INTRODUCING BODY NRGs

DATE: Friday July 24 (USA) / Saturday July 25 (Australia)

TIME: 7pm NYC EDT (USA) / 9am Sydney AEST (Australia)

FACILITATOR: Rudolf Hendrikx (Australia, Netherlands)

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This is a 90 minute Live Online workshop

Exploring how organic body energy systems inform behavior and expression is foundational to the “bodyvoice” approach in kinesensics. Join us as we introduce and investigate, through playful exploration, the three body NRG states that support the function of the voice and body as a whole. In this 90 minute workshop you will tap into the body pain relievers of yawning, floating, and shaking, and experience how they transform into the body NRGs Potency, Buoyancy and Radiancy, which fuel the dynamic engagement of the bodyvoice connection. 

To ensure unimpeded exploration for all participants these workshops are not recorded.

INTRODUCING VOCAL NRGS

DATE: Saturday August 8

TIME: 10am EDT (New York, USA) / 4:00pm SAST (Cape Town) /6:00pm GST (Sharjah, UAE)

FACILITATORS: Mpho Malesa (South Africa), Morné Steyn (South Africa)

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This is a 3 Hour Deep Dive Live Online workshop

Discovering the natural energy of the voice--Vocal NRG*--is foundational to the voice portion of our distinctive "bodyvoice training". Join us as we dive into the three NRGs that shape kinesensic voice and speech work and apply them to a creative experience of text, poetry, hip hop, and musicality. Over the three hour session you will playfully engage with Consonant, Structural and Tonal NRG*, and experience how their applications contribute to a richer, fuller, healthier vocal life, and a dynamic creative exploration of original and existing text.

To ensure unimpeded exploration for all participants these workshops are not recorded.

MORE About INTRODUCING BODY NRGS

Exploring how organic body energy systems inform behavior and expression is foundational to the “bodyvoice” approach in kinesensics. Join us as we introduce and investigate, through playful exploration, the three body NRG states that support the function of the voice and body as a whole. In this 90 minute workshop you will tap into the body pain relievers of yawning, floating, and shaking, and experience how they transform into the body NRGs Potency, Buoyancy and Radiancy, which fuel the dynamic engagement of the bodyvoice connection. 

About the Body NRGs

Potency NRG invites power without pain, strength without strain, throughout the bodyvoice ecosystem. Potency, fueled by the experience of yawning, offers powerful support for emphatic vocal use, expressive characterization, and physical presence & wellbeing.

Buoyancy NRG offers a lighter than air, whimsical floating experience to the body whole. Fueled by the breath, Buoyancy NRG invites active rest and restful action, ease throughout the body ecosystem, and easeful alignment. Also a creative tool for characterization and expression.

Radiancy NRG is dynamic, spark-like, playful, and energizing. Fueled by the electric, vibratory impulses of the heartbeat and a twinkle in the eye, Radiancy offers energy, playfulness, targeted attention, and a shimmer of action that energizes the body and invigorates character exploration.

Together, the Body NRGs become a fully engaged part of the bodyvoice whole, enhancing speaking, singing, communication, physical life, and the expression of character and self.

* NRG = Neural Regenerative Growth

MORE About INTRODUCING VOCAL NRGs

Discovering the natural energy of the voice--Vocal NRG*--is foundational to the voice portion of our distinctive "bodyvoice training". Join us as we dive into the three NRGs that shape kinesensic voice and speech work and apply them to a creative experience of text, poetry, hip hop, and musicality. Over the three hour session you will playfully engage with Consonant, Structural and Tonal NRG*, and experience how their applications contribute to a richer, fuller, healthier vocal life, and a dynamic creative exploration of original and existing text.

About the Vocal NRGs

Consonant NRG invites a refreshed exploration of clarity and expressiveness in speech. Consonants offer rich, communicative potential, and a way to tune and refine vocal life.

Structural NRG offers a new awareness of vocal tract size, shape, and acoustics, inviting resonant and healthful vocalization from conversations to concert halls.

Tonal NRG builds richness and fullness to the speaking range of the voice, and beyond. It offers a scientifically supported approach to vocalization that is healthful and regenerative.

Together, the Vocal NRGs become a fully engaged part of the bodyvoice whole, enhancing speaking and singing. They also offer rich creative opportunities for original vocal expression, the composition of voice based practices, and the transformation of existing poetry, prose and song.

