somatic voices in performance research and beyond
Our Research
The project
Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond introduces a new and multidisciplinary area of somatic research with international practitioner-researchers from the fields of dance, theatre-performance, voice and socio-political studies.
Voice-based practices bring forward theoretical ideas from embodied philosophies and pedagogies to ethnic-racial and queer studies.
The background
The project is a further development of Dr Christina Kapadocha's PhD research Being an actor / becoming a trainer: the embodied logos of intersubjective experience in a somatic acting process (2016). This Practice-as-Research PhD critically develops an original actor-training methodology challenging dualistic binaries of mind-body, inner-outer, self-other and the universalising of embodied experience through the original notion of embodied logos. Due to the physiovocal nature of Christina's practice and the theoretical examination of logos in her research, an organic dialogue emerged with the field of voice studies. So, within her broader focus on developing multidisciplinary research communities that investigate multiple takes on the somatic in the 21st century, for this project she focused on the multiplicity and interrelational dynamics of somatic voices.
What's new to the approach?
The originality of this project lies upon three main elements:
- It offers a new area of vocal and somatic praxis (theory within practice)
- It brings in relation not only somatic, theatre-performance and voice practices but also these practices with theoretical criticism
- It introduces somatic research methodologies for doing and disseminating diverse interrelations between embodiment and voicing
A mapping of this originality can be seen in the following Figure from the book Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond, coming out from Routledge in October 2020.
Concept by the author. Graphic design by Vivianna Chiotini. © Christina Kapadocha
Project aims
- Drawing attention to the somatic field for further advancements in embodied aspects of voice through multidisciplinary vocal praxis
- Foregrounding vocal and embodied polyphony
- Proposing various forms of somatic listening as a broader methodology towards ethical awareness and socio-political change
- Filling a significant gap in the fields of voice, theatre-performance and somatic studies, artistic research and pedagogies
Outcomes
The first part of the project was cultivated as part of The Somatic in Theatre and Performance Research Gathering (Corfu, Greece) in August 2018.
Outcomes of this phase include:
- an interactive post for the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training blog
- a video article for the Practice Research Advisory Group (PRAG) UK
This was followed by research activities at East 15 Acting School including:
- A 5-hour workshop with Patricia Bardi (November 17, 2018) towards the composition of an interviewing chapter
- A guest seminar by Dr Ben Macpherson on Sensing, singing, streaming (May 4, 2019)
- A 2-day praxical symposium (July 19-20, 2019) *Please note that: Response #1 by Judah Attille is video no 5 and Response #2 by Fabiano Culora is video no 4
Principle outcome of this phase:
The above activities informed the composition and writing of the edited collection Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond (available October 2020) for Routledge Voice Studies series.
You can watch the 'Virtual Book Launch' video here.
