Somatic sound practices
Play As We Are is an umbrella for Somatic Sound Practices: practitioners and activities that research sound and movement and the connection, or reconnection, between them.
Our goal is to unite, support and promote various activities aimed at everyone who is interested in exploring this realm. We appeal to musicians and movement practitioners, to artists, therapists, and to anyone who is curious by this realm. We research, teach and create, and are always curious to collaborate.
Maya and Ali have been working together since 2014, sharing a love of somatic movement education, the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System, collaboration and creative development. Together they led Play As You Are workshops in-person and online across 2020-21. PAYA became PAWA, Play As We Are, merging with the work Maya and Alex had been doing with Moving Strings.
The PAWA/Moving Strings practices developed in the last decade, and what we want to offer musicians is not a practice with definitive and final answers. What we have developed is essentially a container that follows the guiding principles underlying somatic movement practices: listening - to the body, to the space, to the various other bodies in space (musical instruments, other musicians, audience), developing awareness - to the different sensations in the body, the nature of the movement and its expression, the position and role of my body within the whole, and creating a toolbox from a practice or a certain style (of movement and/or music) that allows to blend any movement principles with musical elements as they are.
Our goal is to unite, support and promote various activities aimed at everyone who is interested in exploring this realm. We appeal to musicians and movement practitioners, to artists, therapists, and to anyone who is curious by this realm. We research, teach and create, and are always curious to collaborate.
Maya and Ali have been working together since 2014, sharing a love of somatic movement education, the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System, collaboration and creative development. Together they led Play As You Are workshops in-person and online across 2020-21. PAYA became PAWA, Play As We Are, merging with the work Maya and Alex had been doing with Moving Strings.
The PAWA/Moving Strings practices developed in the last decade, and what we want to offer musicians is not a practice with definitive and final answers. What we have developed is essentially a container that follows the guiding principles underlying somatic movement practices: listening - to the body, to the space, to the various other bodies in space (musical instruments, other musicians, audience), developing awareness - to the different sensations in the body, the nature of the movement and its expression, the position and role of my body within the whole, and creating a toolbox from a practice or a certain style (of movement and/or music) that allows to blend any movement principles with musical elements as they are.
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Alexandra Baybutt (PhD, CMA, RSME)
I work freelance as a movement educator, researcher and artist. I’m a registered somatic movement educator with ISMETA, a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst (2010), and have been working in the field of movement, dance and performance in the UK, Europe and internationally (north America, China) since 2004. I hold a PhD from Middlesex University, an MA in performance and culture from Goldsmiths, and a BA from LABAN, London in contemporary dance theatre. My artistic work includes dramaturgy for choreographer Tania Soubry, performance collaboration with choreographer Stephanie Felber on the project ABAX, and with organist Huw Morgan on the collaboration of MELOS | Vertical series. My written work has been published in various places including Critical Stages journal, Global Performance Studies, Creative Arts and Education in Therapy journal, and in the performance writing journal Something Other. I have been working with musicians of different kinds on their physicality and performance skills since 2009, and have experience of playing percussion and piano as a child and teenager, before getting caught up in contemporary dance training. I’ve contributed to the development of Ivan Mijačević’s extensive workshop on movement/sound relations for dance training, Terpsichorean Sonics. I regularly teach with Barefoot Opera, supporting artistic director Jenny Miller’s innovative, integrative approach to opera singer performer training. www.alexandrabaybutt.co.uk |
Maya Felixbrodt (MA, certified Laban Bartenieff Movement System Analyst, RSME)
Musician, violinist, multi-style performer and improviser, composer for dance, theatre, cinema and art, choreographer and multidisciplinary creator. I am recently certified as a Laban Bartenieff Movement System, graduating from Emove Institute, NL. I have a Bachelor's degree in viola and bachelor's and master's degrees in composition from the Royal Conservatory, The Hague. At the center of my work is my independent research that reconnects sound and movement as a whole: a woven fabric in which the two create new territory. For me, games, improvisation, discipline and its multiplicity are a means as well as meaning. This is expressed in many of my professional activities: I'm an educator for a range of ages, from early childhood to adults, and populations - from community work to artists, I curate projects with many participants - from festivals, to online exhibitions and magazines. I provide consulting to artists and productions and I'm an entrepreneur and producer.
My current main projects and companies are: Moving Strings, Screen Dive, Synzine, Zvov and No Horns.
www.pninax.com
Musician, violinist, multi-style performer and improviser, composer for dance, theatre, cinema and art, choreographer and multidisciplinary creator. I am recently certified as a Laban Bartenieff Movement System, graduating from Emove Institute, NL. I have a Bachelor's degree in viola and bachelor's and master's degrees in composition from the Royal Conservatory, The Hague. At the center of my work is my independent research that reconnects sound and movement as a whole: a woven fabric in which the two create new territory. For me, games, improvisation, discipline and its multiplicity are a means as well as meaning. This is expressed in many of my professional activities: I'm an educator for a range of ages, from early childhood to adults, and populations - from community work to artists, I curate projects with many participants - from festivals, to online exhibitions and magazines. I provide consulting to artists and productions and I'm an entrepreneur and producer.
My current main projects and companies are: Moving Strings, Screen Dive, Synzine, Zvov and No Horns.
www.pninax.com
Alex Welch
Viola player, freelancing with Metropole Orkest, session musician for TV, radio and musicals. Member of Moving Strings since 2018. Since 2021 Maya and I have been researching the intersection of instrumental technique, movement practices and mindfulness. I have been meditating regularly since 2018.
https://www.alexwelch.nl/
Viola player, freelancing with Metropole Orkest, session musician for TV, radio and musicals. Member of Moving Strings since 2018. Since 2021 Maya and I have been researching the intersection of instrumental technique, movement practices and mindfulness. I have been meditating regularly since 2018.
https://www.alexwelch.nl/
