Drama Sensory Series: Movement and Physicality-Based Exercises

This month, we’re going to be using the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) as the basis for exercises and theatre games. This week, we’re looking at the sense of touch, through movement and physicality-based exercises. In the drama classroom, “touch” can refer to students physically interacting with each other, as well as focusing on movement, physicality, and sensations to tell stories, thinking about concepts and ideas such as textures, weight, and moving through the space in different ways. Group touch-based theatre exercises require clear communication and a lot of trust between scene partners, to ensure all students are comfortable and safe throughout the process.

Here are some exercises to try with your students that use touch, movement, and physicality as their focus, with a group work participation rubric and reflection in the giveaway below.

Important Note: Before any exercise is done onstage that involves students physically touching each other, be sure to obtain consent. This includes an instructor (teacher, director, choreographer, etc.) physically demonstrating or explaining a gesture, movement, or concept. Never assume anyone is comfortable with any sort of physical touch, even if the intention is casual or innocent.

General Movement

• In “Big, Tiny, Twisted”, students move around the room, meet up with various numbers of students, and create shapes with their bodies based on the titular prompts. Students are encouraged to be in physical contact with their group members when creating the shapes.

• “The Human Knot” is a classic game that requires a lot of physical contact and a lot of trust. Students must maneuver their bodies with care and awareness of others in order to untangle everyone’s limbs.

• Have students explore how their characters move from head to toe. How can students use their bodies to make their characters move and look physically different from how they move as themselves? How does the status of the character affect how they move and physically interact with others? How do the different movements make their bodies feel? Is it easy or difficult to maintain that character’s movement throughout the scene?

Tableau

• Do “Tableau Scenes From a Book” without speaking. Team members will stand still in a neutral position, or start the exercise curled up on the floor, as if they were lumps of clay. Group leaders must physically mould and sculpt their teammates into their tableau poses.

• Try doing large-group or full-class tableau scenes with the caveat that each student must be in some sort of physical contact with at least one other group member when creating the frozen picture.

Miming

• To make the “unreal, real” in miming, it can be helpful to work with actual items in different sizes and weights so students can get crystal clear on how to physically manipulate the different items and then accurately portray them through miming. For an additional challenge, have students pair up and move items (actual or mimed) as a team.

• “Still, Slippery, Sticky” explores how students’ bodies move and interact with the various substances in the room. Play additional rounds incorporating other textures into the game, such as rough, smooth, slimy, prickly, and icy. As an exit slip question, ask students how they might use these kinds of physical details in their character work.