Follow (Or Don't Follow) The Leader

Great for: developing spatial awareness and movement patterns, introducing decision-making, leadership and autonomy, encouraging independence, practising observational skills

 

Here is a twist on ‘Follow the Leader’, in which learners are invited to question the conventional rule and make their own movement choices.

 

Part 1

To begin with, arrange learners in a single line, standing one behind another with enough space between them to move safely. Position yourself at the front of the line and model being ‘the leader’, inviting learners to follow your movements. Start simply with walking, exploring different pathways through the space and varying the tempo. As learners become familiar with the exercise, gradually develop your movements, introducing changes in level, tempo, direction and stillness. At a point of your choosing, stop leading the learners by moving to the back of the line, with the learner at the front now being the new leader. Repeat the process as desired.

 

Part 2

Choose a point in the exercise to introduce a new rule, in which learners are invited to “not follow the leader”. This rule does not supersede the first but is simply an invitation, giving learners greater agency over the direction of the exercise. This could be modelled by you as the facilitator choosing a moment to break off from wherever you are in the line. At this point, learners behind you must then decide whether to follow you or remain with the original leader. The introduction of this element into the exercise leads to many different variants being possible.

 

Adaptations and extensions

- Introduce a third part of the exercise with learners starting in individual “lines”, tasking learners with eventually accumulating into one line. This facilitates a deeper exploration of the concepts of leadership, followership and collective decision-making

- Challenge learners to make the shortest line they can with the most amount of learners and the longest line they can with the least amount of learners

- Challenge learners to follow the leader in other geometric formations, such as a triangle