Movement and voice class description of the fourth day of a two week teaching period at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts in Helsinki. Students for the daily 3-hour classes came from different departments (dance, theatre, music, film, set design)

 Focus of the day: organs, specially heart and lungs, explored through breathing, touch, movement and sound.

 Warm-up:

Starting on the floor, we tune in and breath into to the weight of our body and its relation to gravity. The sense of weight brings our focus to the inner organs, feeling their shape and volume. We start to move from the organs by rolling and shifting weight on the floor. 

After some time, we add the the possibility of sounding from the organs. What kind of sound do they produce? While moving and sounding from the organs we start to develop the sense of support which is coming from the organs. Gradually this support brings us moving into higher levels and finally upright where we still continue to move and sound. We expand the organically round inner spaces towards the outside, filling the studio with our voluminous bodies.

Bodywork for the heart and lungs in trios: One person is the receiving one, the two others give touch.The receiving person is in the middle while the other two place their hands on her chest and shoulder plates. The intention of the hands is to give the sense of volume and space inside the chest area. The touching people start to walk around the chest and upper back area with calm and juicy touch, moving their way to the shoulders and further down along the arms and hands. 

Next, they take the person’s arms and shake and play with them. The person receiving the bodywork stays nicely passive, just feeling the weight of her arms. Then, as the receiving person exhales, the two people pull her arms on the sides, little bit like hanging the person on a washing line. Loosening the pull on the inhale, lengthening on the exhale. 

After that, they place themselves in front of the receiving person and take hold of her hands. The receiving person leans back while the two give counterweight as the arms stretch. Then they change to behind of the receiving person, take hold of her wrists while she leans forward like a ski-jumper. 

Then, they place the tip of their fingers (like a beak of a bird) on the sternum (on the heart centre) and on the vertebra between the shoulder plates and do a small circling movement. This is like polishing a diamond which is shining in front and back of the chest. After a while the receiving person can initiate a small circling movement from the chest herself. This can go on for a while. To finish, the touching people brush her body from the chest till the feet, finally staying down by the feet and planting them firmly to the earth. Changing roles.

 Opening the arms, lungs and heart: After the bodywork we walk in the space with wide open arms. We use the image of open wings fulfilling the space between us. This goes on quite a while and the arms-wings keep growing. Then we gather into a big circle with our wide stretched arms. As the arms grow, the chest stays soft and if we feel tiredness or pain, we sigh or laugh. Then, very slowly we start to bring the arms up, enjoying the feeling of the arms falling even more to the back. From up, the arms slowly descend like golden rain. The hands wash the face, throat, chest, diaphragm and arrive on to the belly.

 Sounding from the heart: We stay standing in the circle. One of us starts to make a long A-sound (like in Ah!), opening the arms and letting the sound come from the heart. Then “giving” the sound to the next person in the circle who picks it up, continues it and then gives it forward. The pitch of the sound doesn’t have to be the same but it’s nice to pick up a harmonious tone. As the A-sound goes around in the circle, it gradually starts to transform its shape, like a ball of energy changing from person to person. Finally there are many sounds going as these balls of energy have multiplied. Free improvisation to finish off.

 Breathing through the feet: We make a circle once more in standing and start to breath through our feet. The idea is that as we inhale (through the mouth) we think down towards the earth and when we exhale (through the mouth) we move the breath upwards. We do this also physically by flexing the knees and reaching with our hands towards the floor as we inhale. One nice image is a big wide dress which reaches to the earth as we invite the air in through our feet and sitting bones. On the exhale we straighten the legs and elevate our arms towards the ceiling. The support is all the time coming from the connection to the earth through the feet and sitting bones. Another image is of a tree with its roots (the feet) and the trunk and branches (the arms) which is gently moving in the wind. Solid and flexible in the same time. As we get more familiar with this way of breathing, we can add a soft sound fulfilled with air when we exhale. This we do by opening the mouth wide on the exhale and letting the air play in the spaces of our body. 

After playing with this breathing and images, we just roll down to the floor and bring the feet up, shaking them toward the ceiling. Relaxing, finishing the class.