How to get rid of constraint, find freedom, feel connected with others and just become happier? Sometimes it is enough to bring movement, sound and play back into your life in the right company.
Once we all knew how to play. And with the help of games they mastered the world in which they found themselves. We liked to move, dance, taste the words and notes. And then we grew up and replaced all this with adult, serious activities.
We stopped paying attention to the “tools” that once helped us to settle in this reality. They stopped feeling their magical power. But the ability to sing, speak and gesticulate, the ability to play hide a powerful resource. And you can turn to this inner treasury at any time to change your life and better understand those who are nearby.
Speak to get free
From the first seconds of a telephone conversation, we understand how the interlocutor feels, whether he is cheerful or sad, worried about something or serene, ready to talk or busy.
“The voice is able to tell what is going on inside us. Having learned to master it, we can change our state and influence our personality. For example, if you are stressed, try speaking more slowly, feeling the connection between sound and breath, and build short phrases that are easier to manage. This will help to calm down, ”explains stage speech teacher Valeria Ustinova.
We can quickly change our habitual style of dress or hairstyle, but it will take time to fully master the possibilities of voice and speech.
“Before the revolution, educational institutions did not teach a subject called “literature”, instead of it there was literature,” says the teacher. “She meant a comprehensive command of the word: the skill of proper breathing, the basics of diction, the subtleties of articulation and intonation, the ability to cope with excitement in front of an audience.”
We have been perfecting our ability to speak over the years. If it was not customary in the family to discuss events and feelings, as adults, we are forced to learn this on our own. And this requires a space where we have the opportunity to be heard, without fear of becoming the object of ridicule, misunderstanding or indifference. For some, a psychologist’s office becomes such a place. And someone may relieve stress by chanting chants in the stadium or spending the night in a karaoke club.
Voice becomes for us a means of communication with loved ones. “If in the family of grandparents, mom and dad can sing together with the children, for example,“ Moscow Evenings ”, an almost mystical moment of unity occurs,” notes Valeria Ustinova.
Dance to know everything
When we live in harmony with our own body, we feel inner freedom and translate it outward. And the dance gives the opportunity to talk with a partner without words, opening up for each other from a new side. Why don’t we use it all the time?
“We often forbid ourselves to move. In the first lessons, many of my students can only move their feet and hands. But over time, everything changes,” says dance teacher Ekaterina Shilova. Body clamps are a consequence of the attitudes to which we have become accustomed in our lives. “Don’t turn around!”, “Don’t turn around!”, “Sit still!” – probably everyone has heard variations of these requirements.
“And too often we look back, comparing ourselves to others, trying to figure out if we are better or worse. And we must respect our own one hundred percent, which are available in us now. For many, this becomes a discovery,” says Ekaterina Shilova.
Dancing is not only a way to make friends with the body, but also a relationship therapy session.
“When we put on a dance of the newlyweds, you can learn a lot from the movements of the couple,” the dance teacher continues. – Many men are afraid that their partners will not understand them. And the girls are worried that their partner will not be able to perform this or that movement, they rush him or try to do everything on their own, not giving the man time to collect his thoughts.
But after a couple of months of classes, couples leave the hall transformed. Interaction in dance seriously increases the chances of maintaining love for a long time.
Movement helps to understand and live your feelings.
“Experiencing, say, loss, I can dance my state and thus change it,” Ekaterina Shilova shares her experience. But can everyone dance? Yes! It doesn’t matter what kind of body we got, as long as it is cozy and comfortable.
“Imagine that you are Martians who were given a “suit” for life on Earth. I would like to know how all the parts of this new mechanism work. The easiest way to understand how your body is moving is to pay attention to it. Touch yourself, pinch, pat your hands, feet and other parts of it, ”the dance teacher suggests.
The main component of dance and any other movement is sincerity.
“The best dance is selfless, honest, open and easy. It doesn’t matter what height, weight, volume we have. If we express ourselves through movements in which there is confidence and balance, it is always beautiful, – Ekaterina Shilova smiles. “And for others, our dance will be a source of light, energy and joy.”
Tell a story to hear yourself and others
Playback theater is an improvisation: the audience talks about the events of their lives, and the actors immediately embody them on stage.
“This type of theatrical action grows out of the need to share what happened to us,” explains Olga Sanachina, co-founder and actress of the New Jazz playback theater. “People come here to tell or hear a story and see it on stage from a new angle. The actors who embody the stories of the audience on stage show details that we ourselves may not have noticed before.”
After the first story in the hall there is a desire to share another story, and then another and another.
“Once we started with the story of a woman whose little child behaved horribly all day and she spanked him,” says Olga Sanachina. There was another child in the hall at that time. And when the show ended, he talked about how one day he could not solve a difficult problem and his mother yelled at him. He was scared and wanted to hide.
The first narrator’s face changed. She heard the other side. For her, the story expanded, deepened and acquired new meanings that had eluded her attention until that moment.
Watching from the safe darkness of the auditorium how the plot with our participation unfolds on stage, we understand that we can influence the script of our own life to a greater extent than we thought.
“Somewhere deep down we are all remarkably similar. But the beauty of the world is in its diversity. Everyone perceives the same situation in their own way. The game brings awareness that not everyone has the same vision of events. For many, this becomes a discovery,” says Olga Sanachina.
She also conducts master classes where participants can not only share stories, but also take a place on stage, having mastered the initial skills of a playback theater actor. This experience can come in handy far beyond the stage.
“By mastering the art of improvisation, we begin to navigate situations faster, listen more carefully to those who are nearby, and grasp the essence of their stories, more accurately respond to what is happening around,” Olga Sanachina is convinced.