The Listening Voice
Beyond
Performance
A weekend of deep creative voice work for actors, writers, singers and storytellers ready to return to their authentic expression
The Invitation
We invite you to a weekend of voice work and developing creative practice, gathering with other artists - a workshop led by voice practitioner Katya Barton from The Listening Voice, and writer and storyteller, Chloé Zhao.
Together, Katya and Chloé open a space for working with voice, breath and story, to explore the tools that shape creative expression before it has language - through the realms of sound and sensation.
Across three days you will be guided through a live, in-the-body application of The Listening Voice process, a descent into the body through sound. Chloé joins to bring a storytellers perspective on where listening inward has shaped her own creative life, and where performance gets in the way of it.
This is not a singing workshop, nor is it a masterclass in craft. It is a participatory process shaped by curiosity and close attention to ‘what is really there’. A room for people who want to find their way back to something more raw, honest and true in their work.
The authentic voice is the one that quivers from the depths of you.
The one whose sound is not striving for perfection.
The authentic voice is born from the unknown, born out of darkness.
The liberation of its expression is a moment of transcendence.
Who This Is For
- Actors, musicians, writers, storytellers - anyone who is in the creative industry and is working with story and emotional expression
- Those who have a desire to bring more emotional truth and humanness into their process or creative practice
- Those who may have been relying too much on performance and technique and want to find more freedom and connection in their authentic voice/expression
The Process :: We begin by shifting the awareness from the mind, to the breath and body, moving out of habitual breathing patterns and reconnecting to more presence and sensation. As we drop deeper into ourselves, resistance may rise to the surface. The voice is what helps us to move this resistance, clearing the way until we come into a state of flow and more easeful expression.
The Weekend
Friday
OpeningArrival, grounding, and setting intention for the work ahead.
Saturday
The DescentA full day of somatic voice work, emotional clearing work, and guided listening - working through the throat (voice, truth-telling), the heart (what you actually care about), and the solar plexus (will, fire, the fear of being seen). Space for individual work within the group container.
Sunday
Integration & RisingBringing what's been cleared back into contact with your actual project* - the page, the script, the song. A closing conversation with Chloé and Katya on carrying this back into a working creative practice for yourself and your communities, and a closing circle before we part on Sunday.
* Please bring a small piece of text/song/writing that may be used for your process, either for your own development as inspiration, or as something that can be actively witnessed and worked with in the group
The Work, In Brief
Most creative blocks are not a failure of skill, they're a backlog of unfelt sensation sitting between you and your own true signal. Through sound, breath and deep listening, we locate where you've gotten stuck, and give it somewhere to move. What's left, underneath performance, is usually simpler and much more powerful than something you were 'trying' to produce. Whats left is presence.
We are not training the voice.
We are coming into relationship with the truth of the moment.
Katya Barton & Chloé Zhao
Katya Barton will guide the somatic, clearing and voice work throughout the weekend. She has spent the last decade developing The Listening Voice - a process of working through the body's wisdom centres to clear what blocks authentic expression.
Chloé Zhao will bring a storyteller's perspective on where listening inward has shaped her own creative life, and where performance quietly gets in its way.
Touching the edges of yourself is not always comfortable. But oh - is it alive.The Listening Voice
The Details
We are at capacity for the September workshop, but please apply to our waitlist below to be the first to hear about future workshops.
Apply for WaitlistQuestions before you commit? katya@thelisteningvoice.world