Sexual healing, van de Stool style

Sexual healing, van de Stool style

Self-proclaimed international musical therapist Jan van de Stool returns to the Sydney stage this week for one last hurrah before she’s rudely denied the spotlight for a whole year – as her alter-ego, musical theatre actress and comedian Queenie van de Zandt, spends 2013 in Melbourne starring in the epic musical King Kong.

Set at Woy Woy Scout Hall, I Get the Music In You finds the Dutch-born talent hosting day one of her one day beginners course ‘Open your Throat, Open the Door’.

“I was a successful real estate agent before giving it all up and making a natural progression into becoming a self-help guru,” she told the Star Observer.

Before real estate, van de Stool got her own taste of musical success, singing in early ‘70s all-female group Pandora’s Box (no sniggering at the back, please).

“These days I prefer to use my musical skills to help other people. Through the power of music I have helped literally tens of people become self-expressed.”

For her current show, playing at NIDA’s Parade Theatre until December 14, van de Stool will bring back five of her most successful students – all of whom share their teacher’s uncanny resemblance to Queenie van de Zandt. She said she had no hesitation in telling them when they step out of line.

“The biggest mistake I see singers making is always singing big notes. Do you know another word for singing big notes? It’s called belting. Belting is like bashing – it’s violent. I prefer to be a pacifist when I sing and also when I listen to singing. I just want to hit people who bash my ears with belting.”

Off-stage, van de Stool also offers private ‘healing sessions’, with one particular workshop her specialty: ‘The Filthy Little Secrets of the Sexual Voice’.

“My husband Pieter and I lead this workshop, with Helen the tea and coffee lady at my course – so we present it as a threesome.  And in this course we teach you to base your voice on how you use it during the coitus, the sexual act, because you are so free – and we teach you how to take the ‘filthy little secrets of the sexual voice’ into ordinary life,” she explained.

Van de Stool has been surprised to find that a large portion of those flocking to her seminars are members of the gay community. Still, as she explained, it’s a life she’s known since birth.

“We have a lot of them back in [her home town] Schiermonnikoog. At least 50 percent of the village was gays, including my father and mother. Nearly all my cousins, except Pieter, was gays. Pieter is in fact a bit of a ladies man – he has a lot of lady friends who he goes to see shows with, ‘cause I’m not interested in shows.

“They are a lovely bunch, funnily all very tall… big hands… a lot of makeup – but lovely ladies.”

INFO: I Get the Music In You, NIDA Parade Theatre, Dec 5-7 and 11-14. Tickets through Ticketek.

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