5.3 Exercises for grounding and inner body flow
Before we started working on my study plan Fajo gave me tools in order to help me to ground better and to find my inner flow. He suggested that I should do a few of them each day and especially before I practise vocally. I recorded two sessions wherein Fajo gave me tools for grounding and inner body flow.
5.3.1 Grounding
In order to ground strongly, it is of paramount importance that the soles of the feet are in full contact with the ground. With this I mean that all sensors in the feet should be active. Every part of the soles of the feet should feel the ground. This is not a natural connection everyone makes automatically. I have had surgery on my right foot, for which I never had any rehabilitation. This caused improper development of the right foot, resulting in a disturbed balance of my body weight on my feet. This was discovered after consulting a podiatrist only recently. Although I was aware of this, I had no clue of its impact on my body flow. Fajo explained that in order to create body flow, helping me to place my gestures, I need to work on the sensory part of my foot soles. In our first work session Fajo gave me several different exercises to do at home or in the practising room in order to create more sensitivity in my feet. We recorded everything, but due to the extreme length of the video I did not put it on the Research Catalogue. In trial 9, which you find in section 5.4.3, I execute some of the exercises.
5.3.2 Inner body flow
In the next video, Fajo hands me tools to create a stronger inner body flow which will help me to find a deeper physical sensation. The aim is to create a sensation of a stream running through my body. As I mentioned before, this flow should have a vertical centre. In other words, I should feel a bundled line of energy flowing through my body. It may be of help to imagine that my spine is the long vertical line through which the energy flows. To create this inner sensation, I must first know how to align properly. In video 1 Fajo gives me some exercises to help me with this.
VIDEO 1:
00:00-00:40 : Firstly, Fajo corrected my posture. I tend to lean too much forwards with my pelvis.
00:40-08:40 : Then he helped me to find a proper alignment to make me go down in a straight line. I tend to push my weight into my knees when I go down, which is wrong. Fajo explained me how to create a correct straight line by giving me instructions such as: ‘Glue your head to the ceiling’ (which helps the shoulders to relax and the upper body to remain in an active stance), ‘Go straight down with your centre’ (this is the middle of the pelvis).
*** The centre gives our movement direction. Our bodies move from out of the centre. The centre goes first, then the rest of the body follows (see Image 1 and Explanation image 1).
The inner body-flow will serve as the fuel for my physical expression. It will help me to strengthen and direct the inner experience or sensation I associate with the meaning of the words when I sing. If this sensation flows through my arms, they will start to move and create gestures contributing to what I say, which results in my gestures becoming more natural and free. Therefore, it is important to know how the hand and arms can translate this inner energy.
In video 2 Fajo gives me an exercise to let my inner flow continuously stream from my foot soles to my finger tips where the energy then leaves the body. The full stretch of the arm is initiated from out of the soles of the feet. Through this exercise I train my body to create gestures which are supported from out of the whole body and not only from out of the shoulders or the hips. What I mean with this is that the impulse for my gesture would then only be initiated from out of these single places in the body. In this case other body parts are left out, because the inner flow for singing goes up and not down, as Fajo said. If the impulse comes from the hips, which Fajo noticed happening in my gestures, the legs are left out, which means that my body can’t get the energy it needs from the floor and therefore is not grounded, thus unstable. This mostly results into a tension in the upper body part which affects the muscles needed for singing.
However, it should be noted that in order to create a strong foundation with the floor there should be a stream also going down into the floor. This stream does not come from the top of the head but from the centre of the body which is located in the pelvic area (see Image 1 and Explanation image 1). To help this flow, you can imagine yourself as a tree with its roots in the ground. The upward flow is your energy fuel from the ground, just as with trees. The only difference is that this flow goes through the spine and divides into the arms and the top of your head. Fajo mentioned that eventually I will develop this flow to not only leave the top of my head and my fingertips, but also through the skin of my whole body as well! This is still difficult to understand, so for the sake of this research we did not go deeper into this.
It is important that during singing there is a continuous feeling of an upwards and downwards moving stream. To train the awareness of this feeling, I can use my breath as well. Each time I inhale I suck my energy from the ground and each time I exhale I give a tension back to the ground. By alternating this in a continuous way and practising this for a long time, I eventually feel the streaming though my body in both directions at the same time. In the exercise in video 3 I remind myself sometimes of this feeling by breathing out strongly. I noticed that otherwise my breath tends to hesitate.
VIDEO 2:
01:00 - 01:39: Fajo asked me to slide with my feet over the floor, like ice skating, to keep the connection strong between the soles of the feet and the ground. He mentioned that the sliding movements should each time be initiated out of the centre. In addition he said to make my hips soft, which should help to make the ice-skating movements softer as well.
01:39 – 02:00: This movement of the arm going up should stay initiated from the soles of the feet. I need to feel a continuous stream flowing through my body from out of the ground into my finger tips.
02:00 – 2:30: Fajo mentions that he can see something vocally happening. With this he means that the upgoing flow I create passes the vocal cords on its way to leaving the top of the head. The energy of the flow activates the vocal cords and prepares them before they start to vibrate by a flow of air.
2:30-3:07: I say that the ice skating movements are becoming a bit heavy. Fajo advises me to imagine the feeling of ice skating. He says this stimulates the same sort of sensation in the feet.
11:30-13:05: Fajo asks me to sing some lines from the Habanera from the opera Carmen (George Bizet) without speaking the words. “Feel free” he said to me before we started, “Do not think about what you are going to sing”. The idea of this was just to let the flow go through my body to see what already happens with the arms.
VIDEO 3:
4:36-8:30: Here I am completely free to sing whatever vocal line I prefer. Fajo also let me be free to move.
Personal comments:
The overall experience this has given me is great. I felt more and more free and indeed experienced a flow through my whole body during the 2 hours I worked with Fajo. Also, my vocal sensation was pleasant. The only issue I felt somewhat disconnected from was my breath support. The support for my higher notes did not feel the same as it usually feels. However, I probably was so much focused on the feeling of ‘inner flow’ that other aspects were forgotten a bit. To combine all aspects together, further practise is mandatory.
Conclusions:
Thus, in order to create a natural feeling in the placement of my gestures I should continue with the exercises Fajo gave to improve my grounding and inner body flow. Fajo assured me that if I continue to carry out these exercises on regular basis my gestures will become more free and more natural. In the coming sessions before we start to work on my study plan I will use the exercises Fajo has given me as a preparation for my gestures.
