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Voice as Movement and a Spiritual “in-between”
  • ISSN: 2051-7068
  • E-ISSN: 2051-7076

Abstract

V’Yomer-וַיֹּ֥אמֶר

‘And God spoke’. In the Hebrew Bible, the creator established material reality through vocalization. Yet, before God speaks, a ‘ruach’ – wind or spirit – moves over the waters. Movement, breath, spirit and material existence are, thus, tied in this story. Later in this account humans are made ‘in our image’, referring perhaps to all that came before this. Humans were made from material reality as well as vocalization. Not surprisingly, within the Hebrew life portrayed in scriptures, both song and dance are a feature, as they involve breath, words and physical movement, often in songs of embodied praise. A religion of doing, Judaism has continued to use song as an important part of ritual, along with ritual actions, and dance. In this, voice serves as a completion of movement, as it is an embodied method of conveying spiritual reality. Within this article, I consider the intersection between religion, spirituality, voice, movement and dance within Judaism, looking first at specific understanding of speech as embodied in the Bible, a more detailed view of the relationship between voice and movement in Kabbalistic Jewish spiritual tradition, and a current return to a more holistic understanding of voice in embodied prayer. I review past critical scholarship of George Lakoff and Johnson’s and Eliot Wolfson’s , while also considering mystical and modern interpretation. The work of Storydance Theatre will be used to provide an example of a current iteration of Jewish use of voice as dance.

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2025-04-29
2026-04-19

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