EMBODIMENT and EMPOWERMENT

by Elisabeth Lusche

“EMBODIMENT and EMPOWERMENT” is an ongoing research project into embodied practice as a performance tool, with an emphasis on gender and trauma. I began this research in my master’s studies, focusing specifically on how theatrical movement prescribed by a score can offer a window for developing performers to become more empowered in their physicalities, primarily in the work “ORCHESTER-FINALISTEN” by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Since then, however, I have expanded this research to center around the question, “How can we nurture the body/music symbiosis?”

Many womxn are either told to take up less space or denied space at all. Many womxn face aggressive acts that violate the little space they might be afforded. We have heard the cries for human rights and racial justice of “I Can’t Breathe” for years, and now we are faced with a like- taking virus that attacks the life-giving respiratory system.

For these reasons and more, breathing is a radical act. When we inhale, we expand. When we breathe, we take up space.

Brass pedagogy offers a unique window into embodied musical practices due to two fundamentals:

1. The sound-producing vibrations for brass instruments are produced by the body and 2. It has a well-known masculine aesthetic stereotype. However, because of these fundamentals, female, transgender, and non-binary brass players are often the targets of discrimination, insults, and even violence by colleagues, teachers, and cultural institutions.

The pandemic has afforded me - if nothing else - the opportunity to get in touch with a wide range of womxn brass players and hear their music and stories. My hope is to share some of the collective knowledge and experiences of these womxn and to contribute to a larger dialogue about concepts of gender in music performance and how we can all become empowered through musical, rebellious breath.

“EMBODIMENT and EMPOWERMENT” will be presented as part of the third season of eavesdropping - a concert series and symposium based in London, UK (and online) - from the 20th to the 25th of April. Exact date and time to be announced.