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my body, Water, my blood, Air, my breath and Fire, my Spirit" filled the soundproof movie theatre. We did sirens, roller coaster rides (scoops) with "haa, hey, hee, hoo and huu's" - (Thank you Lucille Rubin). We moved into open throated work songs - again inspired by Frankie Armstrong. I then asked the students if they knew of open throated calls from their own or other cultures. Dick Channer, who had been in the British military in India during WW II told us if the Nagas who had carried the army's supplies over the mountains between India and Burma. Dick described to us a line of men, each one calling a short sound as they walked along the steep mountain trails in single file. A sound would be started by person #1 at the head of the line and on the next rhythmic step, a different sound would be made by person #2 down the line to person #3, 4, 5, 6, 7 etc. to the end of the line. After the last person in the line called his sound, the leader would begin again with his musical note or expression. This seemed like the perfect group activity to reinforce our open throated breath/support work and one which would enable us to move our voices out of doors. So we left our soundproof space and took to immediate paths around Mountain House to try out our 'Naga walk.' It took a few attempts before we were able to march along in rhythm, keeping the line of "Music" moving from front to end of the line and then back to the front of the line in sequence. At first there was much giggling as one person would miss a cue or lose the rhythm but each day after our indoor warm-up we would go outside to our 'Naga walk.' Each day the group got better and more committed to focusing the vocal tone and keeping the musical line of open-throated sounds moving like a serpent along the path. Whenever we went out of doors, whether to or from the classroom or to the edge of the wall to call across to France, or down to a clearing in the woods to do our Native American circle chant we walked in a line - doing our 'Naga walk.' Soon we discovered the practical reason for the sound making. It was simply a way to keep track of each other and to make sure that everyone was on the trail, without constantly having to turn around and count heads. It quickly became a Zen like activity - walking in rhythm and expressing a part of a unique musical line. At the suggestion of one of our Czech students, we experimented with making sounds unique to our own languages. That was fun and another way to explore each others' unique phonetic reservoir. The Czech students were fascinated by the Brooklynese / w /.

On our last day of class, we were finally physi-

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cally and vocally ready to tackle our biggest challenge - to take off for a long 'Naga walk' through the woods on the narrow mountain trail heading upward. We started off with gusto as Dick Channer, our former British military officer, energetically led the way. We were doing pretty well maintaining our rhythm when all of a sudden, we lost one of the sound elements in the middle of our line. I was behind Dick and turned around and found that one of our older hikers was out of breath and needed to rest a bit. (For some people this high altitude makes breathing and oxygenating the blood difficult.) We rested a bit and then continued on our trail, listening acutely for any other lapses of sound.

After this last day of the Voice Workshop, I was in the kitchen preparing dinner with Maria, the Swedish physician, when all of a sudden Maria said to me in her beautifully Swedish accented English, "You know, today I found my real voice, the voice I had when I was a child, the voice my friends said would be good if I were on a sinking ship and had to call for help but was too loud for the everyday world, the voice I've had to keep quiet for all these years as I have attended to the sick and dying." I felt tears of joy well up in my eyes. I felt touched by Maria's testimony and pleased that our 5 days of vocal work had helped to free Maria and bring her closer to her free vocal self. I suggested that she continue this sense of freedom in extended sound by singing in her church choir back home in Gallivare, north of the Arctic Circle. It is my hope that she has found the time to do this.

I learned a lot from my week of creativity in Caux. It affirmed my belief that clear, large vocal goals can move the process of voice freeing along more quickly. (My students at Virginia Commonwealth University worked out of doors a lot this past fall.) It also affirmed that our work as voice trainers can benefit everyone. It exposed me to ideas and cultures I had no idea existed before my trip and gave me an opportunity to create the 'Naga walk' as an exercise in voice freeing. It truly took my view of voice training to the mountain top and opened my eyes once again to the enormous vista of possibilities.

VOICE AND HEALING

VASTA Conference

August 8-11, 1998.

San Antonio, Texas