Artists and groups show their stuff
Artist aims to show how to free creativity as part of Culture Days
It’s almost impossible to explain, Traci Foster said when asked what it is she does for a living.
Yet, it’s what she credits as the thing that saved her life.
“It’s fairly dramatic, but for myself I’m quite confident that I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for this work,” said Foster.
A certified Fitzmaurice Voicework teacher, creative development coach and performing artist, Foster teaches “body, breath and voice work.”
Geared toward singers, actors, artists, dancers, musicians, writers, public speakers, therapists, CEOS and more, it’s a way to free and expand a person’s voice and creativity.
But the work does more, including helping a person reconnect with the “body’s natural healing mechanism in order to reduce stress, increase flexibility and release tension, physically, mentally, and emotionally.”
On Saturday, Foster hosted a workshop called “Be Heard: A body, breath, voice workshop with Traci Foster” as part of Culture Days, a national event with thousands of free activities and performances hosted by artists, cultural organizations and cities.
“When I started really looking at this work, I was about 21 years old and it was after a massive tragedy in my life,” said Foster, who suffers from complex PTSD.
When her brother died, Foster shut down.
“Everything was shutting down and, medically, there were no specific things being said about what was wrong, except for the anxiety level, which is sort of an understatement,” she said. “The hyper vigilance and the fight-or-flight was out of control, and so everything was being affected.”
She couldn’t breathe with ease unless she was intoxicated. Her nights were plagued with nightmares, which she would wake up from thrashing and tense.
Body, breath and voice work changed all that.
Focused on regulating the nervous system by being present in your body, the practice aims at allowing breath to flow while a “dynamic effort,” like a physical movement or posture, is being made.
For example, during the workshop Foster had participants practise maintained breath flow while moving around and shaking.
“It’s really understanding the connection between psyche (the human soul, mind, or spirit) and soma (the body as perceived from within) and how creatively we can work through our voice and bodies to allow those two to be a little more interactive, aware of one another,” said Foster.
Fitzmaurice Voicework, which the workshop exercises centred on, combines adaptations of classical voice training techniques with modifications of yoga, shiatsu, bioenergetics, energy work and other disciplines.
“It interrupts anxious patterns, or patterns of holding and tension,” said Foster. “It really helps to deactivate and stabilize — so, ground — people, while still having fun.”
Her training has allowed her to study, write and use her focus and concentration differently.
Instead of experiencing hyper vigilance — an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity which can cause anxiety — all the time, she said she learned to reverse that tendency through her work.
“I still live with a fairly sensitive nervous system, which can be triggered real quickly, but I have massive ability to cope and also manage some of these things through the body, breath and voice work primarily,” said Foster, who has a number of disabilities.
Foster is also the founder of Listen to Dis’ community arts organization, which strives to be a sustainable, inclusive, cross-ability organization and community in Regina that hosts practices, projects, programming and performance.
The workshop was organized through a partnership between Listen to Dis’, the Cathedral Village Arts Festival and the Artesian, and was one of many events over the weekend for Culture Days.