The creative adult is the child who survived.
Ursula Leguin
Elise is a business coach by day and by Sunday leads our vocal warm-ups. They combine elements of Guy’s focus on movement and brilliantly complement each other. Although she has prior improvisation experience, there is a lot that she is still able to gain by attending these workshops. Red Hat Opera workshops emphasise the idea of having no leader but encourage a collaborative space where we can get as much out of it as we put into it.
When did you start with Red Hat Opera?
I’ve done it for at least 2 years I think. Guy and I did a concert together and kept in touch after that.
What keeps you coming back?
I like working with him [Guy] as a musician because we did free improvising together. I also love all sorts of dancing, improvising, contact dance, that sort of thing. It’s that combination, it works really well for me. I get the chance to have a good dance workout and it’s also nice that he asked me at some point to do the vocal warm ups; that gets me more involved. I really enjoy the fact that I can work off what he’s done, the more physical things. I can spark off that and tailor it to what he’s been doing or what I know he wants to be done. It’s a very interesting group of people. It’s nice that new people come in occasionally, and the original group, I still see most of them. Also very nice because they’re artists and word people, poets, which is an area that is not my strongest point. I just love the combination of everything and he’s very good at structuring it.
What do you enjoy most?
I love seeing where people start from and where they go to really quickly with this. It’s always been very much a part of my work because, besides singing, I am a coach in the business world. I have done this for 20 years. I’m just so convinced from my own point of view that we learn through the body and through creating vocal sound. I’m convinced by how important that is, so it’s really nice to see what happens.
How does it help in your general life?
I love dancing and I’m getting on a bit, so it’s nice that I still can take that opportunity. It’s also something to do with challenging myself, because there are some things I can do better than others. It’s nice that you can work creatively with people who have a different discipline from yourself. Improvising with musicians is one thing, but in things like contact dance, there’s a give and take. People have helped me with texts for my songs, and I can help them with giving framework to their pieces. Its very nice to have that interaction with people who do different things.
How has it helped your creative work?
I think Guy is a good model as a coach. It’s about the way that he works with people and the group. He’s good with taking on board what people can do and at what level and finding the creativeness in it. Always listening and always looking for what’s happening. It reinforces a lot of things that I know and do work with like for example, really being 100% in the moment which is what he’ll always be telling people to do. In the improvisations that we do, you’re constantly sort of confronted with the desire to do something yourself, and it’s such a great exercise to listen to what other people are doing. Taking a step back from who’s doing what and thinking ‘Where does this need to go? What’s needed? What can I put in here?’
What are your highlights?
I don’t see ‘one’ thing. As I say, I very much enjoy the logical build up. I love doing all the physical stuff. It’s very freeing for me and I really enjoy that.
It really is the whole package. We have done one performance together and that was really nice.
Having really good relationships with people in the group. It just brings so much together, things that are important to me as well.
Across the room the tiny stranger
Sure breath says “I am here to stay”
Separated but not alone
just surrender, just surrender
An empty space has come between us
Feeling lost, neither Joy nor Pain
Accept the presence of the Stranger
That’s what love is, that’s what love is
Looking back into that room, that moment
I realise the space is now filled
Filled with sharing, with love, with life
The birth of meaning, the meaning of birth
So comes each child into the world
We belong, but are never owned
separated but not alone
That’s how life is that’s how life is
Just surrender, just surrender.
By Elise Lorraine
Red Hat Opera Workshop 