- Alexander Technique
- Awareness
- Breath
- Breathing Techniques
- CEs
- Empowerment
- Mental Health
- Physical Health
- Respiration
- Self-Expression
- Voice
- Well-being
with Jean Mcclelland
Three Sessions |Â Mondays, June 13 – 27
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM ET
Online
Your registration fee goes directly towards our summer fundraiser. We need your support now more than ever to ensure that we can bring back your favorite programming this Fall. Please consider making a donation above and beyond this class registration. Thank you.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
- Discover a voice that is spontaneous and free, open and expressive
- Strengthen your breathing, body and voice through the integration of the Alexander Technique and Carl Stough’s Principles of Breathing Coordination.
- Experience a physical understanding of breath support to free and strengthen your voice.
- Learn lasting ways to relieve vocal and physical tension and increase ease and vitality in your body.
- Develop an awareness of the diaphragm and learn to strengthen it in a non-manipulative but powerful way.
- Explore the connection between breathing, voice and artistic self-expression.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
There is no greater joy than to use our voices in a way that is powerful, spontaneous and fully expressive. Developing a physical understanding of voice and breath support helps us release inhibiting vocal and physical tension to become more musical singers and more engaging speakers. This course creates a supportive environment in which self-consciousness dissolves and your true voice emerges.
Breath is fundamental to every aspect of our life. We are born with an ability to breathe deeply and fully, but as we go through life, stress and tension can cause our breathing to become shallow and constricted and our voices strained and weak. Inefficient breathing can lead to fatigue, anxiety, muscular tension and even digestive problems. Getting back to the way nature designed us to breathe is a tonic that revitalizes body and mind. In this course we will explore ways to reestablish our natural, coordinated way of breathing and learn ways to free and strengthen our breathing and voice.
Our work will integrate the Alexander Technique with Carl Stough’s Principles of Breathing Coordination. Singing of easy folk songs and spirituals along with spoken text will help us experience the joy of self-expression.
Note: No previous vocal background required.
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WHO IS THIS CLASS FOR?
This workshop is suitable for everyone and specifically benefits people:
- Who have been told they cannot sing or who have lost their joy of singing
- Who experience vocal fatigue, tension, hoarseness or who suffer from conditions such as Spasmodic Dysphonia
- Who suffer from anxiety, depression, performance anxiety or self-consciousness
- With breathing problems and conditions such as asthma, shortness of breath, COPD or sleep apnea
- Who experience fatigue, lack of vitality and muscular tension and pain
- With Depression
Click HERE to read Awakening Your True Voice: FAQs.
Note: This program will be offered online. Sessions of all our online programs will be recorded and shared with registrants after each is completed for 90 days.
BONUS GIFT FROM JEAN WHEN YOU SIGN UP
As a special thank you for signing up for my course and for supporting the Open Center, I am offering as a free gift my online breathing course, The Inspiration of Breath. The course is in four parts and covers all aspects of breathing. It includes almost two hours of video presentation, vocal and breathing exercises, supportive written materials and graphics.  The Inspiration of Breath was one of the most successful and substantial online courses ever offered at the Open Center, and it will provide you with all the tools you need for your practice.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THIS COURSE
- Prerequisites: NoÂ
- Supplies list for the class: N/A
- Zoom Software Requirements: This is an online course which requires Zoom webinar software. Zoom is easy to use. Click HERE to make sure your computer is set-up correctly.
TESTIMONIALS
“Jean McClelland is one of the best instructors I have ever encountered!”
“The instructor’s superior level of knowledge, experience, ability, teaching method, generosity, responsiveness and deep intention!”
“Jean is a national treasure in her work in the art of breathing and her caring nature she imparts to her students.”
“Jean’s preparation, knowledge and experience. She lives what she teaches and exudes the vitality this class is focused on cultivating. Jean is a remarkable teacher. Glad I found her through you.”
“I have studied with Jean since 2011, and love the fact that with each session, I learn something new. Jean’s attention to her students’ needs and concerns is unparalleled, and her sense of joy is particularly uplifting at this time. I have always commuted from DC to NY for Jean’s sessions, and it was so convenient to be able to do this at home! I also relished the opportunity to audit the sessions afterwards through the link.”
“Jean has a very eloquent and masterful way of explaining the mechanism of breath and voice. I felt very comforted and empowered.”
“Thank you for sharing your passion and your energy with us. Even in this virtual classroom, I can feel it so clearly; it radiates out through the computer screen. I’m totally in love with the diaphragm and psoas muscles already, and I’m grateful to you for being a guide on this journey of awakening to the power of breath, flow and voice.” – Louisa Kania, Open Center Zoom class participant”
“As we retreated to social distancing amidst the COVID pandemic, I found myself with the time to pick up my oft neglected clarinet. However, with more playing came a pain and tightness in the rib cage. I was sure that my breathing had something to do with this, and wanted to explore how it could be resolved. Taking part in Jean’s course indeed helped me resolve this pain-but even more significantly, the sessions have sparked an exploration into the inter-disciplinary nature of breathing, musicality, physiology and bodily awareness. I frequently find myself reflecting on Jean’s work in context of my physiotherapy practice-particularly in respects to the experience of pain, autonomic nervous regulation, motor learning and control- and begin to incorporate the work in helping my patients move and feel better. Jean demonstrates a deep understanding and a consummate level of expertise, and I would not hesitate to recommend this course to my fellow physiotherapists.” – Emily, Physical Therapist, Australia
Awakening Your True Voice: Health & Vitality Through Better Breathing
22SBB01W- 3 Session(s)
- Jun 13 2022 6:00 PM ET
Members
$95Non-Members
$115
Jean McClelland, is a renowned voice and Alexander Technique teacher, workshop leader and noted musical theater performer. She is currently on the faculty of the Graduate Department of Theater at Columbia University.
