Voice of Release ATHENS INTENSIVE

Embodied Voice Practices: Voice of Release ATHENS INTENSIVE Led By Julianna Bloodgood WHEN: June 16-19. 10:00- 17:00. 28 hours WHERE: String Theory (now PLYFA), Athens, Greece COST: 250€ early bird before June 1/ Student discount 200€

REGISTER: Julianna.bloodgood@gmail.com

Full body, full breath, full emotion, full potential.

An embodied approach to vocal training which utilizes somatic practices and vocal technique to bring about the awareness, awakening and activation of your authentic voice. Exploration of voice as experienced through the body and the space around us. The body is our gateway to all creative sources, and from the body we begin our investigation of voice, sounding, song, text and musicality through a dynamic exploration of the origins of sound. Through a flow of movement and breath we can awaken sound vibrations within the body -resonating the bones and tissues- creating a visceral understanding of the voice and enliven new possibilities for song, text, vocal improvisation and all communication.

The Voice of Release is a special approach to vocalising which focusing on the act of giving voice to one's emotions is a transformative process and something that we collectively lack in our contemporary structures. Vocal lament has been found present in every traditional culture on the planet, and has served as a platform for community support and healing for millennia. Part of our unique human experience is that we are able to give shape and substance to our feelings through art; transmuting our inner experiences of pain, grief and mourning into something that can be shared, witnessed, supported and released. It is a natural process. Through shared and held space, witness and support of community and the powerful act of vocalising, our feelings can become a thing of beauty that we can transform and release.

A four day intensive workshop exploring our personal vocal expression of emotions. The first days we will begin to activate our voices and bodies, attuning ourselves to a gentle process of releasing breath, sound and emotion. We will then cycle through different creative processing and vocal release techniques and Julianna will lead guided practices of creating personal laments that are supported by the group. These personal laments can be specific or broad and serve as a creative, safe and healing process. We will conclude the process with creative and physical integration, beginning and ending our process with lightness and joy.

**This work is not meant as therapy, although it can be therapeutic. This is a creative and basic human process of accessing voice and emotions through the body that everyone can connect to on personal, collective and archetypal levels. Julianna is a voice and body practitioner, not a mental health professional and so participation is not advised if one is struggling with a mental health issue or is in a state of acute grief.