The latest news from the LTRI
If you have questions or comments for us, please feel free to contact us at: info@lessacinstitute.org.
Do you have an article you’d like to share related to Kinesenics? Contact our Editor Dana Smith.
Lessac Kinesensics offers a holistic approach to integrating voice and body for performers, enhancing authentic expression, seamless transitions between singing and speaking, and overall creative confidence. Actors, singers, educators, speech-language pathologists - and more - report transformative experiences in Lessac training programs.
Meet Crystal Robbins and Nancy Krebs, Master Lessac Teachers who will be facilitating the Lessac Intensive Workshops in 2025 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
Have you heard? We are offering tuition underwriting for all 2024 U.S. Intensive workshop offerings through APRIL 30.
1-Week: June 10-15 (Full rate $1,250) - new rate $875
2-Week: June 10-22 (Full rate $2,250) - new rate $1,250
4-Week: June 10-July 5 (Full rate $4,500) - new rate $3,150
The Lessac Training and Research Institute is pleased to announce that its 2023 U.S. Intensive is taking place in-person at Hendrix College in Conway, AR from June 11-July 7 with a new format. Modeling its structure after the recent South Africa Lessac Intensive which took place in Pretoria in January, our U.S. Intensive will offer tiered options enabling participants flexibility to join for 1-Week, 2-Weeks or the full 4-Week experience. Each week will build upon the previous week’s explorations, culminating in advanced work for self and performance contexts.
The Lessac Training and Research Institute is pleased to announce that its 2023 U.S. Intensive is taking place in-person at Hendrix College in Conway, AR from June 11-July 7 with a new format. Modeling its structure after the recent South Africa Lessac Intensive which took place in Pretoria in January, our U.S. Intensive will offer tiered options enabling participants flexibility to join for 1-Week, 2-Weeks or the full 4-Week experience. Each week will build upon the previous week’s explorations, culminating in advanced work for self and performance contexts.
Announcing the remote conference schedule with recorded sessions for time zone variations! We are offering flexile pay rates to fit your budget and access to recorded sessions to fit your schedule! Can’t make it for the entire live conference? No problem! Come when you can, pay what you can. What are you waiting for?
The Lessac Training and Research Institute is pleased to announce that its U.S. Summer Intensive workshop is scheduled to be back in-person next summer on the campus of DePauw University, and will be led by Master Teacher Crystal Robbins from Los Angeles, CA and Certified Trainer Morné Steyn from Cape Town, South Africa.
One thing that differentiates Covid from other viruses is that it attacks your system in totality. For me, the leading symptom changed every minute. One moment I experienced blinding migraines, then disorientation and confusion, then coughing so hard that I threw up, and more. I could not get a handle on which symptoms would be attacking my system next, and so I could not feel any sense of consistent peace. I am extremely fortunate that while I visited the ER twice, I was never kept overnight nor experienced anything more extreme.
However, total isolation for a week and a half, plus caring for myself were some of the most challenging experiences I ever lived through. Kinesensics kept my sanity intact.
Perhaps this is really what the holidays are all about. There’s often a kind of anticipatory joy in the air during this time of year that puts a spring in the step and makes people more generous toward one another. Maybe someone lets you go first in a check-out line at the store, or a patient and cheery driver stops to allow you to pull out into a busy street. Inter-Involvement Energy is what happens when this sort of desire to do good for others meets your personal interactions.
Near the end of a Town Hall meeting on the Black Lives Matter movement and how the LTRI trainers will change their pedagogy to be more inclusive, diverse, and equitable, Monica Angrand stopped my breath for a moment. She shared in her US Southern dialect how the Lessac work was healing her from trauma she experienced as a biracial person living in the American South. Moreover, she continues to heal her trauma now that she lives in South Africa.
“It’s time to talk about these things. I’m definitely outside of the outside. There’s gotta be someone else who might benefit from [our conversation] as well.”
Buoyancy Energy is in our muscle memory—it’s that set of familiar sensations you feel when floating: a weightless, effortless ease. You can feel it in a body of water, after a great massage, walking in mist or a lovely snowfall, or perhaps you’ve had the experience of receiving wonderful news that causes you to feel like you’re floating on air. When buoyant, your body feels relaxed and oxygen-charged, so that your movements are smooth, easy, and fluid.
The Executive Committee members (President—Daisy Folsom, President Elect—Kellynn Meeks, Past President—Steve Housley and Managing Director—Sean Turner) cherish collaboration. We are a team. We send you well wishes and exhilarating news.
The Lessac Training and Research Institute is pleased to announce the faculty for this year’s Lessac Summer Intensive Workshop: Master Teacher Crystal Robbins from Santa Monica, CA and Master Teacher Marth Munro from South Africa. These gifted instructors will bring decades of experience and training to this workshop, which will be held in a retreat-like setting at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, from June 21-July 17, 2020.
Deb Kinghorn is a Master Teacher of Lessac Kinesensics, and Professor in the Theatre and Dance Department at the University of New Hampshire. She worked closely with Arthur Lessac over several decades, and most especially during his final years, when she co-authored, Essential Lessac, with him. She teaches Lessac work internationally and stays active as an actor, director, and voice and dialect coach. (Read more)
I have always been an avid runner, since my early 20s. But in recent years, I have been investigating other workout options to keep me fit as the proverbial fiddle. It is a known fact that as we age, running long distances can certainly contribute to shin splints, ankle and knee problems, hip issues etc., simply because of the impact that running has on the body. So I have been searching for a way to continue the cardiovascular and toning benefits given by running without the negative impact (pardon the pun). Enter race walking…. (Read more)
Potency is a high-voltage muscle stretch (like the yawning cat) that vitalizes the body with a sense of robustness and strength. It relaxes as it empowers, creating optimal efficiency in the body-mind. Next, you might instinctively begin to stretch throughout your body, much like the full body movement a cat indulges in when it wakes up from sleep. (Read more)
In August 2019, Lea Baker completed a 3-week intensive workshop with the Lessac Institute for Training and Research, at Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art. During the training, Lea, a vocal music instructor and master choral director, was struck with the many ways that Lessac work can be applied to the art of singing. (Read more)
The Lessac Membership drive begins in November, and as the Institute continues to grow, so too do our offerings to members and our overall membership base. In the past year alone, membership has nearly doubled—due in part to an increase in new Practitioners—resulting in a greater ability to get the work out into worldwide communities supporting both training programs and our workshop trainers. (Read more)
Our readers are cordially invited to attend the 2020 Lessac Training and Research Institute ® International Conference, which will be held January 9-11, 2020, at Kent State University in Ohio. The conference is for anyone interested in improving the quality of their voice and body communications, and the work can be applied to any life endeavor. (Read more)
What is Lessac Kinesensic Training? A comprehensive, creative, and holistic work aimed at the development of voice and body strength, agility, and expressiveness. Finding the unique and tension-free expression of yourself is what Kinesensics is all about. (Read more)
Behind the scenes
Newsletter Editor- Dana Smith
Newsletter Content Team-Dana Smith, Courtney Brown, Morné Steyn,
LTRI President- Kellynn Meeks
Managing Director- Sean Turner
Marketing and Technology Support- Aimee Blesing, Kellynn Meeks,
LTRI® NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
Since 2004, the LTRI® has published periodic newsletters covering a variety of viewpoints on sensitive and diverse issues relating to Lessac Kinesensics. The current newsletter is being published in blog form on this website. Prior issues were changed in 2015 to include more interactive social media - as a means to highlight and promote important events around training and different applications of Lessac Kinesensics.