Faculty Forum to Examine Lessac Kinesensics

The Truman Faculty Forum will continue with “A Workshop On Lessac Kinesensics: Voice and Body Work Onstage and Off” by Dana Smith, professor of theatre, at 7 p.m. March 30 in Baldwin Little Theater.

Presentation Abstract:
Lessac Kinesensic training is a holistic and creative approach to developing the voice and the body for greater flexibility, power and expressiveness. Originally known only to theatre professionals, Kinesensics has now become recognized as applicable to many endeavors in life, from vocal training and speech therapy to ESL, sports and fitness, and learning how to sing.
 
The presentation will introduce the audience to simple and natural behaviors of the body, or body climates, which may be used to improve physical and vocal functioning. These body NRGs (“energies,” or neural regenerative growth) possess cognate vocal NRGs that employ a musical metaphor for the treatment of voice training. Kinesensic work involves a bio-neural, feeling process; students are asked to resist the habit of listening to their voices, and instead to feel the sound as a bone-conducted tonal current that can bypass the ears. By learning to sense or feel sound and motion in the body, students gather crucial information to use as organic instructions for optimal body and voice functioning.
 
Smith will demonstrate each of the NRGs at work on a piece of text. Participants will be introduced to each of the NRGs in a series of physical and vocal explorations that illustrate the core concepts of Kinesensic training. Smith will perform a series of “trinities,” or the use of all seven NRGs in a single piece of text, and will close with a discussion of real-world applications of kinesensic training for non-actors.