Body.Voice.Community.

An educational and laboratory programme by Teatr Brama and Fundacja Nurt

For Teatr Brama, working with the voice has for years been one of the foundations of our activity – it is through song and shared sound that we most fully build relationships, trust and authentic encounters. That is why, together with Fundacja Nurt – a Szczecin-based organisation working at the intersection of art, somatics and research into the body/voice relationship – we want to launch a new educational and laboratory programme.

“Body.Voice.Community.” is an experimental project through which we wish to create a space for the development of artists, educators and cultural animators. The programme includes workshops, laboratories and seminars devoted to the embodiment of the voice, the materiality of sound, regulation of the nervous system and interdisciplinary creative approaches.

We want people who run activities in the region on a daily basis to have the chance to take care of their inspiration and inner resources, exchange experiences, and deepen their creative and pedagogical practices. We know from our own experience how much effort it takes to run artistic and educational activities. We hope this project will offer some space to breathe, to experiment, to be in process, and to return to the “inner voice” that points towards new directions of growth.

The project will culminate in an open performative and seminar event, bringing together diverse creative communities to exchange experiences and present the methods developed.

LAB 1 | 19–25 October
FLUID FORMS AND ECOVOCALITY

This collaboration brings together two artistic research projects exploring the body and the voice through ecological, somatic, scientific, and collective perspectives.

Fluid Forms is a duo formed by dance artists and somatic educators Nieszka Bogusławska and Joanna Gruntkowska. Their practice weaves together hydrofeminism and hydrosomatics with Body-Mind Centering®, embryology, and experimental choreography.

Ecovocality is a project initiated by Italian voice researcher, singer, and composer Francesco Venturi. It explores the ecological, relational, and inclusive dimensions of working with the voice.

The October laboratory is an experiment inviting participants to immerse themselves in the oceanic and terrestrial worlds of our bodies and voices, move beyond human-centred perspectives, and reconnect with the origins of our being through natural landscapes, both external and internal.

This hydrosomatic and vocal exploration, rooted in the Art&Science field, brings together scientific research on the voice and the brain, embodied embryology, fluidity, evolution, the nervous system, and its aquatic origins.

Drawing inspiration from sea turtle births, we will compose a collective somatic-vocal practice. Informed by neuroscientific discoveries, we will explore the voice in relation to different regions of the brain. We will embark on an ecosomatic vocal walk and create sound-and-body installations inspired by shells and the sounds of the deep sea.

LAB 2 | 16–22 November
CARING FOR THE INNER VOICE

• Bartłomiej Mikuła – “Making Space for Vibration. The Feldenkrais Method and the Voice.”
• Aleksandra Kotecka – “Through Vibration to Silence. Biosonology/Interoception”
• Aleksandra Kotecka and Tomasz Wierzbowski – “VoiceLAB re-sources. Immersion, Instinct, Improvisation.”

“Making Space for Vibration. The Feldenkrais Method and the Voice” – a workshop by Bartłomiej Mikuła

The workshop is devoted to the dynamic relationships between movement, breath and voice. The starting point is work with grounding, stability in relation to gravity, and freeing the movement of the diaphragm. Participants develop awareness of their inner spaces, the flow of breath and resonance in the body.

The practice is based on the premise that the voice becomes fuller, softer and more precise when the body moves in a way that is light and free of unnecessary effort. Through self-observation and the gradual change of nervous-system habits, the Feldenkrais Method fosters sensitivity in listening and the quality of sound.

“Through Vibration to Silence. Biosonology/Interoception” – a workshop by Aleksandra Kotecka

Interoception is a deep look inwards – learning to listen to the body anew. The proposed relaxation techniques, based on work with gravity and weighting – yin yoga, fascia work and polyvagal theory – aim to gradually open the body and teach us to follow its needs. The relaxation achieved in this way also prepares us for work with biosonology.

Biosonology is based on stimulating the body with electronic sound waves, which trigger a series of positive biophysical reactions in our system. The vibrational nature of sound allows us to develop powerful tools that activate the organism’s organic response. In this way it prepares us for psychophysical rebalancing towards homeostasis, opening access to our deepest resources, together with the possibility of regeneration, self-healing and compensation for stress factors.

“VoiceLAB re-sources. Immersion, Instinct, Improvisation” – a workshop by Aleksandra Kotecka and Tomasz Wierzbowski

“VoiceLAB re-sources. Immersion, Instinct, Improvisation” is an in-depth workshop for educators and animators, people working with the body and voice, and anyone for whom the voice is an important means of expression.

Working with the voice is an endless search that requires constant renewal of inspiration. The aim of this intensive workshop is to deepen that search, based on the premise that all the raw materials are within us – we are the source of sound, and our body is an inseparable part of this physical phenomenon.

We want to create conditions for observing the natural potential of the voice and fully recognising its physical, tangible character; discovering the voice as it arises in the body and observing its qualities as it moves outward, exploring sounds both in harmony and in relation to silence.

We want to discover and develop the instincts that exist before expectations and intellect and form the basis of vocal work; to go beyond familiar patterns and what seems understandable to us; to immerse ourselves in the sonosphere and break down barriers, trusting in the physical potential of sound and the limitless possibilities of the imagination.

We will work with:

• relaxation techniques to open the voice through release and to awaken the resonators,
• microtones to draw out the full sound of every harmony,
• communication through vibration and natural musical instincts,
• building improvisational skills together through the conscious search for harmony in consonance and dissonance,
• the search for the individual character of the voice and the voice as part of a whole,
• polyphonic music, using Georgian polyphony in its natural scales,
• electronic music, confronting the voice with different harmonic environments.

