At last, we are coming together: Briony Greenhill and Holly Stoppit combine our quite formidable forces for a deep week of singing, fooling, self-exploration, improvisation, creative expression, embodiment, nature connection, play, fun, joy, depth and support in the deep sweet sacred land of Embercombe, in Devon UK.
Briony will lead Collaborative Vocal Improvisation - a wonderful art-form of making up vocal music on the spot with others. It’s an exciting, beautiful, thrilling, deep, challenging approach to singing for those who can sing in tune, keep a beat, and want an adventure. Some classes will be broken into beginner-intermediate and intermediate-advanced levelled groups so that everyone can be met with just what they’re ready for.
Holly will share her treasure trove of ensemble improvisation, site-responsive play and fooling, a form of solo improvisation where you embody all the voices in your head. We’ll playfully connect as a group, building trust and support, before we start to get to know the parts of us that come up when we are seen and heard. With curiosity and compassion, we’ll tenderly greet the shy parts who want to crawl under chairs, we’ll welcome the show off parts who want to dance on tables, we’ll XXX with the mean parts that tell us we’re rubbish, and we’ll make space for all the other parts who show up. In doing so, we’ll free up energy to bring into our improvisation and into our lives.
It will be a bold, liberating, connecting, fun, expansive midsummer week. Pray to the gods of British summertime to bestow good weather upon us and we will be able to enjoy Embercombe’s swimming lake, shady forest and lush meadows in abundance.
We will work sometimes together as a whole group and sometimes separate into two groups, each working with one teacher - then swapping over. At these times we’ll divide by singing level so that everyone is appropriately met. We’ll have evenings of cabarets, creative time together around the fire, and downtime on the land.
We’ll sleep in very comfy yurts, be fed Embercombe’s delicious healthy fresh food; and enjoy together a space without alcohol or mobile signal, unplugging, detoxing, and recharging, finding that spark within and between us, and with a little luck, co-creating delight with it.
This is for mixed experience levels. Everyone needs to be able to sing in tune and keep a beat. Basic intro work will be available for the newcomer, as well as great creative opportunities for the more experienced practitioner.
Video introduction
We invite you to watch this short video introduction to what you can expect from this retreat…
About the Teachers
Holly Stoppit
Holly is a facilitator, educator, IFS trained dramatherapist, clinical supervisor and creative consultant who offers playful, creative and reflective approaches to exploring the human condition.
Holly has been creating and delivering unique workshops and retreats since 2007, blending performance skills in clowning, fooling and improvisation with self-exploration and personal reflection. You can hear Holly talking about her work in her Bristol TEDx talk.
Holly is artistic director of Beyond The Ridiculous, a collective of solo improvisers who use their authentic impulses to create audaciously truthful performance.
At the heart of all of Holly’s work is a desire to promote creative discovery and connection through play.
HollyStoppit.com
Briony Greenhill
Briony is “one of the world’s leading proponents of collaborative vocal improvisation (CVI)” - The Guardian.
CVI is the art of co-creating vocal music in the moment. Here is a short film about Briony’s teaching, which has evolved from the lineage of Rhiannon, Bobby McFerrin, Joey Blake and others. Briony is a founding member of The Well Global Vocal Improvisation Network and the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival.
Briony has released 4 entirely improvised albums. Her debut studio album Crossing the Ocean took improvisations and reproduced them adding instrumentation in the studio; it was featured in The Guardian, Mojo, Radio 3, and Woman’s Hour.
Briony teaches vocal musicianship from beginner to advanced levels, while also honouring the spiritual, ritual and therapeutic application of CVI. She is a qualified SomaSource Leader; a “psycho-spiritual educator, artist, activist and healer who has an integrated understanding of how to creatively work in developmentally attuned ways with diverse people throughout life’s cycles.” Briony has been teaching vocal improvisation internationally since 2013.
Fees include luxury yurt accommodation, 1-3 to a yurt; full board at Embercombe, and all teaching.
We begin on Sunday at 2pm; and leave on the Friday after lunch. The nearest train station is Exeter (we may be able to arrange a shared taxi from Exeter St David’s station at 12.30pm…). Exeter is 2-3h from London by train. The nearest airports are Bristol and London. If coming by train, book well in advance to get reasonable ticket prices - thetrainline.com
We use the Green Bottle model for pricing. We encourage you in integrity to select the tier that reflects your experience.
Tier 1 £1125
Tier 2 £925
Tier 3 £775
Assistant 2 spaces - with discount. For folks very experienced in either Holly or Briony’s work. If you’d like to be considered an assistant, please get in touch with the facilitator whose work you are familiar with.
If numbers allow, we aim to provide Tier 1 folks with a private yurt, Tier 2 with a twin yurt, and Tier 3 and assistants would be 3 to a yurt. Due to limited yurts and unknown numbers, there may need to be adjustments to this.