Need A Good Cry?

There are times when I just want to watch a movie or play and be moved.  As an actor, the layers of the performance and my belief in the actors' portrayal of the story both have to combine to move me.

My top 9 list of movies that will move you:

1. Color Purple 
2. Cranford
3. Finding Nemo
4. Sense and Sensibility
5. The Carol Burnett Show(laugh and cry)
6. It's A Wonderful Life
7. Lars and The Real Girl
8. Good Will Hunting 
9. Rudy

Some of these performances touch me more deeply than others, but all have amazing relationships in them that break my heart or make me guffaw.

Get your popcorn ready and cozy up on your couch.  It's going to be a great movie night!!!

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

Easter Addendum

Well, folks, my ingrained fear of organized religion made for an interesting morning.  I did, in fact, attend a new local church with my husband.  It was fine - no one condemned other faiths and the sermon was not pilled up in a pedantic frenzy with bows.  Thank God.

My patient husband and I walked to church.  Walking helped dissipate some of the unease in my stomach.  I was bracing for the waves of guilt that would be inflicted upon me by others - they would magically see I had not been to church in a LONG time.  (I have an active imagination that does not always serve me kindly).  People were welcoming; it was a small congregation.  I just didn't feel at home.  But I never feel at home in a church presently.  I'm working on that.

You see, I'm aware that though I yearn for spiritual support and community, I have deep rooted animosity toward organized religion.  My family has wielded religion (loosely veiled judgment) against me in the past, friends have used it as a shield of morality when attacking others unlike them, and I have used it against myself to prove to myself how unworthy I am to call myself a good person.  Now, these are rare circumstances, but they leave a bad taste in my mouth.

As I ready myself to host friends on this celebrated and holy day of hope and rebirth, I am looking at what is important to me in this day.  I can choose to work through the challenges that will be with me forever (and give myself a break), or I can run from the areas of my life that challenge me.  No coward here, I face the fear.  With my friends and family, who are all imperfect like me, we can weather the storms with love and compassion.  Happy Easter!

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

Find Your Voice

As I get older, I am continually surprised at how much I still have to learn about myself.  I have years of training in the body, how the body relates to the mind, sensation work, voice work, applied bodywork, physiology, anatomy, and tapping into my reservoir of feelings.  And still, an avenue filled with gems is work with the voice.

The voice work that inspires me viscerally is Roy Hart work.  I would suggest a foundation of breath work (Berry, Linklater, Fitzmaurice) prior to this type of work.  In RH work, they often use a piano to play notes and the RH instructor leads the class in vocal quality.  For example, if the instructor is looking for light and thin notes that are also high pitch, we might work with the word "violin" to carry the tone.  To be clear, the sound quality is not the goal.  In other words, the Hart people are not after helping someone sing "pretty," but rather tap into the sounds each body/soul can express.  That freedom allows a participant to maximize range and cultivate sound and support in the body.  All people, not just opera singers, want this.

I recall the morning after working with the Roy Hart people the first time, my ribs ached with movement and breath.  I didn't know my ribs could swing that much!  They felt like an accordion - and powerful.  In no other activity had I been able to get my breath to be so big or support for so long - because I was breathing in huge thoughts and could ride the breath and the thought simultaneously. 

Though the voice work I lead is not Roy Hart, I am certainly inspired by the work.  Roy Hart said, "I left (being an actor) in order to go back into the world of non-art or humanity, because I couldn't stand the split between art and humanity."  Well, artists have to be their essential human self to bring life to the characters flaws.  These breathing creatures capture the imagination and heart of self and audience.

Before you can use your voice, you have to find it.  In your own way today, using your voice at the pitch, volume, and duration you decide - call out to someone you love!  They might hear you - even in another state.

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin