In today’s episode we discuss the Feldenkrais Method with the help of Voice Professor Karen Clark. She takes us first on part of her journey in music and how the Feldenkrais Method came alive to her. She shows how it can be a foundational part of singing.
(3:25) Karen shows how music was a part of her growing up since she was young. This included having a grandfather who led singing in a church, as well as an uncle and great-uncle who traveled and taught people shaped note singing.
(5:30) She was introduced to early music through opera in college study.
(7:55) Karen had frustration in graduate school because teachers had tried to get her to be a mezzo soprano even thought was a true alto, a contralto.
(8:45) The Contralto voice has the color in their low registration—not like the mezzo singer. That beauty is in notes lower than the mezzo’s natural resonant spots.
(15:35) Somatic = “through the body”
(15:52) Moshe Feldenkrais developed a method of help with movement by looking at the structure of his own body, after he had a knee injury.
(17:25) Moshe designed lesson of awareness through movement. He said that we learn a lot about ourselves by listening to the body.
(18:25) Karen tried a class of Awareness of movement by Feldenkrais and it turned a light bulb on for her.
(19:05) There are awarenesses we can have in our body. These 5 things include: thinking, sensing, feeling, breathing, moving
(20:42)”Your whole psyche (what we’re studying) is how it supports the phonation of the vocal folds.”
(22:06) “You can know what you are supposed to be doing, but do you know how it feels?”
(23:35) Karen uses a Feldenkrais table to help her students explore the rib cage and what they notice.
(25:47) Feldenkrais is not fixing someone; it is saying how can we allow for movement and sensation?
(30:45) The Feldenkrais Method is used also in dance and physical therapy.
To contact Karen Clark find her on Facebook and YouTube at Karen R. Clark.
Or email her: karen.ree.clark@gmail.com
She would be happy to answer questions or refer you to someone for the Feldenkrais Method.
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