31 May – 1 June – Re-sonance, how does the voice work? – Imke McMURTRIE (Germany)
RE-SONANCE - HOW DOES THE VOICE WORK?
led by Imke McMurtrie (Germany)
Weekend 31st May - 1st June
Imke McMurtrie says: "During my work as a performer on stage I studied the relationship between breathing and singing intensively. I am very grateful for the wonderful guidance I got from my teacher, Frieda Goralewski (1893 to 1989), who was a student of Elsa Gindler (1885 to 1961). She never really addressed the use of breath directly, but rather helped to create the physical space for it to move freely by teaching body-awareness and natural co-ordination of movement. My work has also been immensely inspired by the work of Gisela Rohmert, founder of the “Lichtenberg Institute for Applied Physiology of the Voice”, who teaches how functional sound can liberate and co-ordinate breathing, and the work of Renate Schulze-Schindler about breathing “types” (Terlusology), where the breathing movement depends upon distinct muscular activity.
During my music-ethnological studies of other cultures I have observed, that the emotional power of these songs reaches far beyond the frontiers of language and nationality; as if, once we take these songs to heart, we are connected to an ancient knowledge of mankind.
In these traditions singing together is still an integral part of communal life. It is naturally understood that for all aspects of everyday life there are appropriate songs with special emotional charge. Songs on birth, death, marriage, separation, rejected love, battle, healing, work, old age and over and over again the yearning call to be embraced by Divine Oneness. Every aspect of life has its song, its expression and its place and is shared with the community and “processed” by singing together.
Singing connects the body, the heart and the mind in an unique way. The objective of my work is to develop an awareness of these interdependencies for the singing and speaking voice.
The unfolding of the voice is an adventure with many unexpected moves. It needs sensitivity, courage, love, patience and respect for following one’s own path. In addition the desire for sounding and singing also needs balancing with the creation of space for silence.
My voice work can be beneficial to:
- singers and actors
- reciters, narrators and story-tellers
- choir singers
- lecturers and public speakers
- teachers and pedagogues
- people who have to talk a lot in their professions
- therapists, especially music-therapists
- voice and speech therapists
- those who want to discover their voice as a means of self-development
- those who feel they don’t like their voice
- those who always wanted to sing (but never dared)
and
- those who just want to sing for joy
During the process of unfolding the possibilities of the voice, it develops an according sensory awareness of ease, balance and joy. We try not to limit the freedom of development through expectations as to how the voice should sound.
Body awareness, awareness of breathing and uprightness, toning of the breathing muscles, discrimination of hearing, a new sense of energy input and sound output, all this can help to “un-cover” the voice more. But above all it leads to the experience that your own voice, its beauty, tenderness and power are an expression of an inner truth. And that daring to sing/voice one’s inner truth can lead to release, well-being and a sense of being true to yourself."
More about Imke McMurtrie you can find HERE.
You can download the application HERE.
The workshop is going to take place in Studio ITAKA, Korunní 35, Prague 2. Duration: on Saturday 10am - 5:30pm and on Sunday 9:30am - 5pm with 90 minutes break for lunch. Price is 1750,-/1550,- for students, pensioners and persons on parental leave. Workshop will be translated to Czech.
If you like our worshops and you would like to support us, you can pay a higher participation fee for our workshop. Just add the amount you choose - 350 Kč/600Kč/1000Kč - to the basic fee. All our donators recieve a feedback with a detailed information what their gift has been used for.