Listen To The Rhythm, Embody The Rhythm

Great for: building rhythmic awareness, activating listening skills, introducing improvisational practice, building movement patterns, breaking movement habits, developing spatial awareness

 

Whereas other exercises in this collection try to steer learners away from the “my movement always needs to echo the rhythm” habit, this one actively encourages it.

 

Ask learners to find a position in the space. Perform a short rhythmic phrase using your hands, body percussion or, ideally, a percussive instrument such as a woodblock or tambourine. Using an instrument can help to make the rhythm more distinct. Model different ways of embodying the rhythm through movement. It is important to model more than one response, reassuring learners that the same rhythm can inspire many different movements. Move around the space rather than remaining in front of the learners and intermittently repeat the phrase for the learners to play around with different movement responses to. Pass the responsibility of making and performing a rhythm to one of the learners, repeating the process.

 

Adaptations:

- Play around with rhythms to either simplify them or make them more intricate

- Combine multiple rhythms together to extend phrases

- Layer rhythms, encouraging attentive listening and learners having to make a choice over which one they wish to follow

- Give direction for movement, for example tasking learners with travelling as much as they can through the space during the course of a single rhythm phrase