Warming up: a teacher directed routine

Arts and culture

Grade 7

Creating, interpreting and performing

Module 13

The warm up

Drama

Activity 1:

To follow a teacher directed routine: the warm up

[lo 1.4]

• Before we can start being creative in our drama class, you have to warm up properly to prepare your body and voice for performance. Enjoy the following exercises, as they will not only help you to prepare your ‘instruments’, but because they are fun to do as well.

1. Meditation

• Sit on the floor in a comfortable position with an upright posture.
• The hands can be rested on the knees.
• Become aware of your own breathing.
• Become aware of the stomach moving out during inhalation and in during exhalation – allow this to happen rather than force it.
• As soon as you feel completely relaxed and are breathing deeply and easily, count down from three to one, counting on an exhalation and simultaneously they have to create a picture in their minds of the numbers being counted.

2. Centrering

• Carry out a deep breathing exercise by breathing from the centre and stretching the body upwards and downwards away from the centre along a vertical axis.
• Focus your attention on your centre.
• Use a point of concentration – perhaps a picture of your diaphragm raising and lowering as you breathe.
• Stand with your feet together.
• One arm stretched upwards and the other downwards, with palms facing away from the centre of the body.
• Inhale and then, on the exhale, turn the palms and with a relaxed movement bring the top hand to the top of the head and the lower hand to above the navel whilst bending the knees slightly.
• On the exhale turn the palms and return to the starting position whilst stretching the legs.
• Concentrate on keeping the movements fluid.
• Repeat eight times.

3. Alignment

• Stand with your feet-hip width apart – arms hanging down the sides.
• Move your focus down the spine – one vertebra at a time until your torso is hanging from the flat bone at the bottom of the spine.
• As you hang, enjoy the weight of your heads and arms, let your knees sag slightly and allow your hands to brush the floor.
• Reverse the process by pulling the head and torso up slowly – one vertebra at a time and then finally easing the head up to a balanced position.
• Repeat eight times.

4. Vocal exercise

• Inhale, and on the exhale allow the breath to take on the sound and shape of the vowel sound ‘ahh’.
• As you relax the sound has to develop into a sigh.
• Now introduce the ‘hh’ sound before the ‘ahh’.
• The effect is to ensure that the throat is open.
• Focus on using minimum effort to produce the sound.
• Gradually increase the energy and focus the sound on the centre of the face.
• Repeat the exercise with the sound ‘ee’.

5. Head and Neck

• Turn your head to the right as far as possible.
• Focus on relaxing the neck.
• Make the movement as slow as possible and follow an imaginary object – perhaps a fly or an aeroplane in the distance.
• Keep your shoulders facing the front.
• Repeat the movement right round to the left – again taking your head round as far as possible.
• Slowly return to centre.
• Now follow an object slowly down to the top of your chest – then back over your head as far as possible.
• Return to centre.
• Repeat eight times.