A series of creative movement workshops for musicians - online & live
Led by Alexandra Baybutt and Maya Felixbrot
Led by Alexandra Baybutt and Maya Felixbrot
P l a y A s Y o u A r e introduces practical movement tools to support your creative practice and sustainability/health as a musician. It draws from concepts for movement analysis from the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS), presented in PAYA as a somatic practice (through the felt-sense of the body) with an emphasis on creative exploration.
LBMS is a comprehensive system used to understand and explore many aspects of human movement patterns. LBMS is unique as it identifies both the qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of movement, taking into account functional as well as expressive content.
LBMS is a comprehensive system used to understand and explore many aspects of human movement patterns. LBMS is unique as it identifies both the qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of movement, taking into account functional as well as expressive content.
develop your creative practice
deepen your embodiment and movement facility
dedicate time to reflection, celebration and inspiration
deepen your embodiment and movement facility
dedicate time to reflection, celebration and inspiration
Upcoming dates focus on:
9 December | Resonating Body
20 January | The Pulse of Expression
25 February | Play as They Are
More dates coming up! keep in touch and join our mailing list for updates
What happened to working with the seasons?
We decided to hold more regular workshops instead of four per year! We are still committed to thinking cyclically and exploring points of transition.
nurture
As the sun’s path seemingly pauses, PAYA is a space to nurture your practice, body and inspiration as a creative artist and whole person.
pause
Each workshop is an invitation to pause, to reflect personally and professionally on where you have come from and celebrate your achievements of the previous three months, and consider where you are going in your practice next.
ground
Each workshop is a space to ground, listen into your body, sound and interests. What impulses have come to fruition? What ideas still persist? What niggles in your practice endure or have appeared?
How do you sense your body?
discover
PAYA is a regular check-in and top-up. A commitment to yourself, an accountability group, a creative space for process and discovery.
We decided to hold more regular workshops instead of four per year! We are still committed to thinking cyclically and exploring points of transition.
nurture
As the sun’s path seemingly pauses, PAYA is a space to nurture your practice, body and inspiration as a creative artist and whole person.
pause
Each workshop is an invitation to pause, to reflect personally and professionally on where you have come from and celebrate your achievements of the previous three months, and consider where you are going in your practice next.
ground
Each workshop is a space to ground, listen into your body, sound and interests. What impulses have come to fruition? What ideas still persist? What niggles in your practice endure or have appeared?
How do you sense your body?
discover
PAYA is a regular check-in and top-up. A commitment to yourself, an accountability group, a creative space for process and discovery.
Frequently asked questions
Who is it for?
PAYA is for:
- Musicians of all kinds
- All instruments - strings, wind, brass, keys, percussion, vocalists
- All styles - from classical to folk, experimental, pop, etc.; acoustic, digital, analogue...
- Other makers and practitioners who work with sound and music as a discipline or tool are also welcome. For example, dancers/choreographers who work with musicians, visual artists who work with sound objects, arts therapists working with music and sound
If this workshop sounds interesting to you, but you’re not sure if you are suitable, please get in touch with us for a chat.
If you participated in our taster workshops expect to go deeper into topics already presented and address new ones.
If you’re new to us, welcome!
PAYA is for:
- Musicians of all kinds
- All instruments - strings, wind, brass, keys, percussion, vocalists
- All styles - from classical to folk, experimental, pop, etc.; acoustic, digital, analogue...
- Other makers and practitioners who work with sound and music as a discipline or tool are also welcome. For example, dancers/choreographers who work with musicians, visual artists who work with sound objects, arts therapists working with music and sound
If this workshop sounds interesting to you, but you’re not sure if you are suitable, please get in touch with us for a chat.
If you participated in our taster workshops expect to go deeper into topics already presented and address new ones.
If you’re new to us, welcome!
Where & when it is?
9 December | Resonating Body | ONLINE and LIVE in Amsterdam
20 January | The Pulse of Expression | ONLINE and LIVE in Tel-Aviv
25 February | Play As They Are | ONLINE and LIVE in Amsterdam
Time: Each workshop is two hours long, 7pm-9pm CET (6pm-8pm GMT)
Asynchronous participation: Sessions will be recorded and made available to participants unable to join ‘live’
9 December | Resonating Body | ONLINE and LIVE in Amsterdam
20 January | The Pulse of Expression | ONLINE and LIVE in Tel-Aviv
25 February | Play As They Are | ONLINE and LIVE in Amsterdam
Time: Each workshop is two hours long, 7pm-9pm CET (6pm-8pm GMT)
Asynchronous participation: Sessions will be recorded and made available to participants unable to join ‘live’
How much is it?
