Maud Robart periodically conducts workshops for people from various backgrounds. On this page, you will find information about upcoming workshops, as well as some information about the structure and approach of these work sessions.
— The Soul of Singing
Exploration with Maud Robart
In ancient Africa, the essence of art was the celebration of life.
And what does it truly mean to celebrate life ?
Maud Robart invites us to approach this vital experience through a careful exploration of models drawn from Afro-Haitian voodoo repertory, such as ritual songs and movements. These traditional models, when fully embodied, have a transformative impact on our sensibilities, awakening us to fresh, unfettered energies. In a burst of life, the natural flow of pure spontaneity reveals the inner dancing star in everyone, one's own creative essence.
The journey into the experience starts with the singer's fine listening. The transparent attention that they are paying to their inner perceptions, to the melodic and rhythmical precision... their interactions with the context thus become sensitive components of the ongoing process.
A dynamic tension between rule and freedom brings the creative subject to surrender to the living forces of the songs, to flow into the source of life itself.
— Field of exploration
Based on oral transmission, this approach aims at regaining, through gentle induction, the innate unity of body and voice. The focus is on discovering the wave of the song. The wave itself requests this unity, expressing the inner energy of the song.
— Key Elements
Rhythmical sonorities and walking dances are the basic elements of this practice of archaic song and movement.
Structures of collective action in space, subject to pulsation, are introduced in order to learn to move within one and the same energy
At the beginning of each session, a cycle of physical exercises will be suggested, as a subtle invitation for the body-mind to become more available
— Conditions of participation*
The exploration is open to anyone in good physical and psychological shape who feels a need to engage, with full awareness, in a process of self-inquiry and artistic discovery.
Required skills:
sing in tune
keep repetitive rhythmical patterns in song and gesture alive over a period of time
expand the attention to embrace the totality of a given situation
*NB
- The number of beginners is limited to 7 - 10
- At the end of the workshop, participants are not allowed to use, share, or publish the methodological and technical elements of the practice
