This article investigates the communication of professional speakers in a voice
technical/situational spectrum and imitation as acquisitional method for voice
skills. Using Jette Barnholdt Hansen’s reflections on imitation in voice training
and Christina Shewell’s concept “the free voice”, the voice training practice at
The Danish National School of Performing Arts, acting department, Odense is
analyzed. The practice in Odense is found to encourage an attitude of critical
imitation and conscious exploration of students’ own voice skills. The article
furthermore suggests a more explicit ideal in voice training: that the rhetorical
voice adapts to the situation and is always the speaker’s own.