by Kirby Lindsay, posted 4 January 2012
The West of Lenin (WoL) theatre has shown incredible flexibility in the variety of theatrical material that can be produced there. Yet, this week, WoL will further stretch everyone’s preconceived notions, as audiences will be able to participate in a limited engagement opportunity for immersion in music and yoga.
January 5th – 8th, Susan Voelz will bring her ‘Pali Chant Suite: Strings & Thai Yoga’ to the West Coast. Twice a day, for a total of eight sessions, Thai Yoga practices will be held at WoL, synchronized to original music, with space to allow audience members to participate, or sit back and simply enjoy. An accomplished composer and improvisational violinist, Voelz has blended traditional Pali chants with sounds of Thailand and her alternative rock influence. The music, with some prerecorded backup, will be performed live by three violinists – Voelz, Anne Harris and Rose McIntosh.
For Yoga Enthusiasts
“I have been doing yoga for years,” Voelz admitted, “I like it a lot.” Her fascination with Thai Yoga (also known as Rusri Daton,) began while traveling in Thailand in 2007. She found herself rising each morning to practice “Thai yoga to a Pali chant.” A professional musician, the yoga continued to interest her when she returned home to Chicago – as did the music.
A form of this yoga started in the Himalayas, as the monks did these poses to wake up their bodies after hours of stationary, seated meditation. The accompanying chant, also performed by the monks (with origins going back 2,500 years) uses the language of Pali.
Voelz has described Thai Yoga as, “combining the feeling of Tai Chi and yoga,” due to the fluid movements between each pose. “A few people are teaching [Rusri Daton] in the United States,” Voelz said, although this form of yoga has been largely overlooked here, so far.
“I am by no means an expert,” Voelz explained, but she has continued her study, and “we’re going to present it the way we learned it in Thailand.” Two yogis who have also traveled to Thailand – Paul Weitz (co-founder of the Chicago School of Thai Massage) and Andrea Rossetto (owner of Whole Earth Body Massage) – will demonstrate the poses, and assist attendees through the sessions, although without words.
Beginners can “absolutely do it,” Voelz insisted, “It’s easy.” Thai Yoga, particularly the version practiced here, works the body but doesn’t induce a heavy sweat or breathlessness. “A friend came, just to watch,” she said of a Pali Chant Suite session held in Chicago. When Voelz looked up from her violin, the friend had joined in. For professional, or advanced, yoga practitioners, these sessions will allow access to another form, and as Voelz observed, “like any practice, there is more to it as you go deeper.”
“Thai Yoga…is a system of self-healing postures that are closely related to Thai Massage,” Voelz explained; it is like, “going under your skin.” Practice starts at the top of the head and works its way down through the body, “reaching up and reaching out,” to free life energy. For the 50-minute sessions, orchestrated to music, the yogis complete 10 seated poses, 11 standing poses, and three lying down – plus warm-ups. “I like it because there is a system to it,” Voelz said of Thai Yoga, “When you are done, you feel more spacious in your body.”
For Music Enthusiasts
As a professional violinist, Voelz has broken some expectations about ‘violin music.’ She plays with the alternative rock band Poi Dog Pondering, as well as accompanying John Cougar Mellencamp and Alejandro Escovedo. She also performs as a solo artist, and teaches rock violin, and viola.
“I think you should feel music in your body,” Voelz explained about writing the Pali Chant Suite melody. “It was inspired by the tonality of Thailand music and the poses themselves, a suspension or dissonance during a stretch, a deep resolution upon exhale,” she has said.
She calls this set of music a ‘Suite’ because the music fits a series of dances, or poses, like a ballet suite. Yet here the musical pieces, “roll into one another,” Voelz described, just as the Thai Yoga poses flow from one to another.
The popular following of the Pali Chant Suite has convinced Voelz to record the music, available soon on CD, for those who love the music, and want to listen to it outside of the yoga session. Or, for those who love the yoga, and want to be able to practice on their own with the music as a reminder, and audio trigger, for the movements taught during the sessions.
Those who attend the Pali Chant Suite are encouraged to bring water and a mat (“or a beach towel,” Voelz suggested,) for participation in the yoga, “or just come and listen, and take it all in.” Tickets cost $30 per session, and can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets which also has a list the session times.
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©2012 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.