Thoughts about moving, sounding and shifting liveliness

Human movement and voice originate from the same source which is our body. Sound is vibrating waves and movement can be perceived as music. To produce movement and sound in our body, we involve the same elements of breath, rhythm, melody, stillness and also different levels of intensity and volume.

I experience the relationship between movement and voice strongly through listening and dialogue. My moving body is listening to the rhythm of my breath and allowing the voice to be born in its cavities. My voice is perceiving the body as the resonant abode without which the sound couldn’t exist. Embodied voice is like a body work which digs deep into the hidden tissues of our physical form. In the same time the voice is strengthening the spirit within us.

Working with movement and voice can be like riding 1000 wild horses. The potential of vocal and moving expression is so powerful and the choices so infinite that it can easily overwhelm us to the point of physical and mental confusion. (which can be enjoyable too!)

Specially when working in a big group of people, the acoustic and visual input coming from outside can be so strong that it is easy to loose yourself. But in case this happens, we can simply change into listening mode or concentrate only in movement or only in our voice.

Ideally movement and voice support, inspire and feed each other. They can work as tools for each other; voice can evoke new ways of moving and movement can free the vocal expression. By working with phrasing, combining or separating movement and voice, we can explore our own preferences as movers and sounders. Some people find it much easier to move and sound simultaneously whereas others find much more interest in sounding in stillness and moving without voice. Whatever the preference, the bridging link remains the breath. Natural deep breathing which reaches till the bottom of our pelvic floor is initially the force which gives us the sense of connection between movement and voice. The body in turn is the ultimate home base and roots of any vocal expression in the world.

As a movement and voice teacher in a workshop situation, I open myself to sense the ever changing shifts in energy of the people, as individuals and as a group. My role is to support, lift, nourish, challenge and calm down the level of liveliness in any given situation.

Even within one hour, our activity level may switch from fatigue and laziness into alertness and curiosity. The only thing it maybe asks from every individual is the ability to allow the change. If we let the energy to transform itself and stay tuned to the moment, we can experience this miracle of shifting liveliness and how it influences us, as an individual and as a group.

In Chinese philosophy, the qi, the vital energy which makes us living beings has various qualities. It can act as nourishing, protecting, warming, moving and transforming to name a few. The movement of qi is also connected to different body-mind functions such as emotions. For example, when we feel elated, the qi becomes loose and may scatter. When there is anger, the qi rises up and we might literally explode. When there is obsessive thinking, the qi gets knotted and tangled. The ideal situation being that the qi is flowing freely, it is only human that it does not always do so.

Having said that, I think it is very much the qi which we influence and get influenced by in every kind of work involving movement and voice. Specially when we explore potentially unknown and authentic ways of expression. (Maybe because this demands us to be so fully present in the now.) It might make us vulnerable but also open for spontaneity if we dare to plunge ourselves into the continuous play of balancing between different states of being. After all these years of exploring movement, voice and improvisation, I realise more and more that the real skill is to practise this, every day and every moment.

Here are some themes and questions which have been present in my teaching and artistic work lately:

 Practising the actively releasing -state

Strong and calm in the inside of the body, relaxed, playful and open on the surface

How to calm down exaggerated liveliness?

How inertia ultimately transforms into something interesting…

Resisting the urge to do “big”

When to take initiative and when to follow and receive?

Welcoming and enjoying confusion

The art of observing 

An exercise example from a Body is Voice class:“ Body scan with voice”

Lying on the back relaxed.First simply breathing natural and deep, allowing the breath to become more physical, reaching from the lungs till the bottom of the pelvic floor. Concentrating breathing from the lower belly, observing how the belly and diaphragm rise and fall.

Then starting the body scan with voice by bringing our awareness to the feet and heels. We let the heels produce sound without our mind analysing. What kind of sound comes out of our heels today? 

From there we start to travel slowly up the back side of our body, always moving our focus with the sound of the body parts we pass by. Scanning with voice we arrive to the top of the head from where we start descending along the front side of our body, still staying true to the sound qualities of every part we pass. Finally we end up down with the toes of our feet. We finish the sounding there and stay in listening to the echoes of our journey.

After that, we can let our focus go to the body part which feels the most present or is calling our attention. It could be for example the left knee, the liver, the neck… What ever it is, we try to be quite clear with the place and look what kind of expression there might be. It could be in the form of sounding, moving, feeling or an image. Again, we don’t need to analyse, we just be with what there is. Exploring for c. 10 minutes. After that you can exchange your experience with a partner.