The complex relationship between our body, our breath, our emotions and our voice has been charted over many years. Recently this relationship has been addressed by a number of eminent neurologists and neuro-biologists such as Antonio Damasio, Candace Pert and Susanna Bloch, in addition to researchers into performance and creativity and those in the healing arts.
So close, even synonymous, is the relationship between the voice and the self, that there have been many journeys back and forth between healing modalities and the training of performers. Thus it is that with some forms of voice training, even though the ultimate objective is to prepare the individual for performance of some kind, there is inherent within them a strong healing element.
Fitzmaurice Voicework is one such approach, and you might attracted to this work as an actor, a singer, or someone who makes presentations to groups of people and/or as someone who is interested in the profound personal journey that can be made through finding one's true voice.
If you would like to gain some idea of what Fitzmaurice Voicework is, and what it might do for you, I would first ask you to imagine a guitar, or a violin, or any similar stringed instrument with a sound box. You might then imagine placing one of your hands as firmly as you can on the back of the sound box, and think of plucking one or more of the strings with the other hand. What do you imagine that the sound might be like? Certainly you could hear the pitch of the note as it would be sounded under any other circumstances, but it is probably a thin sound; a sound without richness and fullness; a sound without real volume; a sound that is flat and lacking expressivity. With your hand pressed on the sound box, the instrument is incapable of expressing the harmonics that give its sound richness, presence and an individualistic character.
Now imagine removing your hand from the surface of the sound box. Pluck the string again, and the sound will ring out with all of the harmonics and energy the instrument has: a rich, full expressive sound. With such free and full expression, you will even be able to discern differences in tonal quality between the same note being played on different instruments, between one guitar and another; between one violin and another.
In simplistic terms, the essential function of the initial phase of Fitzmaurice Voicework — referred to as destructuring — is to remove the 'hand' that presses on, and constrains, the sound box of your instrument, your body.
In reality, the 'hand' that inhibits your body is muscular tension. All of us experience it to some degree. For some, the muscular tensions that inhabit the body can be transitory, brought about by the events of each day, but for many — if not most — there is a degree of residual tension, a habitual binding of muscles in the body that can be envisaged as armor. For many people this armoring is so much part of their daily existence, and has been for so long, that they are not aware that is inhibiting them until their attention is drawn to it through the work. Wilhelm Reich, an eminent student of Freud, suggested that our emotional histories are stored in our musculature, a view which contemporary research into the body-mind would support, and that the desire, conscious or unconscious, to suppress the expression or experiencing of emotion leads to the muscular armoring and the shallow chest breathing that is common for so many of us today.
The aim, therefore, is to release the body's habitual patterns of muscular holding, to free the breath and to release the voice to express itself fully, with richness and resonance, imbued with true emotion, able to respond with motility to each and every impulse.
These patterns of muscular holding, and the attendant constraint of the breath and the motility of expression, however, being under the control of the autonomic nervous system, cannot be discharged by a conscious decision. There needs, therefore, to be another route to the release of the armoring and the breath and the true voice.
Fitzmaurice Voicework, provides the solution, actually engaging the services of the autonomic nervous system and the body's natural propensity to cure itself by shivering or tremoring. Shivering, or tremoring, also serves to relax the muscles; it also activates the muscles, which then burn more oxygen, which in turn requires us to breath more deeply.
Fitzmaurice Voicework, in this destructuring phase, uses tremors that can be found in a number of modified yoga positions to release habitual patterns of muscular holding; stubborn muscles can be helped to let go through the intervention of the teacher or trainer through the use of Shiatsu massage. Through the work, participants consistently reveal dimensions to their voices that were previously unimagined.
The second phase of Fitzmaurice Voicework aims to take the free and natural pattern of breathing that is the privilege of the infant, and the product of destructuring, and to simply manage it.
This second phase of the work is referred to as 'structuring' and here it is possible to utilize exercises adapted from T'ai Chi or Qigong to create a new habit for the breath and the voice. Built on the foundation of the released body and breath, it affords us an uninhibited control of such elements of vocal/physical expression as pitch; tempo; phrasing and volume, all of which is achieved with ease.
Susanna Bloch's research suggests a close relationship exists between our emotions and our pattern of breathing, so for performers — whether they be actors, singers or public speakers— the release of this armoring frees the breath/voice, and allows a much fuller range and intensity of emotion to be revealed, another dimension to your true voice. The performer/presenter, and the ideas embedded in the text of the play, the song or the presentation, come alive; one achieves a level of communication that allows those listening to transcend merely comprehending 'the words', instead, enabling the audience to find a relationship with the performer/presenter that exists on a truly empathetic level.
For performers and presenters alike, the Fitzmaurice Voicework, particularly when combined with other psycho-physical forms of training, also affords one the possibility for a much greater sense of presence when in front of an audience.
Fitzmaurice Voicework website: fitzmauricevoice.com
Roger Smart is a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, and has training in Shiatsu massage and Reiki, in addition to a number of psycho-physical modalities for the training of actors. He has taught voice and acting in university theatre programs in both his native England and in the States. During the past two and a half years he has regularly served as vocal and dialect coach for productions at Triad Stage in Greensboro. As well a teaching voice and acting workshops, Roger is also pursuing research towards a PhD through the University of London. His area of interest is somatic or psycho-physical approaches to training actors. He can be contacted at voice@roger-smart.com
