Excerpts from my Journal at the Lessac 2007 Intensive

As I have been applying for grants to continue studying Lessac Kinesensic Training in 2008 I found this document in which I've typed in some of my discoveries from the 2007 Intensive. I am happy to share these experiences to give people a greater sense of both my experience of the work, and also the method itself as an experiential process. Any questions, please don't hesitate to drop me a line! Enjoy!

“The idea that “breath is easy” is like a whole amazing world – it always gets over taught, I have spent so much of my training TRYING to breathe right, yet the simple idea of smelling a flower unlocks the tensions and judgements that are imposed when you “learn how to breathe”. It is a HUMAN PROCESS. We can all do it, we just don’t always do it well, or rather, we don’t let ourselves do it well.”

“This work touches on so much of what I have done, but is so much more accessible. I love that it isn’t being presented as a puzzle that I have to figure out. The work, to me, explains itself and it is truly relative to anyone. I am excited that it is going to extend me in so many ways.”

“Everything I have been addressing within myself within these past 6 months is manifesting in this work. The philosophies and self-realisations that I have been establishing are explored by this work in a fantastically synergistic way.”

“I was worried earlier that this work would be difficult to take back to Australia, but the more I think about it, actually, the more I experience it, the less concerned I am about it. The work justifies itself and that is what is so amazing about it – it is instant. And it is instant because the building blocks exist within you, the method just helps you find them and channel them.”

“It is so enriching to discover a new way of working”

“we don’t need to “break” our habits, we want to transform them into another kind of energy. To create something positive out of something potentially damaging. It can be likened to when you watch a performer who is 100% totally committed to their moments on stage, that every part of them down to their toes is engaged in what they are doing. This would be the optimal situation for an actor/performer. When one part of them is moving or not moving, out of tune, with the rest of their performance, their focus and awareness cannot possibly be 100% engaged in the act they are performing. Thus this awareness and perception idea is vital to developing actors and performers who are 100% IN THE MOMENT.”

“LACK OF FOCUS (however minimal)
Becomes
TOTAL FOCUS (through an awareness and transformation into positive helpful energy)
This brings up so many things about performers self confidence, body image, social image and how these things can potentially damage a performers ability if they aren’t transformed into new, positive “habits” of feeling good about oneself, trusting oneself etc. This paves the way for so much more potential development and extension.”

“An instrument cannot change its size or shape – it is not pliable – the human voice is pliable and changeable – it grows it changes all the time, it is constantly in changing states.”

“You have more control through feeling than you do through thinking and listening”

“So much of what I (and the rest of society) do or have done is because of the need to “look good” in the eyes of other people. Regardless of whether it “feels” good, we rely on the external perception of good at the expense of actually feeling good physically and mentally” ((not realising that if we feel good above everything else, we look good anyway!!))

“In the same way that a teenagers voice and expression is camouflaged because they are protecting themselves, so too is the way they dress and move. This lasts! If they don’t ever find a sense of freedom in WHAT FEELS GOOD, they can only ever work with what they have taught their bodies and voices to do. That isn’t fair!!! Everyone should be able to feel good.”

“It is not a competition as to which experience is most important, a piano can play Beethoven or chopsticks and whoever is playing it still hears and feels the music, whether they are learning or are an expert. Every experience has a place to go and be and have time and have “its moment” of focus or stage time. Just because that moment ends, it doesn’t mean that the experience is gone. Just because the song is over it doesn’t mean it was never played or heard. The memory of it and the sensation it invoked remain and will always exist somewhere.”

“This work enhances the perceived possibilities, it makes you develop as a person and therefore as an actor/singer/performer. It must be within you before you can send it out.”

“each tiny process e.g. “energy qualities are physically felt and perceived, then tuned and used for creative expression”, keeps radiating like a blossoming flower into bigger versions of itself. It’s like a chain reaction growing and strengthening.”

““holistic unifiers” so that everything is working as one, complementary to itself and its environment – like swimming or moving through water – you cannot isolate or you will sink or go in circles, you must have a synchronicity within yourself to maintain flotation and continual movement.”
“I have been stuck as a singer, listening to myself without realising. The notion of it “feeling good” is not part of how I sing, granted if it feels bad I stop and remedy it so it doesn’t feel bad, but to actively seek feeling good, that is such an essential realisation!!”

“everyone makes a sound differently, everyone makes all sound differently, this exploration gave choices in the pathway of discovering sound/vibration”

“This exploration was… an excellent way to explore creating sounds and would be a great way to work with people with speech problems or to workshop an accent”

“so many people will make the sounds in different ways, and this… opens up choices – what works best for you in your accent in your vocal make up and how do you “feel good” in the optimum way within that sound…. THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY AND EVERY WAY HAS ITS PLACE.”

“this work creates an habitual awareness rather than a new set of habits”

“It’s exciting to have a framework and a working vocabulary for the stuff I have come to do in my own personal development. Its also helpful to be able to taper or streamline and detail that process with different ways to “link”. These rules or guides are a great tool in refining and detailing speech. Once this stuff becomes ingrained I can’t wait to feel that amazing!!! I have always enjoyed singing and speaking. Now I will be able to enjoy them all the time, not just when I’m working up to and on a show – getting my voice “back in shape” – it is always in shape, I need to coax it out of shape and into new shapes where it can feel good in different ways”

“now I can approach exploration with a new intention – TO FEEL GOOD rather than TO MAKE IT BETTER or GET IT RIGHT. That is so VITAL!”