Full price 15€-40€ / £13-£34 - 2 workshops
Sliding scale 10€-20€ - £9-£17 - 1 workshop drop-in price
*What does sliding scale mean? you can pay as much as you like within the given range.
For more info about payments & refund policy and discount go here
Full price 15€-40€ / £13-£34 - 2 workshops
Sliding scale 10€-20€ - £9-£17 - 1 workshop drop-in price
*What does sliding scale mean? you can pay as much as you like within the given range.
For more info about payments & refund policy and discount go here
Mentors
PAYA is supported through creative mentorship from Geerte de Koe and Karen Studd with the interest in rigorous pedagogical integrity, precision and innovation with LBMS, and commitment to artistic development relevant for musicians.
PAYA is supported through creative mentorship from Geerte de Koe and Karen Studd with the interest in rigorous pedagogical integrity, precision and innovation with LBMS, and commitment to artistic development relevant for musicians.
Please note that this workshop applies LBMS to musicianship. It is not intended as a training in Laban Movement Analysis but would contribute some hours towards the prerequisites for participation in such training.
Short descriptions of the Play As You Are workshops
If playing music for an audience is sending and receiving resonance, and music is the movement of sound waves in space, what does this mean in practice through the body?
Resonance is a constant occurrence. Referring to an instrument as a ‘body’ means welcoming that each body has its own individual resonance and capacity. Sensing your body and other bodies is to co-create sound that emerges from your movement to its movement, its potential movement with yours.
This workshop addresses vibration of body, instrument and space. We will pay attention to inner sensation: of the flow of fluids, of the density of organs, of the cavities and spaces of the body that bridge to the space and air beyond it.
We will explore how your whole body flows, adapts and supports the relationships with your instrument. Known as ‘Shaping’ in LBMS, this means the movement of changing relationships in and around an object, and how your inner contents move in and around each other. In an ongoing response to inner and outer sensory information - the contact of skin, of hearing, of proprioception (where you sense yourself in space) - resonating bodies are in constant adaptive motion. Recognising the ongoing movement of your cells and Shaping in playing means vibrancy can be deeply felt, and resonance communicated.
Resonance is a constant occurrence. Referring to an instrument as a ‘body’ means welcoming that each body has its own individual resonance and capacity. Sensing your body and other bodies is to co-create sound that emerges from your movement to its movement, its potential movement with yours.
This workshop addresses vibration of body, instrument and space. We will pay attention to inner sensation: of the flow of fluids, of the density of organs, of the cavities and spaces of the body that bridge to the space and air beyond it.
We will explore how your whole body flows, adapts and supports the relationships with your instrument. Known as ‘Shaping’ in LBMS, this means the movement of changing relationships in and around an object, and how your inner contents move in and around each other. In an ongoing response to inner and outer sensory information - the contact of skin, of hearing, of proprioception (where you sense yourself in space) - resonating bodies are in constant adaptive motion. Recognising the ongoing movement of your cells and Shaping in playing means vibrancy can be deeply felt, and resonance communicated.
This workshop approaches a range of expressive qualities in movement that affect how you work with your instrument, and therefore affect the sound. Patterns of phrasing, rhythms and impulses can be accessed through imagination, memory, association, the outer environment and moment to moment awareness of body impulses.
In LBMS, movement expressivity and communicative power can be understood through considering our inner attitudes towards decision, intention, attention and progress, and this part of the system is called ‘Effort’.
In the many decisions that we take when making music - is the exertion fast or slow? Do you use a lot of force with a strong intention or more lightly? How do you perceive where your movement is occurring? In one channelled direct spot, or does it spread to include more around yourself? Does your exertion in moving and playing feel fluid? How easy is it to keep on going, how easy is it to control or pause your flow?
Different pieces of music demand different dynamics, and different improvisation-performances elicit them. Different environments, contexts and distances to audiences, microphones and other musicians mean there are choices to be made and found. The emphasis in this workshop on dynamic qualities keeps relating back to the body and self as mediators of a vast range of moods, rhythms, pulses and impulses.
In LBMS, movement expressivity and communicative power can be understood through considering our inner attitudes towards decision, intention, attention and progress, and this part of the system is called ‘Effort’.
