After attending the Nia Brown Belt training in 2013, I made a commitment to myself that I would have a personal yearly ‘theme’. Much like the focus and intent that we have during a Nia class. As an example, one year my focus was on the feet, another year it was the hara-heart-head. Once I have a focus, I then set up a daily practise around this and take it through the year. This year I thought it may be interesting to you if I shared my personal journey that led to my focus… “giving it voice” I suppose.
This is the story of how 2020 became the Year of the Voice
I don't really know when it became the Year of the Voice. I guess it was a gradual stacking of many things that had this common theme. Somewhere along the way I had the realisation that there was a commonality and then this is what it became.
During 2019 we received the announcement that Lis Addison would be touring Australia and New Zealand. Lis is an accomplished musician from California and has had a relationship with Nia for a long time. If you attend my classes, you would be familiar with her music and may recall dancing to a routine called Source at the beginning of 2019. The music for Source was written and produced by Lis.
As part of her tour Lis is offering personal growth workshops that incorporate song and dance, liberating that wise voice within and becoming an active listener of this voice. She will be offering her Kinetic Voice (KiVo) and Chakra Dance Training while she is here. This sparked my interest. The full details of her tour are on the Nia Australia website.
Another Australian tour announcement came in. This time by Nia's mother, the Voice of Nia herself, Debbie Rosas. She was, and still is, a leader in mindful movement. The body has a voice. The voice of the body speaks to us in sensation. When listened to, the voice of the body reveals The Body's Way. It guides us to move in holistic and safe ways. I am continually in awe, not only of Debbie's ability to sense and listen to this voice, but then to language it and create an integrated and sophisticated, not to mention fun, physical movement practise around it, is remarkable.
There's nothing sweeter than the voice of your own mother. Sometime around then I happened across a video taken at my son's 4th birthday party in 2003. My mother was still alive at that time and there she was in the video. It had been 12 years since I had heard her voice! Yes, there were tears... of joy and love and deeply held memories.
Meanwhile, my other son was on the Rotary Student Exchange program in Denmark for the whole of 2019 and, while parental contact was encouraged to be limited so the child could immerse themselves where they were, occasionally we spoke and my voice to him was like a healing balm, as his was for me. He described it as being “a beacon of safety”.
Debbie Rosas' voice, in her readings, has become like that to me... a nurturing, healing balm. During Debbie's Aussie tour she will be coming to Canberra! Imagine that, the co-founder of Nia, coming to visit us. She will be here 15-18 October 2020. You will have the opportunity to hear her voice for yourself. Her full program is available on the Nia Australia website as well.
There came another input when I was attracted to some music my son was listening to. This led to the inclusion of The HU's “Horse Head Fiddle Player” in last term's routine. The HU is a Mongolian rock band that uses traditional Mongolian instruments and Mongolian throat singing in their music. I became one of the 25 million YouTube viewers of “Wolf Totem”, and fascinated by throat singing. How do they do that? The resonance possible from this part of our anatomy, and sometimes two notes from the one voice box at the same time! Listening and dancing with this throat activation several times a week over the term cleared a blockage I had held in this area and was accompanied by a memory of being told to “shut up”. Yep, the healing power of Nia through movement and music.
In mid 2019 I met Julianne Bolton, Alexander Technique teacher. As a bit of background, Frederick Alexander (1869–1955), who developed the Alexander Technique, was a Tasmanian Shakespearean actor. He developed recurrent voice loss during his performances. Because there was no medical cause for his voice loss, he examined what he was doing and came to realise that his posture was interfering with his speech. He was able to change his posture and resolve his voice loss problem. Again my attention was taken in the direction of the voice.
It was at the end of the Alexander Technique + Nia Workshop with Julianne, that Maria Stewart approached me and suggested doing a workshop specifically for the voice. Yes, absolutely! You would know Maria if you come to Thursday night's Nia class. She is a highly skilled and experienced drama teacher. She knows about the voice. Plans for the workshop are underway and will be on the Saturday, 28th March 2020. I will be creating the event and a link to this soon.
On a wider scale, I have been impressed and also fascinated by the rising voice of Greta Thunberg. One young voice has the influence to activate the collective! The voice of the planet has been shouting out loud for a long time, as demonstrated locally by our recent weather extremes - smoke, fires, hail, dust storms, record high temperatures, big winds, drought. Time to speak up and time to listen! I would love to write another blog on our collective dysfunction and taking ownership around climate change! Later.
And that is how I came to choose the theme of the Year of the Voice! Here we go.... let the ROARing 2020s begin.
PS I have been invited to join in with a Sea Shanty singing group!