Jocelyn, may I suggest this is not as big of a dilemma as you may think.
First, having strong abs should not be a negative thing for anybody, they
are an integral part of the body's postural support system. What is negative
is being out of balance with the other muscles of the body, but being
dancers I doubt this is a problem either. And since they dance well they
should have better than average control over their musculature. I would
suggest impressing on them that they don't need to squeeze anything when
they sing, by being in good shape the natural elasticity of the body should
provide enough compression of the breath. At least to start with. Another
idea I would try is encourage them to breath into their lower back. If you
bend over and breathe you should feel the lower back expand. I have found
that by using the lower back as a breath target the body usually expands
slightly through the rest of the torso. It is not a good idea to breath in
just one part of the body, this puts you out of balance and makes one area
do all the work. Spread it around, breath into the back and the abdomen, let
the ribs slightly expand. The idea being it is easier to expand a little in
a large area than it is to expand a lot in a small area. The old adage
"breath low" was meant to control the breath with the low muscles, not to
stick out your lower abdomen accentuating a "gut". The body should look
attentive when singing, so a dancer should have a head start. It is
important to remember that although rigidity is a negative, so is its
opposite laxity. We must strive for a balanced elastic tension in the body
to do any activity. This includes singing.
Michael
>From: "Jocelyn Gooch" <jocelyngooch@h...>
>Reply-To: vocalist-temporary@egroups.com
>To: vocalist-temporary@egroups.com
>Subject: [vocalist-temporary] support - too tense
>Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 01:30:33 GMT
>
>Ahoy all "voice technicians" of Vocalist.
>
>I recently began teaching two students, young teens, who are incredible
>dancers, both with first place trophies from their last competition. This
>brother and sister have a very hard time letting go of the tension/strength
>they have developed through doing ONE THOUSAND SIT-UPS A DAY! I've tried a
>number of things to help them, but so far, the rippling muscles are
>winning.
>Their young voices can't survive this. Can anyone shed some light on what I
>might teach them? In order to stay completely steady for turns these
>marvelous dancers also squeeze the daylights out of their ribs. Oy! My soft
>body finds such ease with the breath. I'm lost!
>
>Jocelyn Thulin-Gooch
>Lyric Soprano
>Alameda, California
>
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>
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