How often do you sing or make music with others in your day-to-day life?
How often do you dance, and move in rhythm and connection with others?
For many of us, the answer is not so often.
For many modern-day cultures, dance, song, and music are not woven into the fabric of everyday life, but are reserved for the gifted performers or artists, while the rest are spectators or listeners.
Humans are movers and music-makers and singers by nature. It is our original language. Perfectly tuned pentatonic bone flutes have been found in caves from 40,000 years ago, drums are estimated to go back 100,000 years. Dance and song have been central to human culture for the vast majority of our time on this planet.
Many of us just need a context of learning and play to dust off our forgotten movement, musical, rhythmic and melodic intelligence.
I spent the first 25 years of my life thinking I could not keep a beat or hold a note. I thought I had missed the musical boat in childhood. It wasn't until my late 20's that I found a context of learning around voice and rhythm, that I realized that my body knows rhythm and pulse and there was a remembering of how natural and joyful it was to sing with others, and to experience the natural, uncontrived sound of my own voice in harmony and resonance with other voices.
In these classes, we will have a context for learning, play, and connection that welcomes musicians and singers, along with those who do not think they are musicians or can sing. We will cultivate beginner's mind, and learn how to listen, how to remember our rhythmic and vocal intelligence as we make some beautiful spontaneous music together. The gatherings will include:
- movement explorations to free the spine, hips, breath and support freedom of movement and expression
- practices to free restrictions around voice and breath
- body-music: the original instrument of our chest, claps, snaps, stomps
- circlesongs: spontaneous weaving vocals songs
- Musica do Circulo games to learn skills for improvisation, expression and connection
- learning to step and move with the pulse and rhythm
- call and response games
- singing and moving for the joy of it, without the pressures of performance of perfection
Please note that you certainly do not need to have any singing experience or be comfortable with singing to join. We welcome all the shy, quiet voices in the room to participate as well as those who are comfortable in this terrain. This is not about performance, but rather offers us the primary satisfaction of bringing our unique voices together, and the feeling of relaxing into our naturally free, uncontrived breath and voice.
Cost $30
July 20th 7-9pm Full Circle Yoga SLC, This workshop is full
August 12th 6-8pm Online on Zoom (recording provided to all who sign up, whether or not you can join live) The online gathering has been rescheduled.
August 27th 6-8pm Lindsey Gardens, SLC, Utah Register here
Scholarships or discounts available if needed
Carl Rabke is a Somatic Naturalist, Embodiment teacher, and a tender of soul and living culture. For the last 25 years, he has practiced and taught where the streams of somatics, soul-work, and a deep love of this living Earth meet. He is a Feldenkrais Practitioner and Rolfer, and loves to support people in returning to, and remembering our natural, inherent intelligence in movement, meditation, ritual, song, rhythm and community. Carl has studied at Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs School and is a Musica do Circulo practitioner. He has studied voice work with George Grant, Judi Vinar and Zuza Goncalves. He has mentored with Jozef Frucek of Fighting Monkey. Carl has also mentored with and taught alongside Francis Weller, and co-hosts the online Soulful Life Community. Carl also hosts the Embodiment Matters Podcast with his beloved wife, Erin. You can find out more about him here.