Multiple Pathways, Bodies, Voices

Multiple Pathways, Multiple Bodies, Multiple Voices –Voice and Movement Workshop for performance with Moss Beynon Juckes

The focus of this week is to dance down into our guts, allowing our voices to emerge, surprise, conflict and converge. Through the breath of voice and body we can explore a myriad of interrelations with ourselves, each other, the environment and perhaps the universe or energy itself. Everything on the planet vibrates. There is a constant sound-movement music. We can tune into physical and vocal impulses from chaos to order, light and dark, and find a playful and profound understanding of consistently becoming ourselves in relation to space-time, allowing concepts or narratives to ebb and flow.
Starting with breath, including elements drawn from continuum and holotropic breathing we will move into primitive dialogues, glossolalia – gibberish (speaking in tongues), self-made languages, towards word discovery and songs. We will concurrently explore different body states as we grow from cellular, amoeba to humanoid. In other words, from the floor to standing, moving in high speed evolution. We will be using body-voice practices stolen and modified from contemporary dance practice, Odin Teatret, Gardzienice, TietrPiesniZozla, Grotowski, mixed somatic practices, Roy Hart Theatre, Bobby Mcferrin, Meredith Monk, La Pocha Nostra, Para Active, Contact Improvisation and Contact-Tango. Through discovering the potential relations between the inside- internal world, sense of identity, physical impulses and so forth, and the outside- external world, the senses, the other, the animal, the environment etc, we will question how these ideas inform our presence, and our impulses to do or not do. We can be both the puppet and the puppet master by activating performative choices in real time and concurrently letting those decisions ‘move’ us in improvisation.

Improvisations – personal aesthetics and intentions
Working on guided individual experiments and group investigations we will venture to sing the dance and dance the song. Group work will take the form of circle sound dialoging including multiple rhythms, voice/ movement orchestras; singing forms from plain chant to polyphony as initial structures on which to improvise. Participants will have the chance to work both within the group and alone to investigate these given principles of voice and movement. The very last part of the work will be an open dialogue and platform for the personal desires and choices of the participants and an informal feedback or self-initiated tryout session. This will take the form of an active question and answer session as we open the space for any voice-body proposal or urge to be articulated on the spot in front of your collaborators. This week is a platform for you to unearth your heathen selves and to hear voices and follow them, to play with your total instrument as a body-voice-concept improviser. Perhaps we can tune into the universal vibrating chord of the spheres or have a bloody good time trying…

Here is the video compilation from Smash Berlin where I had the pleasure to teach,

Expanded version:

Through the breath of voice and body we can explore a myriad of different relations and dialogues. How can we converse with ourselves and each other, with the environment and beyond, to experience an ever more playful and yet profound understanding of our consistently ‘becoming’ self. Can we be honest to these changes, enjoy them and use them as an inspiration for performance and/ or for life in general. The workshop will investigate the following concepts through play:

Breath-Heart/Evolution/Involution the journey begins with the idea of the evolution of voice and body, exploring types of breath, into primitive dialogues, Glossolalia – gibberish (speaking in tongues), self made languages, dialogues and then through to word discovery alongside the effectson the body, but also the body that grows from amoeba to humanoid concurrently

Space-Inside/Outside Perspectives/ duo Discovering the potential relations towards the inside- our internal world, for example the internal space, the sense of identity and the experiential anatomical self, and then the outside -the external world, for example the information received outwardly by the senses, the other, the animal, the environment that surrounds us. How can these ideas inform our presence, our impulses to do and our performative selves. What dramaturgy emerges? Can we be both the puppet and the puppet master?

Voice-Body Improvisations/ solo-chorus Working on individual experiments and group investigations we will venture to sing the dance and dance the song. Group work will take the form of circle sounds including, multiple rhythms, voice /movement orchestras/singing structures from plainchant to pop to polyphony as improvisation structures Individuals can have the chance to work both within the group and alone to investigate these given principles of voice and movement.

Personal Platform- Aesthetics/Intensions The very last part of the work will be an open dialogue and platform for the personal desires and choices of the participants to emerge and an informal feedback session. Including some of the following questions as ideas. What do you want to know? What are your styles/aesthetic choices?- Why? Etc What is performance for you? How do you relate to your body and voice? What music do you like? All of which can be answered physically as well if desired. This part is optional.