Intensive Lessac Kinesensic Workshop: a reflection

The workshop was endorsed by the Lessac Research and Training Institute in New York (USA). The workshop was organised by extraordinary professor in the department and Lessac Master Teacher, Marth Munro and lecturer in the drama department and Certified Lessac Instructor, Morné Steyn. Munro and Steyn, together with Lessac Master Teacher Nancy Krebs van die Baltimore School of the Arts (VSA) en gesertifiseerde Lessac instruktrise Valentina Lončarić from the University of Rijeka (Croatia) formed the team of instructors for the workshop. Participants from South Africa, Croatia, the UK, USA, Australia and Brazil took part in the workshop.

Participants came from varied backgrounds, including drama lecturers and students from South African and international universities, young and veteran performers, opera singers, teachers and well-being practitioners. In drawing together people from various continents, the workshop explored principles of embodied knowledge and pedagogies that manifest (in differentiated ways) in multiple cultural paradigms and languages.

The Lessac approach offers a holistic, bio-sensory and creative approach to all aspects of body/voice development. The approach has transcended its historical origins in the theatre and has been made applicable to all verbal and non-verbal communication whether in life, in therapy or in the performing arts. Kinesensic training is a self-teaching, sensory-based process based on feeling the way the human body functions organically when it is free of adverse conditioning. Training in intensive workshops takes place over 6 days per week of intensive training using contact sessions in big groups, small groups, buddy sessions and weekly individual sessions, as well as self-study.

The workshop has become a landmark on the international voice training landscape and is a key building block in positioning the Drama Department at UP as an internationally recognised, multilingual African centre for the Lessac work.