Dance, Movement & Spiritualities - Voice as Movement and a Spiritual “in-between”, Oct 2023

This article confronts grief, trauma and dysphonia through transformative techniques of expressive arts therapy. It discusses strategies for easing dysphonia and freeing the singing voice whilst exploring lamentation, incantation and spell casting as vocalizations of grief. Concepts of internalizing and externalizing and the role of the imagination are explored. Selections from the author’s project are presented. These document the process of accessing the pain of loss through recording improvised music and vocalizations, writing, drawing and photography. The approach was methodologically loose and experimental. Seeking recovery and a return to functioning in society, mind, body and voice were allowed to move freely in creative practices whilst being present with memory, soul searching and the experience of loss. The ‘journey’ led from personal to collective grief and rage centred on climate breakdown. The research seeks to draw attention to concepts of intermodality, interconnectedness, the role of music in the grieving process, vocal rehabilitation and the value of expressive arts as tools for transformation. Photographs, drawings, music and voice recordings are included.

‘Sounding Sensations’ is a sounding-and-moving praxis that explores the transformational power of embodied expression. The praxis connects practitioners to their voice, their dance and, if the spirits permit, their spirituality. The spiritual in-between is enlivened (scored) by way of the ‘Sounding Sensations’ practice score. This article explores the spiritual in-between experientially, as an experience, and metaphysically, as a place. The metaphor of ‘a shoreless ocean’ is introduced to capture the defining essence (the spirit) of the spiritual in-between. Intentional focus is placed upon appreciating and understanding the transformative capability of sounding, by way of the practitioner’s voice and vocality. An adjacent focus is placed upon what is required (of practitioners, the praxis and the practice score itself), in order to successfully score the spiritual in-between. This article works to contribute to a deeper understanding of the latent potential that exists not only at the intersection of sounding and moving but also at the intersection of sounding and spirituality. In this article, sounding refers to and encompasses various non-linguistic vocalizations – grunts, groans, growls, screams, giggles, yells and whines. Released from linguistics, semantics and semiotics, sounding is understood to communicate something universal, unique, emotional, present, unrepeatable and ultimately, spiritual. At its core, this article wishes to call forth the spirit of embodied expression. The ‘Sounding Sensations’ praxis invites practitioners to sound their frustration in a world of frustration, their desire in a world of desire and their terror in a world of terror. This invitation serves as an intentional reminder to practitioners: that they are themselves a direct route to that which is spiritual, and that they can indeed animate themselves with agency.

My practice as a singer–composer explores the sonorous expressivity of poetic language in a relational multi-layered meaning-making process. Drawing on a studio-centred contemplative approach, I focus on the intertwined and liminal spaces between my creative process and personal contemplative practices. My writing is a hybrid autoethnographic and poetic-postcritical engagement within a theoretical frame centred on the work of Robert Fripp and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. I re-envision and re-imagine artistic discipleship, that is, the artist as disciple of the Muse – defining the Muse, in part, as the energy signature of a creative discipline. This energetic presence evolves and morphs as an inspired, externally perceived sacred source and as an internal guide inherent to the human psyche and to the artist’s creative process.

This article discusses a new concept-based approach to contemporary dance practice called Speakingdance, in which a dancer performs their sense of being. The practice responds to the need for a more considered use of speech in contemporary dance and the historical perception of the dancer in terms of a body–object. Philosophical thinking about speech and being provides a framework with which to re-think the relationship between speech and contemporary dance to perform a dancer’s sense of being. The practice research approach from which Speakingdance emerges values the agency and experience of the practitioner-scholar as part of a phenomenological enquiry. Practical experiments with the performance of dance and speech were documented through video and written experiential accounts. Following a period of studio-based exploration, to formulate the ‘just be’ approach to improvisation and the poetic rhythm of speech and dance in which dance ‘speaks’, three new solo ‘practice sharings’ were created to gather information about the resonant impact of the practice on audience members. The presence of resonance indicates that a relational engagement with the dancer’s being has been encountered and that the perception of the dancer has shifted away from body–object terms. The practice of Speakingdance provides a meaningful purpose for the use of speech in contemporary dance – to perform the dancer’s sense of being and promote a resonant relationship between the dancer and individual audience members. Further to this, the practice has revealed a particular conceptualization of being through what has been termed the ‘internal-being-construct’. This article encapsulates some of the findings of academic research on the topic of dance and speech which is only just emerging and contributes a unique discussion of the of the dancer’s ontology.

This article delves into the complex interplay between tradition and modernity, exploring the profound spiritual undercurrents within Chinese artistic expression, specifically through the lens of traditional poetry and Kunqu dance. At the core of this investigation is the potential of Kunqu’s embodied practice, which weaves together poetic voice and dance movement, to transcend mere aesthetic pursuits and become a conduit for spiritual experience, fostering self-awareness and a deeper connection with nature. Employing an interdisciplinary framework that combines theoretical insights with practical experience, this research examines the symbiotic relationship between voice and movement within Kunqu Opera. Through critical analysis and eco-somatic practice, it addresses pivotal questions concerning the connection between poetry and Kunqu dance, the significance of poetic voice and the potential for a renewed practice that integrates poetic voice and Kunqu dance to facilitate a spiritual journey rooted in historical, philosophical and aesthetic foundations. The findings suggest that reimagining Kunqu through an eco-somatic lens not only rejuvenates these traditional arts but also underscores their relevance in addressing contemporary spiritual and ecological challenges across cultural boundaries. This study aims to expand the understanding of cultural practices as vehicles for spiritual exploration, advocating for a more nuanced appreciation of traditional arts within the modern spiritual landscape.

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 Philosophy in the Flesh and Eliot Wolfson’s The Body in the Text, 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.

In this article – a combination of video and text – I source from the Judaica project laboratory session above to analyse the phenomenon of voice as a vessel in the context of the Grotowski lineage of theatre practice. Using phenomenology and autoethnography, I bring together the reflections from two performers–researchers improvising in the session: Ben Spatz and myself.¹ The improvisation I refer to became prolific material for further scholarly and artistic work. Namely, it supported my process of formulating a notion of dreamvoice² discussed in this article. Therefore, I use the reflections from this session as a springboard to analyse the performative, psychophysical and spiritual aspects of the voice becoming a vessel of personal and collective unconscious.³