Summer Skool Lesson 3) I’m Talking to the Man/Woman/Person In The Mirror
It’s been all about the mirror exercises this week.
First, have a warm up:
Pick three, “eyes”, anywhere on the body. Example: Your eyelashes, your left baby toe, your right hip. Move from these places. Imagine there’s an eye there that leads the way. Ask students to choose three new ones every few seconds or so.
Mirror, Mirror
Revisit the mirroring exercise.
- Ask one partner to slowly lead some speech and allow the partner to follow it. Keep the movement following up.
- Create a smaller circle. Ask one person to lead some speech and for the others to follow. Instructor switches up who is leading.
- Have all the partnerships stand in a circle. Leader chooses a partnership to begin a story which the whole group must mirror.
- Leader switches up the leaders and the group must try to follow along, adding to the story. Leader can play with the speed in which she/he switches it up.
Secret World:
- Lead the class in a relaxation exercise
- Once they are all relaxed, ask them to imagine a beautiful, ideal world of rest and relaxation. Imagine how you feel there. Imagine the color this world is.
- Now get up and move about the room doing what you’d do in this ideal world. Really see it, be specific.
- Get with a partner. Without talking, take turns guiding each other through your ideal worlds.
Choreographer Variation:
- Pick a leader. Now when the random piece of music comes on, you will lead the group around the entire room. Use all of the space. Your dance must now tell a story that goes with the music. It can be a dance of love, a dance of anger, a dance of going to the grocery store, whatever.
Blind Dancers:
- Half the group is blind. The other half is sighted
- Music will play. The class will take turns leading the blind players in a dance to different snippets of music. Switch
Giant Puppet:
- Divide the class into groups.
- Each group must carry one member, keeping contact with him/her at all times
- Manipulate your puppet in a dance
Vocal Circle:
- Circle up.
- Leader begins moving around the center with a rhythmic body movement and noise. The rhythm can evolve from whatever feels natural, the point is to be totally uninhibited.
- Group follows along
- When the person in the middle is ready, she/he moves up to another person and takes their space. That person now enters the circle, takes on the vocal noise and rhythm, and changes it into his or her own. It can change many times.
- This goes on until everyone has had multiple turns and until the group is in a totally loose, tribal, chant like state where they are acting totally in the moment and not self conscious about their actions. We did it for an hour!
Practice Imperfect 
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