Warm-Up: Theatre, Voice, Dance

Print Theatre Warm-up

A Theatre Warm-up

Stretch –
Your right arm up, up; your left arm up, up. Repeat.

Your right arm to the side; your left arm to the side. Repeat

Roll –
Your head to the front, right, back, left. Repeat.
Your shoulders to the front, up, back, down. Repeat


Bend from your waist forward, to the right, back, left.
Repeat

Step forward with your right foot (leaving your left foot in place). Stretch. Switch, step forward with your left foot (leaving your right foot in place). Stretch

Shake out your hands, your head and shoulders, your legs
and feet. Shake out your whole body.

Stand quietly with your arms at your sides.
Breathe in to the count of 1,2,3,4
Breathe out to the count of 1,2,3,4
Repeat.

If the next step is to start your rehearsal, it is a good idea to close your eyes and “see” who you are – as the character. Where are you? What did you just do? What are you going to do?

Now you should be ready to really concentrate on your character and the rehearsal. It is also important to warm-up for a performance.

Vocal Warm-up

It is very important to have a relaxed voice if you want to be heard. It is also important to have your tongue and lips ready to clearly say all the consonants like “b, d, k and t.”

• Start with relaxation exercises like the stretching and breathing warm-up at the beginning of this section
• Do some tongue and lip warm-ups to work on your diction, saying words very clearly.
• Try some tongue twisters. This also helps with your diction.
• Try some choral reading to work on vocal variety, being louder and softer, using a higher or lower voice, changing rate of talking from slow to fast. This makes your talking and reading more interesting.

Print Vocal Warm-up

Vocal Warm-up

1. Tongue and lip warm-ups
Say very fast
ta, ta, ta, ta
da, da, da, da
bah, bah, bah, bah
ma, ma, ma, ma,

2. Tongue twisters
Have your teacher or another student read the line first, then as a class repeat it. Be very certain you are really moving your tongue and your lips! You will be practicing good diction.

• Babbling Baby Bobby
• Ki-ki, the cuckoo, cuts capers
• Don didn’t do the difficult dangerous deeds
• Few folks find the fine flavor
• Jim, Jill, Jane and Johnny jammed jollily
• Little Lillian lets lazy lizards lie along the lily pads
• Nine nice nieces never noticed nine nice nieces noticing nine nice nieces
• Popular people, people popular places
• Suzy Sampson is surrounded by her sousaphone
• Sheila shall surely show her shining seashore shells
• Little Teddy Tucker toots his tooter toute suite
• Thick thistles throbbed in Thelma Thimble’s thumb

3. Choral Reading
This is a choir that will speak a poem rather than sing it. This is a good way to practice good diction and vocal variety. Have your teacher, or one of your classmates, read a line and then repeat it after her. Have your voices make your audience see what the poet is writing about.

Print Choral Reading

Choral Reading

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and the earth below!
Over the housetops, over the street,
Over the heads of the people you meet:

Dancing,

Flirting,

Skimming along.

Beautiful snow! It can do nothing wrong.

From “The Beautiful Snow” by John Whittaker Watson

This is one verse from a poem. It is a good way to start. There will be many poems in the books in your classroom that you will also find fun to read as a chorus.

Remember to do the warm-ups before each rehearsal and each performance! You and your audience will find your perform better.

Dance Warm-ups from Kathy Lane

1. WARM-UP (10 minutes)

• Form a circle. Each person is a leader for one movement and is responsible for moving/warming up one part of the body (e.g. circle head, shrug shoulders, rotate ankles, shake leg). Everyone follows the leader. Music can be used as background or this can be done in silence.
  
• Wiggle and Shake -- Begin balancing on bottoms with legs and arms in the air. Each section is performed for 8 counts.

• wiggle and shake
• slap and tap
• body parts circle (e.g. head, shoulder, wrist)
• stand up and run in place (change size-use big steps, use small steps)
• freeze in a shape, change levels, change size of shape
• melt

2. WARM-UP (10 minutes)

Walka Walka -- begin sitting with legs stretched forward, with the back erect and the hands touching the floor on either side of the pelvis.

• "Walk" the hands forward, right-left-right-left, towards the feet (the torso will come forward, closer to the legs) while saying. "Walka, walka, walka, walka" in a normal voice. The hands stop at the knees.
• "Run" the fingers forward while saying, "Deedle-de-deedle-de-deedled-de-de" in a high-pitched voice. This pulls the torso even further forward. The hands finish at the ankles.
• Lower the elbows as close to the floor as possible while saying, "elbows." "El" is said in a low voice and "bows" is even lower. The torso is close to the legs.
• Stay in this position and gently pulse (do not bounce!) while saying, "Stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch:" or "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!" Add facial expression.
• In one count, pull back to balance on the bottom with arms and legs in the air and say, with great relief, "Well?"
• Shake everything and say, "Hellooooooooo!" in as wobbly a voice as possible.
• Stop and drop back to the original position and say "Mom!"

3. WARM-UP (10 minutes)

• The Sun -- Begin standing in parallel position with the arms down at the side. Each part takes 8 counts.
  • Reach arms down, forward and up, then reach up, forward and down
  • Take right leg behind to lunge and stretch
  • Change legs so the left leg is behind to lunge and stretch
  • Bring legs together and hang over at the waist, lower to floor
    
• Je Je Kule (a West African call and response game.)
  The leader calls out the phrase and does a movement to it. The rest of the class repeats the phrase and movement.
  • Je je kule (jay jay kool-ay)
  • Je kovisa (jay ko-vee-sa)
  • Kovisa lungea (ko-vee-sa-lun-ga)
  • Bya tu lungea (by-a too lun-ga)
  • Um a le a le (um a-lay a-le)
  • Um a le a le (um a-lay a-le)