To sing is not for a precious few, according to Voice Weavers’ choir director Ronda Rice. Observations made during a family gathering inspired her to help others find their power through song. Rice said she overheard an in-law discourage a
To sing is not for a precious few, according to Voice Weavers’ choir director Ronda Rice.
Observations made during a family gathering inspired her to help others find their power through song. Rice said she overheard an in-law discourage a niece from singing because, “Ronda is a singer and you are not.”
“That was the motivation to start a choir,” she said. “Singing is treated like this special gift that’s in a box only for a few chosen people.”
Enshrined in this woman of small stature and modest demeanor is a voice akin to folk legends Judy Collins or Joan Baez. It was this innate gift that led her on the circuitous route toward her work as a choir director.
“I wanted to create something that’s not about auditioning,” Rice said. “I wanted to create a place where women could step up and heal with the voice.”
Rice first conceived of Voice Weavers in 2001.
“It was after 9/11. I was at home in the Santa Cruz Mountains sitting at my piano looking out the window and asked the creator, ‘What can I do?’ I heard the answer: ‘Start a women’s empowerment choir.’”
In 2006 she left California to return to Maui to assist her daughter with her first birth. Rice had given birth to her own two daughters in the islands. Last December she moved to Kaua‘i and then in February realized it was time to reincarnate the choir here. She spread the word through flyers and Richard Diamond’s “Muse Letter.” Within short order, a dozen women responded to her invitation. That number has grown to 25 active members meeting once a week.
Rice describes her repertoire as songs and chants that have simplicity, power and beauty.
“I have been collecting these songs for years,” she said. Her 32-song CD with Nori Dolan and Patricia DePalo is titled “Rounds and Chants,” and is a small sampling of her collection. While there are a handful of originals by Rice, most songs are by other artists. All are of a healing ilk with titles like, “Letting Go” with lyrics from a Rilke poem and music written by Harmony Grisman; “Keep Breathing” by Nina Wise, plus a few songs noted from unknown sources like “Open My Heart” and “Be Like a Bird.”
“The joy is watching women develop an ear — these are skills we can develop,” she said. “The voice is a muscle and we can open to our own heart’s song.”
Rice recalls performing a solo in the first grade and quaking with fear. After that she sought to surround herself in a chorus or choir.
“In a body of voices I could pretend invisibility,” she said. “I’ve been through my own fears of being heard.”
She described the fear of vocalizing as an epidemic.
“It’s not just singing though, it’s speaking too,” she said.
Voice Weavers is one way Rice manifests empowerment for women. Overlapping in that circle is her involvement in the birthing community of midwifery. The next thread in the tapestry is to create a song group for families with small children. Beginning this afternoon Rice will launch ‘Mothersong,’ a multicultural sing-along that will be from 2:30 to 3:30 every Friday at Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center.
“I heard someone say once that the voice is not for talking,” she said. “It’s for singing.”
Rice’s work as a hypnotherapist informs how she works with her women in Voice Weavers through the use of imagery to make the mind-body connection.
“Our body is this instrument,” she said. “I tell the women to imagine you are this beautiful cello. Imagine the air caressing the inside of your skin. Give yourself permission to feel.”
Every Monday the women rehearse in a Kapa‘a home. For one exercise, Rice has the women form a circle. Whoever is compelled to move to the center and be enveloped by song may do so.
“This has a joint intention,” she said. “It’s a vortex of energy – we’ve created a fire in the center of the circle. We heal ourselves and then send it out to the world. It’s the tones, the energy, the intention that connect mind and heart – that’s the key to solving everything.”
For Rice using the voice is specifically about healing.
“The intention is to create a safe space,” she saiad. “Spoken or unspoken, that’s my job.”
While indeed word has spread about the choir and requests for performances are growing, that is not the group’s objective.
“We are not a performing choir,” she said. “We are a circle of women creating an experience – we’re a service group.”
Last week 12 of the 25-member choir performed for the Brain Injury Group (B.I.G.) celebration held in Kapahi.
“I try to have them do one a month,” Rice said.
Part of what Rice refers to as her “soul’s design” is to not only join women in song but to create circles of connection throughout entire communities. The Mothersong sing-along for families with babies, founded nearly 20 years ago in California by Debra Bone, provides the format for the group forming here.
“This is a community-building situation,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be the mother.” Uncles, aunts, friends or grandparents are welcome to bring children up to three years old.
“Creating circles has been part of my own healing,” Rice said.
To learn more about Mothersong or Voice Weavers e-mail rondarice@hotmail.com or call 823-0150. New members for the choir will be added to a list for the next open registration in fall.
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com
