Jane Coker, Community Music Victoria Inc.

Singing and dancing together - the foundation of becoming community

Research proves that social activities like singing, dancing, eating and playing together provide the practical experience through which we learn to enjoy being and working with others. It is now widely recognised that disconnectedness is the primary cause of deteriorating wellbeing in communities. Re-growing connection has to be a key priority for local government. A positive and fruitful initiative can be to encourage people to sing together.

How Local Government can encourage people to sing together:

Recognise, honour and support existing singing
Find out what group singing is happening within your communities, and give it respect and support, for example by making public space freely available for sessional singing (covering costs of public liability insurance, volunteer insurance, promotion etc where possible).

Encourage Development of new singing
Identify community singing activists and include them in planning.
Encourage and support community development workers to expose themselves and their clients to group music-making experiences
Community Music Victoria offers training, advice and connections in all aspects of facilitating the collaborative music-making activities of Victorians. 


Jane Coker has been getting people singing for twenty years in numerous community settings. She is passionate about - and highly skilled in the art of - unleashing the voices of people who only dream of singing, without them experiencing fear or embarrassment. Originally from the UK, Jane’s first singing workshop experiences were with Frankie Armstrong – elder of the natural voice movement. She has lived in Melbourne for 8 years where she has been instrumental in the development of Community Music Victoria’s “Victoria Sings” project - a state-wide initiative designed to weave community singing into the cultural fabric of Victoria.

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