SINGING & SELF
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Small miracles
“…What if we allowed more unfolding, more encouraging-into-being in our artistry and our teaching? What if instead of “trying” and “working hard”, we were more playful, more able to surrender to what is, letting it simply emerge?…”
Singing. Breathing. Healing.
“…we can slow our breath to correspond to the heartbeat of the ancient drum…and we can move forward together on a path of healing”
Digging deeper
vocal technique can never be divorced from feeling, sensation and physical connection, because it’s about human communication…We want to watch someone open up and dig deep.
Reclaiming the singing self
“We have been investigating what it feels like to truly be in our bodies, and what our bodies hold. We’ve been looking at all the “selves” that we are…and attempting to feel, to locate, where those selves are within us…”
I shall swim
I shall swim. I shall not drown. I know how to do this, and even when it gets choppy, I know how to float and conserve my energy…
Scaling the wall
Resilience. Persistence. Endurance. These are three qualities I know to be essential for longevity and productivity in the performing arts …
I’m kinda done with 1:1
Face 2 Face (retrieved from Snappa.com August 4, 2022) I hope that folks don't find this thought triggering, but I'm kind of done with 1:1 teaching. I don't mean that in a blanket kind of way--it's the way that most of us in the classical world were trained and it's...
The whole Truth,
and nothing but the Truth
Spine and Ribs (Snappa, sourced July 15, 2022) Having just returned from a stimulating (if sometimes exhausting) time of teaching and learning with young singers and experienced teaching colleagues from across the country and the US, I have been thinking often about...
Dance with the one who brung ya
…we separate ourselves from the voice we have (and thus from our selves in our most authentic, present state), and find ourselves longing for an imagined “perfect” self/voice that exists in the idealized past or the anticipated future (when we will allegedly have it all figured out)…
On Learning:
Process. Practice. Progress. Repeat.
Getting your hands dirty (Snappa, June 2022) I'm back in person at Opera Nuova this year for the first time in three years. So much feels different, and yet so much is the same as always. There are singers who are keen and wide open for learning, and others who are...
Meeting of the Blogger Minds: Braiding Sweetgrass
These three threads made me think of how everything is intersecting and interconnected. It reminded me that we are always stronger in community and shared experience…alone, a strand of sweetgrass is weak. But when bound together with others as a braid, it is unbreakable.
With a little help from my friends
The 60's revisited (Kimberly Barber, Jordan Station, ON, June 2022) As I was touring around the Niagara region last weekend, tasting wine, biking the backroads and generally enjoying life, I happened upon a plant nursery in Jordan Station that featured this 60's...
All in all
Final scene from Three Decembers as seen from backstage (Robert Butler, May 2022) Apologies in advance for the quality of the photo here...I am going to get higher res photos! But we are embracing the suck this week (to quote our friend Brené Brown) and not sweating...
Entering the cave
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek" --Joseph Campbell Tonight is the opening night of Three Decembers at Winnipeg's Little Opera Company and this past week has been a rollercoaster of doubt, fear, excitement, triumph, beauty, ugliness (especially...
