About
A little about myself, and what I do
My first training was in visual art but I’ve always been interested in the interconnections between the quiet arts and the noisier ones – between the internal creative process and the outward act of performance. A rural upbringing in North East Scotland gave me freedom to roam the natural world, open landscapes and wild places, and yoga has shown me how to find the same spaciousness inside, as an act of cultivation and resource-building that underpins everything else.
Whilst pursuing a creative vocal life in London I trained in Voice Movement Therapy (VMT) an expressive arts therapy interfacing vocal development with therapeutic practice, with the intention of enabling powerful change. This is how I began working with other people, over two decades ago.
Since then I’ve been privileged to work with hundreds of individuals and many groups. My coaching has evolved and cross-fertilised as I’ve trained in other modalities including dance and movement practices, the Estill model of singing pedagogy, the subtle, inner practices of yoga, NLP and actor training.
Alongside work as a singer, harmony vocalist and songwriter, I’ve made and collaborated in performance research, extended vocal work, radio feature making, soundscape and improvisational scores. I’ve had many small parts in TV and film and am a voiceover artist.
A life underpinned by yoga was a choice my body made – I’m on the hypermobility spectrum of connective tissue ‘difference’. Yoga taught me how to ground my body, stretch to my edges and breathe more deeply. Over time it became a parallel career and has distilled through the body of my own practice, adding breadth and depth to my understanding of voice.
Gaining an MFA in Professional Voice Studies from the Old Vic Theatre School, provided an opportunity to update my working practice particularly in spoken word, text work, accents and dialects. My research question explored ways to stabilise breath, nervous system and inner state as a vocal performer. The investigation that unfolded, showed me that breath work is a fundamental resource, our best medicine and where the strands of my work most fundamentally connect.
Professional Membership:
VASTA: Voice and Speech Trainers Association www.vasta.org
IAVMT: Intl Assoc for Voice Movement Therapy www.iavmt.org
YOGA ALLIANCE UK: Senior Teacher www.yogaalliiance.co.uk
AGENT: Phoenix Casting www.phoenixcasting.tv
Insured by Balens
“A bird doesn’t fly because it has wings; it has wings because it flies”
Robert Ardrey (1908-1980)