-- I
A new video
Over the past years, Robert has developed a distinctive bridge between vocal practice, somatic inquiry, and the Feldenkrais Method. In this new video, he offers a felt introduction to that approach, and in the note below, he traces the longer path that led him there.
If you are curious about exploring the voice from the inside out, this is a beautiful place to begin.
-- II
A note from Robert Sussuma
Since the late 90s, I have been healthily obsessed (I would say) with understanding the meeting place between singing, vocal function, vocal performance, voice science, laryngeal anatomy, experiential learning, somatic approaches, and Feldenkrais. When I began my Feldenkrais training in 2005, I was performing intensively (early music, as a countertenor), teaching voice, studying voice science and anatomy, and deeply questioning traditional vocal pedagogy. I was looking for a “Feldenkrais training for the voice.”
We all know that a classic Awareness Through Movement lesson has a positive effect on the voice, but I wanted something more specific; I wanted to work directly with the voice in the Feldenkrais spirit. So it is no surprise that I saw my Feldenkrais training as an extension of my vocal training. Every time we encountered a new lesson or series of lessons, or discussed a new learning strategy or ATM approach, I would ask myself: “How can this be translated for the voice? What would a vocal version of this idea look like?” I simply continued in this way: whenever I encountered a Feldenkrais lesson strategy, I applied it to the voice, and whenever I discovered a new vocal learning strategy, I transformed it into a Feldenkrais lesson. In the beginning, it was somewhat raw and fragmented, and certain concepts from the vocal world did not align with the Feldenkrais understanding of “functional integration,” but over time, I became more skillful at moving between the two worlds, eventually merging them in a way that preserves and expands the best of both.
My new book (available in August 2026), DEVELOPING VOCAL AWARENESS - 10 Lessons for Voice Inspired by the Feldenkrais® Method of Somatic Education, is the first official printed publication of the lessons I have created over the years in pure ATM form. I asked myself: “How can I bring what I have learned about singing and somatic approaches back to the Feldenkrais community? Vocal function is so complex! How are they going to understand it?!” Then it became clear to me: Feldenkrais practitioners “think in ATM,” so if I want to share what I have learned by merging Feldenkrais and voice so that they too can work with singers and voice professionals (as well as with their own voice), the best way is to transmit it through ATM, exactly as Dr. Feldenkrais did.
These 10 lessons (plus 2 bonus lessons to be revealed upon release) form a journey of vocal understanding through ATM. It is a series of lessons that build upon one another, intersect, and enrich each other. Together they sketch a larger vision already fully present within the lessons themselves, beyond what could be verbally explained or written in prose. They are an experiential letter to my younger self, and to all of you who are also searching for what I longed for back then: a somatic vocal transformation through sound and movement. These are true singing lessons in the Feldenkrais style.
Join us in Brussels this August for a training based on these 10 lessons. You too can come to understand the voice from the inside out and the outside in, and these lessons are the ideal place to begin.
Robert C. Sussuma, BM, MMus, GCFP
