What are the effects of the integration of Musicality of Movement into classical voice training?  

The main goal of this research was to explore how Musicality of Movement can be helpful in the development of (classical) singers—both vocally and in performance skills—and how it differs from other physical awareness methods. Connecting my experiences to the research questions gave me the possibility to evaluate my findings and analyze the reactions of the participants; even though the number of participants was modest, I could see patterns in their observations that helped me to draw conclusions.  

5. 1. Keywords and concepts 

In the MoM lessons and workshops, during exercises, I tried to avoid mentioning the reason or goal of specific exercises to let participants experience the work and come to their own observations and conclusions. Obviously, the workshops were about physical awareness, and all participants were aware of the fact that I gave the lessons within the frame of my Artistic Research. So, when asking students about their experiences they could easily be inclined to answer that they had gained physical awareness through the work. However, the way they formulated their (in the questionnaires, anonymous) answers showed me that they were not trying to please me or fit in with some kind of socially desired construct, neither did they use the keywords I later used to categorize their remarks. The keywords are my ‘translation’ of their remarks because, for me, it was the best way to categorize all the individual statements.  

5. 2. Results, MHI, intervention I 

All participants in the workshops and classes described in this exposition mentioned experiencing positive effects of the MoM approach. These positive effects, like increased physical- and spatial awareness, better breathing, stage presence, confidence, and performance skills, were mentioned as caused by the training sessions and by the application of exercises in individual practice; participants at MHI, Sweden, mentioned experiencing increased freedom of vocal practice after the trainings as a side effect. In their morning sessions I had not yet introduced the idea of the three sets of exercises in the MoM-training, although I worked with the physical aspects of singing during the afternoon masterclasses with them. An overall conclusion was that warming-up the body, giving it attention and tuning in to it—even if just for a limited period—enhances physical presence and vocal production.

My colleague Carl Unander-Scharin replied as follows to my questions about the results of my work with his students. 

5. 2. 1. Evaluative talk, collecting themes and keywords 

During our last afternoon at Musikhögskola Ingesund, after a short recap workshop session, we took the time to evaluate our work. I asked the participants to elaborate on their experiences and what the workshop had brought them. From the audio recording of that meeting, I collected seven themes mentioned by the students as being valuable for them. This meeting was also attended by a colleague, the Dalcroze Rhythmic ^{(Dalcroze 2025)} teacher at MHI. She was impressed by the playful energy that emerged in the group during the exercises. As we will see later, participants in other workshops and lessons—in different settings—also mention playfulness and freedom, among the themes or keywords when looking back on lessons and workshops of MoM.  

The seven categories mentioned by MHI students (body awareness, breathing, energy, stage presence, performance skills, playfulness,trust) will further on in this chapter be extended with three more that remained unmentioned by the Swedish students and were mentioned several times by students in Codarts and Haarlem (spatial awareness, neutrality,safety/wellbeing). The coloring of the keywords corresponds with the colors I will use later, when collecting all comments in one overview table. The audio transcription of this conversation can be found in the appendix.

5. 2. 2. Studio Mapa, Haarlem, Intervention II  

After the last session of the series of workshops, five participants took the time to complete the questionnaire. In general, the appreciation of playfulness came forward here too, next to increased performative skills, body awareness, trust/confidence, and stage presence. Realizing all movement must come from inside made one participant describe singing as an inner dance. Working with space as a partner caused performers to allow themselves to take up more space with their bodies and with their voices. This resulted in more confidence on stage.They also worked consciously connecting to others on stage (or not) and tried to find out what this did to their own bodies and performances. The multiple effects mentioned were increased ability to react to and/or give impulses to others, learning to give and take space—the safe environment created during the workshops was mentioned as being important in this case—and to move in space with more trust in one self and in others. The diverse ways of breathing that were used in the workshops were felt to be helpful in many ways; technically and expressively, giving freedom, playfulness, and confidence.    

When asked about the three different sets of exercises I introduced to be used in their own practice, their feedback on all three groups of exercises was positive. The exercises with the hands were mentioned as their favorite ones. This was surprising as I had expected that the spinal flexibility would be favorite because of the connection to the traditional ‘singing posture.’   
When asked if they would use the exercises in their future practice, all of them responded affirmatively. 

5. 2. 3. Intervention III, Codarts bachelor I and II physical acting lessons based on MoM  

During the evaluation of the school year, Dezsö first asked her students for three words that represented the most important aspects they had worked on in the lessons. After the first round, in which many of the earlier mentioned keywords were given—or, if not literally the same keyword, it often was a word that would connect to a certain concept and thus fit one of the earlier used descriptions—the students were asked to explain why and how these words had been important for their development.  

Collecting and adding up the results of the keyword tables (MHI Sweden, Mapa Haarlem, Codarts Rotterdam) led to the following picture:  

Self-reflection

Over the years as teacher, during performances and vocal presentations, I noticed inhibited stage presence and stiff bodies in many young classical singers. This uneasy self-consciousness often had a negative effect on their sense of joy and wellbeing, their expressive capacities and vocal production. While working on physical connection and vocal freedom in my main subject lessons, I felt the need to help singers to find a way to be freer and more at ease on stage. 
Working on this Artistic Research and research exposition brought me a lot, in many ways. It helped me to structure my teaching, both in MoM classes and in other teaching situations—main subject classical voice lessons, masterclasses, and group lessons—and gave me deeper insights into the physicality of stage performers. To be able to draw conclusions I needed to be clear about my goals and search deeply for the right words to do justice to the MoM approach in all its aspects. My main goal was to explore how Musicality of Movement can be helpful in the development of (classical) singers—both vocally and in performance skills—and how it differs from other physical awareness methods. Connecting my experiences to the research questions gave me the possibility to evaluate my findings and analyze the reactions of the participants; even though the number of participants was modest, I could see patterns in their observations that helped me to come to conclusions. Besides the effects I witnessed from the point of view of a teacher, I also experienced personal growth in the field of real-time composition which will enrich my own performances.  

By introducing the three sets of exercises—focusing on specific parts of the body—which were effective for myself and with students in the main subject lesson, I tried to let participants use the exercises pretty straight forward, vocalizing during the movement. They did as I asked, and the exercises worked quite well. Some participants could effectively use them in their vocal practice and indicated to work with them. For me the results felt somewhat mechanical and less alive than the movements during improvisational exercises. As the preparations for the improvisations took the participating performers through distinct stages of moving and sounding from within, the improvisations could have a surprisingly expressive depth. During the MoM for Singers workshops, the most striking effects were the effects on the physical presence, by consistently working with the breathing, which resulted in genuine, vulnerable yet strong presence in space.