WEEK 3 MORNING EXERCISE

Working our head, neck and chest

This exercise helped to train us how to be aware of our body when on stage. It is crucial to not neglect or isolate a part of the audience as this will not engage the audience and instead will make their experience of the performance an experience that is not enjoyable. In order to make sure all three sides see at least one part of your body, make sure your head is facing one side, your neck at another and your chest at the third side of the audience. This will make sure each audience member in the room can see you at all times during the performance. 

Doing this exercise felt unnatural as I felt myself straining my nck trying to work my head, neck and chest at different directions. I had to be cautious of my body to make sure I was giving each side of the stage a part of my body they'd be able to see. This exercise is perfect for helping you to be able to show at least one side of your body to different sides of an audience. If you can do this successfully, there will never be a moment when the audience cannot see you.

4 stages of consciousness 

During the 4 stages of consciousness, you start off extremely slow within your body movement. Infact, you hardly move at all having a still peace of mind. As the stages progress, your body and mindset becomes more alive so that when you reach the fourth stage, your mind and body is uncontrollable.

At the beginning of the exercise, I felt myself thinking about what I was doing and making sure I was during each stage well. However, as the exercise progressed, I realised that I should not have to think about it and that it should just come naturally. Therefore, I began to loosen up my body and mind and experimented with it. This exercise helped me to realise that I should not need to think about not only what I'm doing in the exercise but what I'm doing on stage. Anything you perform should become natural and not rehearsed; live in the moment and experiment with what you can do.

Both the head, neck and chest and the 4 stages of consciousness both help to prepare us for performing for little children. The exercises teach us to be cautious of our body on stage and how we should be free and not focus on how we look. If we live in the moment, experiment with our bodies and not care about how we others, we can perform and entertain the children as best as we can.