Walks Around the Room is a very common exercise to take place immediately after the warm-up exercises at Ridgewood Academy.  Incorporating imagination, concentration AND communion, this exercise is highly adaptable to accommodate any group, any rehearsal and most daily goals.

At first, students are asked to just “walk around the room.”  Simple enough.  They can walk in the same roundabout pattern for a simple imagination exercise or they can be asked to change their patterns and weave in and out of one another, each passing through the center of the room occasionally, but never bumping into another player.  This second task requires an immediate awareness and communion with everyone else in the room, on top of whatever else the instructor asks of them, and so should be an early goal for the group or cast to tackle.

As the group’s rhythm establishes itself, new instructions are introduced: players can be asked to speed up or slow down the rhythm, inject task-based emotions, imagine different environments – real or fantastical, interact with one another, share and transfer energies, listen to each other, start and stop the motion, rehearse lines of dialogue…  The possibilities are endless with this exercise, which is why it is one of Mr. Smith’s favorites.