* NRG = Neural Regenerative Growth

Raechyl is an Australian actor, voice artist and voice coach. She holds an MFA: Voice from the National Institute of Dramatic Art and studied acting through the Diploma of Screen Performance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, amongst ongoing training in voice and acting. She is a certified Lessac Trainer and Vocal Combat Technique Trainer, bringing both skill bases to her work at Sharjah Performing Arts Academy, UAE. Her performance skills are employed across stage and screen, and her voice over work spans audiobooks, commercials, e-learning and corporate videos. By straddling the pathways of practitioner and pedagogue, Raechyl offers a keen awareness and embodiment of dextrous, grounded and truthful performances.

Rudolf Hendrikx is an interdisciplinary performer and somatic body/voice pedagogue specialising in embodied performance techniques for stage and screen. Based in Sydney, his recent credits include work with the Australian Ballet at Sydney Opera House and the innovative collaborative theatre project “Two Bodies one Mind” at the Pesta Boneka International Puppet Biennale in Indonesia. Rudolf teaches at NIDA and has previously taught at Actor’s Centre Australia (ACA) and various Universities in South Africa. He is an active member of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association) and Co-Director of VASTA’s Bizcore. Rudolf’s expertise in voice and movement integration is grounded in advanced certifications as a Lessac Kinesensics Somatic body/voice trainer, combining rigorous technique with inclusive practice methodologies. Rudolf is currently pursuing PhD research into voice-based cultural transformation at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Rudolf further holds an MFA in Voice Studies from NIDA, and a Bachelor of Performing Arts from WAAPA. Recent recognition includes the 2022 Ian Potter Cultural Trust award and the 2023 VASTA travel award.

Morné Steyn is a South African performer, theatre-maker, and voice and dialect coach for theatre and screen. He is a practitioner-scholar of Bodymind & Voice and a lecturer in Acting Studies at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (CTDPS).

His artistic research practice advances a sensuous approach to knowledge, centering somatic experiences located in the black archive. He uses the body and voice as modes of inquiry to explore the insurgent nature of black subjectivities as sites of memory, epistemic continuity, and archival inheritance. Through performance, sonic memory, and embodied practice, his work cultivates a multisensory archive that seeks both ontological and epistemic regeneration.

Morné is a certified Lessac Kinesensics Bodyvoice Facilitator and is a sitting Board Member of the Lessac Training and Research Institute (USA), where he is also a candidate in the Master Teacher Certification Programme. He is a certified yoga teacher and lifelong student, as well as a Registered Somatic Movement Educator through ISMETA.

His recent theatre and screen coaching credits include Blood on My Hands (Netflix), and he has served as an accent and dialect consultant and coach for Orange Thrower at Griffin Theatre Company and Destiny at Melbourne Theatre Company.

Mpho Malesa is a 30-year-old internationally acclaimed actor, musician, award-winning stage designer, facilitator, voice coach, and writer from Tembisa, Gauteng. He began his 13-year career at the Sello sa Tlou Theatre Group, where he developed a passion for performance through dance, poetry, and acting. The company toured local and national festivals. In 2016, he enrolled at Tshwane University of Technology, earning a B.Tech while specializing in voice and applied theatre. There, he collaborated with Dr. Karina Lemmer on Dance of Death (2017) and Motlotlegi (2018), an adaptation of Julius Caesar. He also worked with Tebatso Mashishi on You Fool, How Can the Sky Fall. With Sabelo Mthethwa, he co-created Wounds in the Wilderness, a successful music and poetry production. His credits include Bahahlauli (2018), directed by Dr. Kabi Thulo. In 2021, he coached Peeling Shadows at the Market Theatre and joined Kwasha Theatre Company as an actor and director. His work has reached London, Mozambique, and across South Africa. He has curated festivals at TX Theatre Festival and continues to teach, create, and mentor artists globally through workshops and masterclasses in voice and performance. In 2025, he earned certification from the Lessac Institute as a body and voice trainer internationally.

