Workshop Description

Following the enthusiastic response from participants, Rebecca returns to ADEM to lead an exploration into the world of work songs — songs that have long accompanied daily human life. These are often a cappella songs traditionally sung by farmers, workers, washerwomen, or sailors sharing a common task. Filled with poetry and humour, these songs offered a sensitive and expressive way of engaging with everyday moments.

Songs for pounding corn, washerwomen’s songs, lullabies, tonadas (traditional songs from Venezuela and Colombia), cooking recipes, love songs, and invocations to nature have all survived through oral transmission from one generation to the next.

Work songs were often highly rhythmic, helping to energise labour and strengthen group cohesion. In this workshop, percussion merges with singing and movement. Participants will discover a rich repertoire of traditional Latin American work songs while accompanying themselves with a variety of percussion instruments and techniques: body percussion, quitiplás (struck bamboo tubes), maracas, and more.

Programme

• Physical and vocal warm-up
• Vocal technique, breath and body work, and interpretation tools for the repertoire (vocal placement, ornamentation)
• Work on inner rhythm
• Learning the vocal repertoire through oral transmission, with optional written support and phonetic transcription if needed
• Body percussion exercises: learning claves and basic rhythmic patterns
• Polyrhythm and coordination/synchronisation exercises
• Vocal harmonisation and improvisation
• Singing while accompanying oneself

Biography

Singer, multi-instrumentalist, and musicologist Rebecca Roger Cruz explores the transformations of the voice at the crossroads of oral and written traditions. Trained in classical singing in Venezuela before continuing her studies in France from 2012 onwards, she builds bridges between vocal practices drawn from early and traditional music, improvisation, and dance.

Holding a Master’s degree in musicology, she combines academic research with a living practice of early repertoires, notably through her work on the Cantigas d’Amigo of Martín Codax. Her artistic journey is deeply shaped by spirituality, nature, and human encounters.

Rebecca performs with ensembles such as AA’IN, Parranda La Cruz, and MAAAR. She has collaborated on numerous projects including Mazalda, The Bongo Hop, Los Wemblers de Iquitos, and Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, while also working as a vocal coach for other artists.

Actively involved in a wide range of educational initiatives, she collaborates with many cultural institutions — including the Opéra de Lyon, Royaumont, CMTRA, and FAMDT — as well as festivals such as Les Suds à Arles.