Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go - The Workshop

A workshop: An exploration of my algorithm Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go coupled with an introduction to Fitzmaurice Voicework®

This workshop is an exploration of the algorithm - a set of instructions that I have developed - called Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go (TMHMLMG). 

To read Kirsten Lewis’ experience of this workshop, go here.

TMHMLMG was designed to help one speak and move from a place of support and ease; to practice making requests and stating boundaries from an embodied place. Coupled with an introduction to Fitzmaurice Voicework®, this work invites an integrated experience of self in breath, body and voice. We will practice all the ways the algorithm can be applied into ways of communicating and interacting with each other - from speaking to dancing to singing together. Participants can expect to roll around on and off the floor; tune in to their breath and voice; and explore consent and permission around touch. Baked into the work is ongoing attention to pain and injury, as well as permission to rest, even as participants are invited into explorations of their birthright to move, speak, dance and sing. Pleasure and care will be our compass in this work.

About Fitzmaurice Voicework®

FitzmaruiceVoicework® is a whole-body approach to voice that in the words of founder Catherine Fitzmaurice, “explores the dynamics between body, breath, voice, the imagination, language and presence”.  It combines adaptations of classical voice training techniques with modifications of yoga, bioenergetics and many other body-centred disciplines. This integration serves to harmonize the voluntary and involuntary aspects of the nervous system and breath; leading to voices that can communicate intention and feeling without excess effort. Fitzmaurice Voicework® supports the whole human voice, and can support speaking for performance, public speaking, singing, voice with movement, vocal rehabilitation, and developing greater presence. 

We will explore a series of exercises called Destructuring - “dynamic efforts” that involve an involuntary tremoring of muscles - to bring deeper awareness of breath and sensations; and to reveal our habitual tensions. We will then learn to Restructure ourselves - couple our voices and breath to these sensations and learn how to communicate with more freedom and focus. 

I use the word algorithm as a way to provide an alternative to the more opaque algorithms in our devices and on the internet; algorithms that increasingly mediate our relationships to one another. I offer TMHMLMG as a reminder of the older technologies and wisdoms in our bodies. I offer it as an invitation towards relating to one another and to non-humans in ways that are gentler and hopefully, more sustainable than the ways of the current world. 

TMHMLMG is

An algorithm for dancing with the planet.

An algorithm for dancing with your beloved.

An algorithm for dancing from enough-ness.

To practice love in the midst of distress,

To practice care in the midst of distress