WHO IS VOICE TRAINING FOR?
This work is for EVERYONE who doesn’t feel heard or doesn’t feel permission to be heard. It’s also for anyone with habitual tension that wants help getting rid of it. It’s served actors, C.E.O.’s, and members of the U.N., but my classes aren’t geared towards a particular profession. My philosophy is: all voices deserve to be heard, all voices deserve to be free.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
My approach is deeply rooted in the ideas and practices of Kristin Linklater. Her philosophy centers around the idea that our body, emotions, voice, and identity are all part of a unified whole. Similar to the Vinyasa Yoga practiced here in the U.S., this work reconnects us to our bodies, but goes a couple steps further by connecting our bodies to our voices, and our voices to our thoughts and feelings. This is no small task, but I accomplish it by leading exercises that illicit gut-instinct responses to imaginary stimuli. Our body-minds already know how to respond naturally, we just have to give them the freedom to do so.
What’s behind the scenes, though, is the careful anatomical research and pain-staking attention to detail that goes into the creation of each exercise. It’s not always necessary for you to know how a yawn, for example, is oxygenating your blood, waking up your soft palate, and loosening habitual throat tensions. I’ve got that homework covered. But it is necessary for you to feel the relief that a good yawn can give you. That’s where the magic is.
HOW I FOUND MY VOICE
I began studying Freeing The Natural Voice, Kristin’s seminal book, when I was 19, and was lucky enough to be taught by designated teacher Joe Alberti while getting my undergrad at the University of New Mexico. Then, while deciding to make the shaky leap into grad-school, I learned that Kristin Linklater was actually still teaching! I set my sites on her Masters’ program at Columbia University, and had the great luck and privilege to be in the last class of actors that she taught there.
I’m now on the long, rich path to becoming a Designated Linklater Teacher (Summer 2023!), and exercising this teaching muscle is both an honor and a joy!