Exploring the spaces between life and music
The Musical Body is an embodied and relational approach to voice, musical improvisation and group connection, developed by Charlotte Roberts through her artistic and facilitation practice since 2003.
Beginning with the body and with listening, the practice moves between breath, voice, movement, rhythm, sensation, language, imagination, relationship and the living environment. Movement can become sound. A sensation can become rhythm. A cry or laugh can become melody. Words can break open into syllable, articulation and play. Animal and environmental sounds can become pathways into listening and improvisation. And what is happening between people- an encounter, story, feeling, image or spontaneous group moment- can become material for musical and relational exploration.
The Musical Body is as interested in how we meet and listen as in what music we make. Through improvisation, responsive scores, play and reflection, we explore how we initiate and follow, take and give space, encounter difference, support and disrupt, listen and respond, and create together. Sometimes this becomes song or collective composition; sometimes movement, sound, connection or conversation.
What is particular to The Musical Body is the way these different territories are brought together as one recursive, embodied and relational practice. Rather than treating developmental movement, early and affective vocalisation, articulation and language, animal and environmental sound, cultural sonic inheritance, music and group process as separate fields, The Musical Body invites us to travel backwards, forwards and sideways between them.
A word can dissolve into syllable, mouth movement and breath. A cry, laugh or animal call can become rhythm or melody. Movement can become voice. A cow's call might open into yodel-like qualities of register and interval; a chicken's vocalisation into laughter and rhythmic play. Birdsong, frogs, insects, weather or other sounds of the living environment can become qualities to listen to, embody, abstract and transform. Landscape can enter an improvisation, and something happening between people can become musical material.
The practice is interested not simply in expanding what the voice can do, but in how these journeys can open possibilities for listening, expression, musical invention, relationship and group connection — allowing music to emerge from the full ecology of body, voice, life, culture, relationship and place.
About
The Musical Body is held in a range of formats, including intimate small groups and immersive camps, 1:1 mentoring for students, artists and facilitators, composition and research laboratories, facilitator training, and work with private groups.
Across these different forms, The Musical Body explores embodied voice, movement and musical improvisation as a living, relational process - moving backwards, forwards and sideways between sensation, developmental and affective sound, language, rhythm, music, relationship and the living environment.
The work centres shared presence, play, agency and responsiveness: how we listen and respond to ourselves, one another and the world around us; how individual expression meets collective creation; and how music can emerge from what is happening here and now.
Alongside its participatory forms, The Musical Body is an ongoing practice-led research methodology, investigating vocal and musical improvisation, developmental and extended voice, collaborative composition, group connection, sonic inheritance and our relationships with animal sound, environment and place.
Who It’s For
Shower singers, seasoned improvisers, artists, teachers, facilitators, and anyone curious about voice, embodiment, and co-creation. No experience is required — just curiosity, openness, and a willingness to listen, move, and play.
Camps & Immersions.
The Musical Body comes alive through intimate camps and immersive experiences for small groups of 6–12 participants. These gatherings are playful, spacious and deeply experiential - shaped by the people, the place and what emerges in the moment.
Core practices include:
Embodied voice, movement and rhythm
Collaborative vocal and musical improvisation
Developmental movement, breath, cry, laughter, call, syllable and language as pathways into musical play
Animal, bird and environmental sound - listening, mimicking, embodying and transforming sonic qualities into music
Moving backwards, forwards and sideways between raw sound, language, movement, rhythm, melody and song
Experiential musical structures, responsive scores and co-creative emergent ritual
Play, presence and relationship - exploring how we listen, initiate, follow, respond and create together
Personal and cultural sonic histories - noticing what our bodies and voices have learned from the worlds in which we have lived
Listening and responding to landscape, weather and the living environment
Relating to body and voice as part of our creature nature, and ourselves as participants within the living world
The emphasis is not on mastering a particular vocal technique or producing a predetermined musical outcome. The Musical Body creates conditions for listening, experimentation and connection - allowing music to emerge through the meeting of body, voice, imagination, relationship and place.
Led by Charlotte Roberts
Charlotte Roberts is a facilitator, vocal artist, composer, mentor and mother who has been guiding people in body, voice, music and co-creative process since 2003. She is the founder and developer of The Musical Body, an embodied and relational approach to voice, musical improvisation and group connection. Her practice is warm, intuitive and grounded, supporting people to trust their own musical intelligence and explore the spaces between movement and sound, language and music, individual expression and collective creation. At the heart of her work is a curiosity about how listening, play and improvisation can deepen our relationship with our bodies, one another and the living world.
Upcoming
2027
Facilitator training in embodied & collaborative vocal improvisation and group-work 2027. Be in touch if you’re interested.
A Podcast (which began recording in 2026) will begin releasing interviews on Spotify and Soundcloud.
Charlotte’s fourth album will be released
2026
Please inquire about 1:1 mentoring, sessions or classes or Charlotte working with your established group.
Charlotte welcomes visits from students, artists and fellow facilitators who would like to come and work, play, have an artist residency and exchange in the Macedon Ranges.
Charlotte is taking a break from facilitating camps and retreats in the Macedon Ranges for the remainder of 2026.