Michelle Bellaver is Registered Somatic Movement Educator with ISMETA and a Certified Trainer in LK Bodyvoice who has taught Somatic Acting at universities across the United States: most recently in the MFA and BFA Acting program at the University of Florida and currently at Fresno State University in California. Michelle is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors Equity Association, VASTA, ATHE and holds an MFA and BA in Acting. Michelle’s creative research has focused on the theory and praxis of The Female Gaze as a somatic practice in film and theatre performance and the development of a methodology for her Somatic "The Heart Centered Actor" training. She has presented her Somatic Bodyvoice research on panels or paper presentations at national conferences: “Compassionate Equity in Performance Training of Neurodivergent Actors” (ATHE, 2025), “Neurodiversity, Kinesensics, and the Need for Compassionate Equity in Performance Training” (VASTA, 2024),  "The Female Gaze: Deconstruction and Adaptation in Creative Process" (ATHE 2023) "Lessac Body NRG’s and the creation of on-set film language for The Female Gaze: ‘The Feeling Camera" (LTRI, 2022) She is also a filmmaker and theatre director. Some of her directing credits include her experimental feature narrative film SAINT: 5 Etudes for Joan of Arc and her recent stage directing credits include Antigone by Sophokles (translated by Anne Carson), The Pliant Girls by Meghan Brown, Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel, and Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi. She has received creative residencies in playwriting at The Tank/NYC, Dixon Place, and The Purple Rose Theatre Company. Her acting credits include the regional professional premiere of Other Desert Cities and the Off-Off-Broadway revival of How I Learned to Drive. 

Elizabeth Parks is Lessac Kinesensics Certified Trainer, a Level III Margolis Method Certified Educator, and trains with Theatre Nohgaku in Noh theatre. She serves as Assistant Professor of Acting/Stage Movement at Appalachian State University. Recent publications include “Voice, Body, and Performance for the Noh Actor: A Keynote Conversation with Master Akira Matsui” in the Voice and Speech Review and “Shoe Story: An Icebreaker with a Sole” published in the Professors at Play ONLINE Playbook. Elizabeth’s creative research centers on the use of Lessac Kinesensics, Margolis Method, and Noh to create social justice and equity-focused theatre. Current projects include adapting her devised ecofeminist production of Beautiful, Useful, True, into a solo performance and youth outreach program. Her current scholarly work includes spearheading a book project, Margolis Method: Advancing Embodiment, Craft and Carein Performance, co-edited with Kari Margolis and Kym Longhi.

www.elizabethparks.org

Dr. Melissa Hurt is a certified yoga teacher (700 hours) and a certified trainer in Arthur Lessac's voice, speech, and movement training. She has enjoyed teaching embodied practices for over fifteen years at various universities and privately. She shares embodied practices freely on her YouTube channel, available at youtube.com/melissahurt.

She has a Ph.D. in theatre arts from the University of Oregon, with a specialization in embodied actor training. She is the author of Arthur Lessac’s Embodied Actor Training (Routledge), I Am the Jungle: A Yoga Adventure (Sounds True), and The Postpartum Path of Yoga (Integrative Studio). Melissa lives in the Capital District of New York with her daughter, Penny. You can get a free gift when you subscribe to her newsletter at melissahurt.com. 

Laura is a spoken voice tutor from and based in the UK, with a specialist focus in Lessac Kinesensics BodyVoice Training as a Lessac Certified Trainer. Originally, she trained as an actor at East 15 Acting School. She then went on to specialise in voice and completed her undergraduate degree in Vocal & Choral studies at The University of Winchester. Laura completed her MA in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and her Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Education in Theatre Arts (PGCLTHE) from Rose Bruford College, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Laura recently started her PhD research at Coventry University in the area of somatic practices in education to support neurodiversity in educators. Her hobbies include learning languages such as Korean and Mandarin, and embroidery.  

A Certified Trainer of Lessac Kinesensic BodyVoice Training (2012) and a Registered Somatic Movement Educator through ISMETA, Aimee is an actor, singer, director, voice coach, and performance educator with over 20 years experience performing, producing, directing and instructing in the theatre world. She is graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Acting program (2003) and in addition to her LK training, she has ventured into Knight-Thompson Speechwork, Linklater, Fitzmaurice, Michael Chekhov, Clinical Somatics, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and many other techniques and pedagogical approaches. As a voice and dialect coach, Aimee has worked on numerous productions for Universities and theatre companies across Australia and New England, USA. Aimee is currently a Senior Lecturer in the University of New Hampshire’s Theatre & Dance Department where she teaches acting, voice and movement, accent and dialect, and Shakespeare. She is also Assistant Professor at Boston Conservatory at the Berklee College of Music where she has taught Lessac Kinesensics in the MFA Musical Theatre Voice Pedagogy program since 2022. Aimee serves on the Executive Leadership Team for the Lessac Training and Research Institute and has been actively involved in the evolution of the organization since 2018.