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Jan's Interests
General
Music
Influences come far and wide from my family members most importantly brother Billy's incredible jazz vocal talents and love of jazz and staying true to your 'musical' heart. To brother Russ's ecelctic 1960's music collections e.g. Buffalo Springfield, Grace Slick, Big Brother and the Holding Company and his enthusiasm after hearing Miles play live in San Francisco and bringing home Bitches Brew. Great camaraderie from Geoff Doyle & The Resonettes Peter Figures and Marty Van Wyck The No Names, Ron Fabri Quartet, the unbelievable support from Anthony and Sammy Gaha and the members of The In People and the incredible array of Pacific musicians/singers who arrived late at night at our Romano's gigs, Dinah Lee, Max Merrit, Stewie Spears and the most wonderful of artists Ricky May. Producer Nat Kipner Composer/Arrangers, Bob Young, Tommy Tycho and Sven Libaek. Composer/pianists Tony Ansell and Dave Fennell. Greg and Jeanette Quigley. Bill and Bette Motzing. Not to forget Stravinsky, Debussy!
Janice is also a visual artist. Please visit her work on
http://bentensmiling.imagekind.com/
Movies
'Creatives'- Theatre - Dramatists: Timothy Daly, Maria Irene Fornes, Diane Raznovitch.Beverly Blankenship, Roz Horin. Nigel Kelloway, Kai Tai Chan, John Bailey, Pierre and Elizabeth Thibadeau, Joseph Chaiken, Peter Brooks, Tadeusz Kantor, Jerzy Grotowski,Stella Adler, Bryan Syron, Shauna Stevenson, Doreen Cannon.Cicely Berry, Rowena Balos, Kristen Linklater. Derek Jarman, Jim Jarmusch, Gillian Armstrong, Diane Kurys, Sally Potter, Ingmar Bergman, Jane Campion, Fellini, Roberto Rosellini. Dance: Rudolph Nureyev, Kai Tai Chan, Ohad Naharin, Gary John O'Connell, Pina Bausch,, Simone Forti, Ballet Rambert, The Joffrey Ballet, George Ballanchine.
Television
Inspector Rex and anything with Penelope Keith in it!
(otherwise tres leetle actuahally!)
..
Books
'Another Country' by Nicholas Rothwell. The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying. 'Carpentaria' by Alexis Wright.'The Bone People'by Kerri Hulme. Shakespeare. Beckett' 'Eh Joe'.(Childhood Favourite - and heroine 'Jo' from 'Little Women' (but not Good Wives!)W. G Sebald's 'Austerlitz', Literary Women, Liberty, Anais Nin's 'Novel of the Future', Cicely Berry's 'The Actor and His Text', Shunruyu Suzuki's 'Zen Mind Beginners Mind': Most loved writers: Goethe, Andre Breton, Federico Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Gertrude Stein, Gary Snyder, Allan Ginsberg, Carol Joyce Oates, Borges, Kathryn Mansfield,Somerset Maughman.
Heroes
Heroines & Heroes:The aborignes of all nations. The Burmese and the Tibetan people. Aung San Suu Kyi. HH The Dalai Lama. The Kamarpa.Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul, Gyalsey Tulku Rinpoche, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Beru Khyentse Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Karma Lhundup, Gyalsey Rinpoche, Masahiro Oki, Takao Nakazawa, Hirotoshi Sakai, Venerable Kovida, Thich Nat Hanh. Vincent Van Gogh, Brett Whitely, Joseph Beuys, Mondria, Klee, Kandinsky, Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Uncle Allan, Uncle Russell, Uncle Frankie, Aunties - Pauline, Ruby, Rose, Lenny - oh so many xxxxxx Oh Yes Jeffrey Smart and Reg Livermore!
About me: Janice is a student of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. She can be heard on this page chanting the 'Medicine Buddha Mantra' (along with the English soprano Diane Sutherland and Australian singer J P Gilius)from the CD 'AWAKENED STATE' co/created with Belgian composer Bruno Libert.
Janice was the vocal coach on Film Director, Gillian Armstrong’s ‘Starstruck’ and for the Griffin Theatre Comapny and Sydney Theatre Company’s productions of Timothy Daly’s award winning play ‘Kafka Dances’ starring Cate Blanchett.
