Body wisdom for vocal performers and educators: What the heart and lungs can teach us about sustainable and joyful vocal practice!
Thursday 18th June 2026, 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM (London Time)
Join Mark Seton as he discusses his recent research with creatives (260 participants) on the challenges of work and relationships, and how many are seeking to be more empowered in their personal and professional lives, as well as more embodied and enduring in the midst of rapidly changing life and work. This foundational and interactive workshop takes us on an embodied journey into how the actual heart functions and its crucial partnership with our lungs. In this course we’ll learn from their collective wisdom how to remain healthily ‘opened’ and ‘closed’ at the same time, to breath in and breath out, allowing time for both refreshment and recovery between each beat of our hearts, and each drawing of breath.
"Both circulation systems – blood and air – participate in an essential partnership. The heart is the pump for the blood that carries oxygen to wherever it’s needed in the body, while the lungs ensure that the oxygen is there to collect and that the resultant carbon dioxide is there to expel. But, importantly, the heart needs permeable boundaries and moments of rest and recovery to be sustainable, while carbon dioxide provides the chemical signal to trigger each breath cycle. What is often regarded as a ‘waste’ product is what keeps the breath cycle going, and it is on that exhaled breath – what we release and no longer need for ourselves – that we speak, sing, cry, laugh, whisper and connect with others.
Both our ‘open-heartedness’ and our open breath, model a willingness and capacity to practice empathy and emotional awareness, a capacity to treat both one's self and others with respect and compassion, being approachable towards partnerships and collaborations, and being adaptive and open-minded. In short, we can actually honour and celebrate our shared human vulnerability as a gift to each other. In this session we’re going to playfully explore 3 ways – embodiment, empowerment and endurance – of practicing self-care AND other-care that support our innate open-heartedness and vulnerability."
🏷️ Price £30 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available
Dr Mark Seton
Dr Mark Seton is an Honorary Research Associate in the Discipline of Theatre and Performance, The University of Sydney and a lecturer in Excelsia University College’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, Australia. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2009 to conduct a study tour of actor training healthcare practices in the UK. Arising from this study, the Equity Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, initiated an internationally ground-breaking Actors’ Wellbeing Study (AWS) in 2013.
Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.
Learn MoreSorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Monday 19th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 20th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Introduction to Vocal Acoustics for Spoken and Sung Voice
Gökçe Kutsal
This course is designed to break down the fundamentals of acoustics for both spoken and sung voice in a beginner-friendly, accessible way — so you can easily understand and apply these concepts to your teaching or research.
Tuesday 20th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Practical Magic*: The Art & Science of Balancing Voices with SOVTs and VFEs
Melanie Tapson
Through live demonstrations, group practice, and peer coaching, you’ll learn how to teach SOVTs and VFEs with clarity and precision, integrate their principles to support vocal health, recovery, and stylistic flexibility and troubleshoot challenges and adapt exercises for individualized results.
Tuesday 27th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Pop Pedagogy - an Overview
Kim Chandler
Some successful pop stars are celebrating career lengths of over sixty years, having been around since the 1950s when pop music emerged and diversified from jazz, so pop singing has been in existence sufficiently long now that, for teaching purposes, we can observe and analyse what type of approach serves it best.