Gestures and their role in restoring a singer’s performance-focus

Research question: How can the embodiment of gestures help me to increase my performance focus with the aim of eradicating meaningless gestures during singing, and is it possible to create a step-by-step study plan that incorporates my findings? Abstract: The goal of this research was to find a solution to my problem that my gestures don’t always contribute to the lyric’s meaning when I’m singing. I was looking for a way to eradicate meaningless gestures. I carried out my research by examining the history of singing, scientific papers and articles regarding the connection between speech and gesture, and writings by experts in the field of acting, singing and body movement like Fajo Jansen, a body-movement teacher who helped help me analyse some of my old video recordings. I also used a questionnaire and created a study plan incorporating these findings, and recorded myself multiple times under the guidance of Fajo in order to test their efficacy. I discovered that a disruption in my performance-focus during singing was causing my gesticulation problems. By creating a deeper physical connection with a text’s meaning, I sought to re-establish and strengthen this focus, which I tested with my study plan for the embodiment of gestures. My work with Fajo showed that, next to this approach, another layer should be added: namely, the body should feel grounded and experience a feeling of flow in order to create free gestures which contribute to a text’s meaning. With Fajo, I concluded that by not only working on the embodiment of gestures but on the whole body as well, my gesticulation problem can be remedied more effectively.

Author: Aimée Hautvast