Liberating Your Jaw With Your Voice - 1 - Balance It Like the Queen
Liberating Your Jaw With Your Voice - 1 - Balance It Like the Queen
The Delicate Act of Balancing the Head In Gravity
In David Zemach-Berson’s “Liberating the Neck and Jaw” original series, this is the ultimate lesson. I will be extending the series to add - voice. Voice as a mirror, as a teaching tool, as a breathing monitor and, maybe as a path to enriching your “voice.”
But first, this lesson. It’s upright. Into gravity. Sitting in a chair, connecting the head, jaw, and tongue with the entire body. It will remind some students of some of the pelvic floor seated lessons, with a twist - of the tongue. All to balance your head beautifully. That’s where we’ve been heading - bringing this work into the practical.
This is a sitting lesson and standing lesson.
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The moves will be familiar: open the jaw, layer on the eyes, release the neck down, down, down to the root of the spine. But so different once gravity joins the party.
And that’s the point. Develop the awareness of the jaw and tongue’s relationship to the spine while lying on the floor, where it’s easy. Then find the connection between the feet and pelvis and the head rocking at the top of the spine. Feel the tongue as the tip of the spine with full extension.
You can enjoy this lesson as the peak of the series or as an entry to the possibilities of a free neck and jaw. Or as a segue to a short series based on a series of lessons that will employ voice.
The voice-centered lessons come from Feldenkrais master David Kaetz, whose “full body listening” course just ended. I found the “Listening” series dovetailed exquisitely with the neck and jaw explorations; using voice in these lessons added fascinating depth. Time to use - and strengthen - your voice.
No science nerd candy this week - though I may look for some comparative anatomy of the spine, because.
How You Might Feel After This Lesson: Amazed at the tongue; Tongue connections to neck, throat, and entire spine; Deeply relaxed; Tall, elegantly postured; Head balanced elegantly on your spine; Eyes easily resting on the horizon.