Warm-ups with Bill

Here are three very useful warm-ups Bill used with his group on "opening night":

Scare tactics

Objective: to develop ensemble awareness.

1. Form a circle.
2. All but the leader close their eyes.
3. Leader goes around the circle a few times and taps one person on the shoulder. No one else knows who has been tapped.
4. All open their eyes.
5. After about 30 seconds, the person who has been tapped shouts in a scary way, without warning. Everyone else must try to follow this person's lead as nearly as possible.

The Grand Old Duke of York

Objective: to develop reflexes, mental agility

1. Form a circle.
2. In unison, march in place to "The Grand Old Duke of York." (Lyrics below.)
3. Add hand motions: up, down, halfway.
4. Repeat, marching forward on up, backwards on down.
5. Repeat, dropping the word "up."
6. Repeat, dropping the word "down."
7. Repeat, dropping both "up" and "down."

Oh, the grand old Duke of York,

He had ten thousand men;

He marched them up to the top of the hill,

And he marched them down again!

And when they were up, they were up;

And when they were down, they were down;

And when they were only half way up,

They were neither up nor down!

Hurl Your Words

Objective: to develop greater precision and projection of lines

1. Form pairs.
2. Person A chooses an imaginary object to hurl at his/her partner, Person B. This can be a stone, a dart, a spear, a book, a box: anything that can be held in the hand.
3. Person A "hurls" this object at Person B, making an appropriate noise of exertion as he/she does so.
4. Person B reacts to the object appropriately: it should feel different to be hit with a boulder than with a book.
5. Person B now hurls an object at Person A.
6. After a few rounds with imaginary objects, partners choose key words from their lines to hurl at one another.