Spain, ANDALUCIA - Songs for the Soul - Singing Holiday, Polina Shepherd, Cortijo Romero is near Orgiva, in Andalucia. Fly to Malaga or Gatwick for a week in Paradise!, 20 Jul 2019
Free up your thinking and open your mind to new ways by allowing your voice to flow. Learn some beautiful old Russian harmonies and Nigunim (Jewish wordless songs) from a native leader. Allow your creativity to build new ways of being: free, non-judgemental, inspiring and exciting. The course will also include some simple circle dances.
Polina Shepherd (Skovoroda) is a performer, composer and choir leader with over 20 years of professional experience in teaching Yiddish and Russian song seminars and educational programmes, residential courses and choral workshops internationally. She works with audiences of different backgrounds and vocal levels. Singing is the most accessible part of these East European cultures that have no borders and connect heart to heart to develop group spirit and to bind people together.
'A wonderful range of music and bodywork to enhance the voice - and fun!' - Jacqui Langlois
This is a rare opportunity to learn some unfamiliar, life enhancing ways of singing, based on the immensely rich traditions of eastern Europe.
No previous experience in singing or of any language is necessary; open to all.
Russian folk songs embrace the whole of the landscape and all of Mother Earth. This wide geographical span is present throughout the whole culture and gives the songs an extremely broad emotional depth. Large musical intervals in lyrical songs call to mind the vastness of Russian topography stretching toward a boundless horizon. In eastern folklore, each snowflake and each blade of grass embodies the spirits of nature - and this connection is felt within every song for ritual pagan holidays, circle dance, laments, wedding and lyrical songs...
Nigunim are Jewish songs without words and are a part of Jewish musical culture that enable the singer (either alone or in groups) to bring about a change in spiritual and emotional consciousness. Using healing nigunim, the participants will be invited to tap into deeply enlightening and powerful sources of personal energy, individually and collectively accessing their personal creativity. Each participant will find a way to express themselves through their own unique musical language.
