Tuesday 14 April 2009

Building narratives with shapes

In a big circle one person goes in to the middle and holds a shape;
Someone joins them interacting with them in a other shape and so on.
Ask the group what they see? What emotions? What is going on in the story?
Get lots of variations.

Repeat but this time give the group (or groups) 20 seconds to create what ever you call out i.e an emotion or a noun (church, Bicycle,) or the Weather- Hot, Stormy, Hurricane etc.

Repeat again and give the group an emotion to build together- Search together again for a narrative.

Follow up: This is a good exercise to go on and create images from texts, which can create scenes for a drama. Words can be given to characters, which can be built into sentences and so on.

Comment: A good exercise to use with a mixed group as it lends itself to differentiating the task. A good group can be pushed to create scenes to a story where as a less experienced group could stop at just images.

Elasticity

Find a partner and face one another
Move around anywhere in the room but keep eye contact with each other
when leader shouts "change" you must change partner
Experiment with levels, distance, pace etc

Comment: This requires a certain amount of trust in the group to be able to maintain eye contact but is a good way of finding out the groups closeness.
This is a good spacial awareness exercise working with a partner and being aware of those around at the same time.

Knee tag

Find a partner and face one another
The idea is to try and touch your partners knee 3 times before they touch yours 3 times.
You can increase the difficulty by making each pair put an arm behind their back.
On the command "Change" You must find a new partner to do combat with.

Comments: Great to use with a new group especially as a way to get to know one another. This is also a good spacial awareness exercise as individuals are not just to watch their partners moves but be aware of those around them.

Mexican wave

In a circle one person sends a clap around the circle
Try to get the gap between claps as small as is possible.
First send it clockwise and then anticlockwise.
If you create 2 circles you can race to see which circle is faster.
Encourage people to be alert both with their eyes, ears and body.
You can make the circle tighter to increase the speed of the clap.

Comments: This is a fun one to use with a new group to introduce the idea of play and team work. It is good to use with a group who may be a little nervous about doing drama to loosen them up.