The Integration of Voice and Dance Technique: Triple Threat or Double Trouble?
Thursday 20th June 2024, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM (London Time)
In the world of musical theatre, artists are required to combine the skills of singing, dancing, and acting, which has led to them being referred to as 'Triple Threat' performers. To sing and dance simultaneously requires a high degree of technique integration, but historically training in these disciplines has remained quite segregated. Traditional training methods in dance and voice reveal potential conflicts in areas such as postural alignment, muscle recruitment patterns, and breath mechanics, and in the absence of true integrative training methods, performers are often caught in the middle of these discrepancies, which can leave them vulnerable to injury.
In this session, we will explore these areas of conflict, examine the rationale for these pedagogical choices, and suggest areas for improvement of integration in both training and performance. Topics will include:
- An exploration of the muscle recruitment patterns in traditional dance training
- Highlighting the conflicts in breath mechanics between dance and voice techniques
- The importance of optimal sub-glottal pressure in musical theatre performance
- Common injuries associated with dance and voice technique integration
- Technique integration skills to optimise breath for safe vocalising and core stability for movement
- Suggestions for improving skill integration in pedagogical and performance settings
This session will highlight the key stumbling blocks faced by many musical theatre performers, examine the training and performance cultures in this field, and suggest ways to improve technique integration skills to protect the Triple Threat performers.
Jennie Morton
After a long performing career as a Ballet dancer, West End Musical Theatre performer, and lead singer of a London-based Big Band, Jennie is now an Osteopath specializing in Performing Arts Medicine. Now based in Los Angeles...
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.
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1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
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This six-week course is an opportunity to learn about both Received Pronunciation and Standard Southern British English. Rather than a course in learning how to speak RP/SSBE (there are many brilliant available courses for this already), this course is about learning how to coach it.
Thursday 5th March 2026
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Thursday 12th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
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Stanislavski said, “our artistic emotions are, at first, as shy as wild animals and they hide in the depths of our souls.” Michael Chekhov said, our bodies should be like a “sensitive membrane, a kind of receiver and conveyor of the subtlest images, feelings, emotions and will impulses.” And Meisner said we should be “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” Join Louisa Morgan in this 2-part course as she explores a range of well-known acting practitioners to investigate what they believed (or believe) about emotion and how they approached it in their work. She'll compare their work to see where they align and where they diverge.
Tuesday 17th March 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
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The Use of Vibrato in Belt and Legit Styles of Singing in Professional Female Musical Theatre Performers
Dr. Alyssa Becker
Shaped by the popular music of its time, musical theatre blends storytelling with an ever-evolving range of vocal styles—from classical legit singing to jazz, hip-hop, and powerhouse belting. Despite its importance, much of what we understand about vibrato comes from laboratory-based studies that strip singing of its musical, stylistic, and performance context. Join Dr Alyssa Becker as she connects current research with real-world pedagogy, revealing how elite musical theatre performers strategically use vibrato to shape style and storytelling, and showing how these insights can be applied in the voice studio to train stylistic flexibility and control!