Charlotte is a ‘Global Connector’ with The Well Vocal - Global Vocal Improvisation Network
Past
2026 April. The Musical Body Camp. 7 day camp with Guest Facilitator Moe Clark.
2026 January. The Musical Body Camp. 7 day camp with Guest Facilitator Ria Soemardjo
2025 September (The first) - The Musical Body Camp. 7 day camp with Guest Facilitator Chiara Cortez
2023 After giving birth to her son, Charlotte began inviting guest facilitators so she could continue offering longer residential camps. The vision was to delegate parts of The Musical Body program to aligned facilitators (sharing key modalities or teachers), creating a balance between teaching and time with her son across one–two week camps. Plans made to begin a year long immersion and facilitator esque type training through The Musical Body Process.
2022 Charlotte does an Australian tour (whilst pregnant) leading Taketina and The Musical Body in Warrnambool, Fremantle, Bermagui and NSW and releases her third album ‘Incantations’
2020-2022 Charlotte co-composed ‘Murmuring Walk’ with Ria Soemardjo (a guided walk at Sanatorium Lake, Mt. Macedon where Charlotte contributed her love and COVID nerd-out of vocal improvisation composition in response to birds found locally to her home, and delved deep into place-based sounds and patchwork/non-linear composition alongside Ria). Also, within the ‘In Your Arms’ project, Charlotte co-composed music, vocal and text soundscapes for audios with Ria Soemardjo, Rivka Worth and Vanessa Chapple (through ArtPlay and later released as explorations/meditations for parents with pre-crawling babies)
2021 Charlotte completed her Taketina teacher training/Became a certified Taketina teacher.
2019-2024 Charlotte led Taketina Peer-practice gatherings along with continuing with movement based companion/community of practice groups online and vocal improvisation community of practice online and in-person.
2019 Charlotte led more The Musical Body retreats and workshops in Melbourne and The Singing Shack and offered ‘Songs in Time’ and ‘Mantramations’- improvised songs for people
2018 Charlotte registered with ISMETA as practitioner and Somatic Educator/Therapist and released her second album ‘Stay in Your Power’
2017 Rhiannon visited Australia and Charlotte assisted with some aspects of her Melbourne and Macedon Ranges visit. Charlotte began an Australian Vocal Improvisation Community group Facebook page and Whatsapp group to begin developing a vision to have a community of practice with other facilitators and artists in the field and develop connections, visibility and collaboration across the fields and connected fields of vocal improvisation in Australia.
2013 + 2017 Charlotte completed year long All The Way In studies with Rhiannon in USA and Europe and a Peer-Gathering of ATWI students in Portugal
2020-2022 Charlotte studied Shiatsu
2017-2021 Charlotte studied in a number of immersions with various body-voice specialists such as Johnathon Hart-Makwaia, Amit Carmelli and Jorge Parente.
2013-present Charlotte attended Creative Voice with Hilde Knottenbelt regularly as a participant and as part of an advanced - practitioners group.
2011-2019 Charlotte collaborated with Hilde Knottenbelt as a vocal improvisational duo with dancers and additionally with other movement/spoken word improvisers on improvisational ensembles- including FourNow Ensemble and a trio with Ernie Gruner.
Charlotte completed her Open Sky Qigong teacher qualification.
2011-2023 Charlotte goes on tour (mostly) annually and leads improvised singing, The Musical Body and Embodied Voice and Rhythm workshops in NSW (including Bermagui and Mittagong) and Victoria.
2011 Embodied Voice weekly classes and retreats led in Melbourne and Newham as 4-5 day residential and 2-3 hour a week for 8 weeks series. The Singing Shack became a home for The Musical Body workshops and retreats, including 4 day camps in the Macedon Ranges.
2010-present Charlotte led and participated in weekly peer-practices and communities of practice of movement based and vocal improvisation based practices.
2010 Charlotte completed levels 1 and 2 of The Tamalpa Life/Art Process Studies and studies in various body work modalities
2009-2021 Charlotte trained with Alice Cummins intensively in week long Body Mind Centering immersions and private sessions along with studying WaterDance and Watsu 1
2009 Charlotte registered with VIT as a primary school teacher
2006-2017 Charlotte teaches music, movement, outdoor education, camps, before and after school, works as a CRT, music teacher in schools, leads drumming workshops. Charlotte leads The Musical Body and Embodying Voice in Nilumbik area, Cecil Street studio, Dancehouse, Abbotsford Convent and from home in 8-10 week series. Charlotte drummed at African Drumming classes and then played Dunduns for teachers.
2006 Charlotte studied Experiential Education, Nature Education and specialised in body based music, drumming, creative movement and creative singing, vocal play and group song-writing leadership with groups which she brought to camps and leadership programs
2003-2009 Charlotte spent time volunteering and facilitating groups and studying experiential education approaches to dance therapy and play in Costa Rica, Peru and Chile then completed Dance Therapy studies in Australia.
2003 Charlotte began leading movement, singing and sound improvisation and play at youth camps- some aspects which were called PlanetSOL (sing/smile out loud)
2001 Charlotte attended Discovery for Teens camp and decided she wanted to develop camps / facilitate as her life passion and contribution to the community
1990 Charlotte started meeting with her favourite tree on Wurundjeri land, Newham, Macedon Ranges, listening and singing
The Musical Body Australian Community
Join in the play, exploration and conversations about The Musical Body
Australian Vocal Improvisation & Body-Music Community
Join in the play, exploration, connections and conversations across the field/s
Global Vocal Improvisation Network
Contact
Get in touch to ask a question, stay informed, or express interest in 1:1 or upcoming camps and training.
