journey, a book, or the VERDICT test. Every door leads inward.