In the many decisions that we take when making music - is the exertion fast or slow? Do you use a lot of force with a strong intention or more lightly? How do you perceive where your movement is occurring? In one channelled direct spot, or does it spread to include more around yourself? Does your exertion in moving and playing feel fluid? How easy is it to keep on going, how easy is it to control or pause your flow?
Different pieces of music demand different dynamics, and different improvisation-performances elicit them. Different environments, contexts and distances to audiences, microphones and other musicians mean there are choices to be made and found. The emphasis in this workshop on dynamic qualities keeps relating back to the body and self as mediators of a vast range of moods, rhythms, pulses and impulses.
We learn through our own processes of discovery. But we also learn through imitation, taking on movements, qualities, and habits from our environment, peers, teachers, heroes, sometimes deliberately, sometimes without realising. This workshop starts at the end of the previous one as we give you prompts and tools to make observations of musicians/performers you like to understand more about your preferences, wishings and wantings, and bring them with you into this workshop. Why do you like how they do what they do? What can you observe or hear that you want for yourself? How can your practice be enriched through inspiration that takes on and transforms.
In this workshop we will explore going beyond the familiar to ‘try on’ other ways of moving, playing and performing in order to expand your range and maybe surprise yourself. If you are a string player, maybe moving like a percussionist gives you a new perspective on your sound. If you’re a percussionist, how would it be to breathe like a singer? What new patterns of coordination and sequencing can happen through your body? What spatial emphases in space through posture and repetition generate new choreographies of sound? This workshop is curious about a distinction and interconnection between the choreography of musicians, and the choreography of playing.
In this workshop we will explore going beyond the familiar to ‘try on’ other ways of moving, playing and performing in order to expand your range and maybe surprise yourself. If you are a string player, maybe moving like a percussionist gives you a new perspective on your sound. If you’re a percussionist, how would it be to breathe like a singer? What new patterns of coordination and sequencing can happen through your body? What spatial emphases in space through posture and repetition generate new choreographies of sound? This workshop is curious about a distinction and interconnection between the choreography of musicians, and the choreography of playing.
In LBMS, explorations of ‘Space Harmony’ include intricate physical challenges of visualising and sensing geometric forms affecting inner connections in the body and outer movement in the Kinesphere.
Space Harmony as a movement practice provides another approach to complement or parallel musical harmony.
This workshop considers harmonies of sounds, as and through movement, in which atmospheres appear and shift. How do you sense clouds of colour and texture, how does tasting movement in space transform your hearing and playing?
This workshop brings Rudolf Laban’s concept of ‘Kinesphere’ to the foreground of movement and sound relations. Kinesphere is a way to see and experience the space all around you that you can reach into.
It starts inside your body, and extends in all directions that you can reach your limbs into, and so your movement reveals it and takes place in it. This ‘personal space’ is a communicative resource and potential, as the idea of Kinesphere gives us access to directions, levels, zones, reach-spaces and pathways. Whilst LBMS is a system for human movement, the idea of Kinesphere can be extended to consider the Kinesphere of an instrument and to see its potential reach and pathway in space. In this workshop we will discover where sounds can appear and travel.
In LBMS and Space Harmony, particular sequences of directions in the Kinesphere are called ‘scales’. We will play with these movement sequences alongside other kinds of musical scales, and create new ones in personal and group explorations.
Space Harmony as a movement practice provides another approach to complement or parallel musical harmony.
This workshop considers harmonies of sounds, as and through movement, in which atmospheres appear and shift. How do you sense clouds of colour and texture, how does tasting movement in space transform your hearing and playing?
This workshop brings Rudolf Laban’s concept of ‘Kinesphere’ to the foreground of movement and sound relations. Kinesphere is a way to see and experience the space all around you that you can reach into.
It starts inside your body, and extends in all directions that you can reach your limbs into, and so your movement reveals it and takes place in it. This ‘personal space’ is a communicative resource and potential, as the idea of Kinesphere gives us access to directions, levels, zones, reach-spaces and pathways. Whilst LBMS is a system for human movement, the idea of Kinesphere can be extended to consider the Kinesphere of an instrument and to see its potential reach and pathway in space. In this workshop we will discover where sounds can appear and travel.
In LBMS and Space Harmony, particular sequences of directions in the Kinesphere are called ‘scales’. We will play with these movement sequences alongside other kinds of musical scales, and create new ones in personal and group explorations.