Janice is a vocal coach/composer/sound designer and script editor and has worked as a dramaturge on numerous theatre productions including Timothy Daly's 'Derrida in Love', 'Complicity'- 'Livingstone' and for ABC TV 'Waiting for Jack Shadow'. She has worked as a script assessor for ‘The Australian National Playwrights Association’ as well as for ‘Playworks’ and ABC Radio Drama. Janice's theatre productions include Harald Mueller's 'Deathraft', Bertolt Brecht's 'Saint Joan and the Stockyards' - Maria Irene Fornes 'Abingdon Square' and 'Conduct of Life', Diana Raznovich's 'Personal Belongings.'
From 1964 Janice was one of the leading figures in Australian pop music. She has worked with Johnny O’Keefe, Col Joy & the Joye Boys, The Easybeats, Cold Chisel, Sammy Davis Jnr, Bobby Day, George Chakaris (West Side Story) Lesley Gore, Billy Preston, Shirley Bassey, The Hollies - Lou Rawls, Trini Lopez, The Four Tops, The Three Degrees, Phil Silvers. In the UK she worked on recordings, concerts and TV. with Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton John, Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Cleo Laine and Frankie Miller. With Glenn Shorrock in the acclaimed 12-piece progressive rock band ‘Esperanto Rock Orchestra'. In Australia she's recorded with Cold Chisel, Billy Thorpe, Alison MacCallum, Kevin Johnston, Mike McClelland, John Robinson, John English,Anne Kirkpatrick.
In 1979 Janice received an Australia Council for the Arts grant to study contemporary vocal techniques for the singer/actor. In the USA she studied with Jeanne Lee, Carmine Carouso and attend Jamie Abersold Jazz Clinics. In the UK, she attended a workshop at the RSC with Cicely Berry, and studied with Norma Winstone and Michael Garrick at Wavendon Allmusic Plan. Janice also attended classes with Peter Ind in London. African/American jazz singer and educator Jeanne Lee left a deep and lasting impression on Janice and on return to Australia she became a member of 'Toe Truck Theatre Company (Theatre in Education. Janice was invited to teach voice techniques at at NIDA, The Performance Space 'Voice in Performance',The Actors Centre, Entracte Theatre Company, One Extra Dance Company, Sidetrack Theatre Company, Meryl Tankard, Colin Offord and Leisa Shelton. The Actors Centre, City Acting Studio, Drama Action, Griffin Theatre Company, Janice Breen School of Dancing, Nectar (Therapy through the Arts), Nimrod Teachers Workshop(Adolescent Unit RPA Hospital), Spoleto Fringe Festival, SUDS (Sydney University Drama Society), SWIM (founding member/teacher Sydney Women in Jazz),Theatre of the Deaf, The Drama Studio (principal voice teacher), The Sydney Acting School, The Sydney Performing Arts Centre.
the advancement of the ordon
Current mood: validated
Category: Writing and Poetry
(Excerpt from: the advancement of the ordon)
Chapter 4:
At the gates of Old Lhasa
Who I'd like to meet: Aung San Suu Kyi, Penor Rinpoche,The Kamarpa, Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, Pedro Almodovar, Jorn Utzon, Diana Raznovich,
Hi dear Jan!!!!!!!! It's been TOO long. How are you?? Hope life is smiling TO you and TOGETHER with you. On my way to meet my son, but I wanted to answer your comment before I left. I'm fine. A little bit stressed, because I'm working on some festival jobs and some small concerts and my voice has been "quiet" for a long time while I was on my vacation. Talk to you again soon!!! Big big hug Hilde xoxo
Dear Sweet Jan, We were flying around Oz and had to pop in to say Hello.(o: It turns out Eva's afraid of heights and I'm afraid of widths. KEEP LOOKING UP, you'll see us! hehe XOXOXO Eva and Lou
I think we may have met?? 1969 'UPTIGHT' TV Show from Melbourne. I was known as Christopher James (From Perth) back then (Record Company thought that Francis would be seen as a girl's name and changed it)
Hiya Jan, I'm sorry for taking a week to reply but I'm just back from a week's holiday on a Greek Island. Where I went to visit a friend as well as drink Mythos beer (lol)
hey there jan...you enlightened thoughts for us all are as impeccableand pure as your voice, dear janice. so warble more for all of our enlightenment. have a brilliant weekend janice slater, for you and your loved ones...xxx
My sweet Jan.The gig in the Maldives was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had.I played music with my friends,enjoyed time with my son,and gained respect for yet another culture. Am practising my parts for a concert tomorrow night in Singapore. Hope your chest cold is gone and will check out your friend soon xxxx