The November workshop week is focused on “building resources”. We meet a variety of practitioners who will help us take care of well-being and self-regulation through interoception, vibration and somatic movement work; work on tools that heighten sensitivity to the embodiment of the voice and the materiality of sound (techniques combining movement, breath and body, work with harmony, microtones and vibration, Georgian polyphony); and support inspiration and creative practice (the ecology of listening, work with vocal instinct, imagination and improvisation).

Specialist training

The main activity in developing cultural professionals will be specialist training in the field of the embodied voice. The training is divided into two complementary components developing a range of competences key to running educational and community activities:

Micro-residencies – training in the form of working groups supported by mentors (July 2026)

During the first micro-residency training, participants – mostly staff of Fundacja Nurt and Teatr Brama – will split into smaller working groups according to the tools, topics and working methods that interest them. The working groups will be able to book the Teatr Brama hall for 3–5 days in July 2026 to focus, in the form of a micro-residency, on diagnosing needs, exploring inspiring questions related to the embodied voice, deepening bonds, and sharing their own skills and experiences. In this way the micro-residencies will support the participatory dimension of the project by developing a local pool of practices.

Specialist training (6 training sessions, October–November 2026, approx. 60 hours in total)

Two week-long cycles of meetings for a laboratory group of around 20 people. Each week is a separate meeting during which 3 training sessions with 3 experts will take place. The sessions will form a whole and address a coherent theme from different perspectives, allowing the topics to be broadened and deepened in various ways.

The schedule will be designed to support growth. Several hours of content-based sessions are planned each day, along with breaks for rest, shared meals, and time set aside for reflection, exchange and integrating experiences. Participants will be provided with meals and accommodation in Goleniów. They will have the opportunity not only to gain new knowledge and experience, but also to rest, regulate, support one another and simply be together – among the most important elements of growth for the target group.

Week one: Micro-residencies (July 2026)

Focused on a participatory, laboratory form of work in which educators develop creative tools and build a local pool of practices.

Led by: Agnieszka Bogusławska and Bartłomiej Mikuła, in consultation with the other experts

The first training will take the experimental form of a micro-residency supervised by experts. Participants will work in smaller working groups. Cultural professionals will be able to spend laboratory time together (around 3–5 days, with the Teatr Brama hall provided as a working space, plus accommodation and meals), focusing on a deeper diagnosis of their own needs in relation to their activities and the project’s themes, and on exchanging experiences in the field of the embodied voice.

It will be a laboratory space where practitioners can calmly and attentively experiment, share their practices and ideas, exchange perspectives and feedback, and deepen their knowledge of the topics that inspire them. The training aims to support the development of a shared “toolbox” that will translate into the competences of practitioners running their own groups and workshops. This local “toolbox” will be the starting point for later specialist training with experts. It will be developed and expanded in further phases of the project, becoming the basis for translating the skills and ideas developed during the project into cultural and social activities in the region.

Specialist training (October–November 2026)
Week two: Embodied Collectivity

Led by: Francesco Venturi, Agnieszka Bogusławska, Joanna Gruntkowska

The training aims to deepen creative, psychophysical and communal resources and to develop skills in designing interdisciplinary and educational activities in culture and the arts. It supports connecting art with science and social change, and situating practices and ways of working in the context of global polycrises. It also invites reflection on shared responsibility and care among cultural professionals.

The training will consist of in-depth vocal-somatic explorations, practices of community through sensing, movement, vocalisation and somatic experience, and multi-layered research. These experiences and practices will then be carried into group sound-and-choreographic scores.

Working methods: interdisciplinary voice research, somatic bodywork, Body-Mind Centering, Bodynamic somatic psychology, movement-vocal scores, performative practices, artistic research, ecosomatics.

Ecovocality and Fluid Forms: Material, pre-acoustic and more-than-human vocality – 3 training sessions grounded in relationality and interdisciplinarity.

The proposed training combines two artistic research projects based on somatic work with the body and voice, performative practices, and an ecological and posthumanist perspective. Ecovocality (Francesco Venturi) focuses more on the voice, extending into its embodiment, while Fluid Forms (Agnieszka Bogusławska and Joanna Gruntkowska) focuses on the body in which the voice is contained. They meet in a shared interest in somatic experience, materiality, anatomy, prenatal life, human development, evolution and the search for connections with the natural and animal world, and in translating these themes into new ways of thinking about creation, education and collectivity.

Stepping back from human vocality – from trained or unconscious voices isolated from physicality – we return to the sources: to the body, movement and sensation. A voice rooted in matter, anatomy, structures and relationality. We go back to morphological origins, to the aquatic environment of our development and the oceanic beginnings of evolution. In search of the roots and foundations of phonation and relationality, we return to the pre-acoustic phase of vocal development, to somatic experience and to the underwater communication of the animal world.

3 training sessions:

Fluid Forms – where body and voice meet
Somatic work with the fluids of the body based on the Body-Mind Centering approach. Exploring the dialogue between voice, body and one another. Rooting artistic practices in an ecological, social and relational perspective. Building resources for group regulation and awareness of mutual connections through work with the body and voice.

Ecovocality – the roots of relationality
Exploring the ecological morphogenesis of the body and voice. Interdisciplinary research translated into practice. A focus on anatomy, physicality, sensation, movement and relationality as the source of vocality. Presenting, in theory and practice, three perspectives: prenatal life, evolution, and the communication of marine animals – whales, dolphins and turtles.

Singing Turtles – a communal vocal-choreographic score
A performative practice inspired by the hatching of turtles, which signal to one another their readiness to hatch by “singing” through pulsed phonation. In “Singing Turtles” we will look at the vocal act of community and solidarity, and at social phonation rooted in the very beginnings of life.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special-purpose fund.