polyrythmexercises

TEACHING EXERCISES – Developing awareness through poly-rhythms.

When I was working on Dinner many years ago with an international company that

didn’t know each other, I devised a whole series of physical and vocal exercises/compositions, listening and working with polyrhythms to enable them to work together, creating and improvising movement and song. In the years afterwards I taught these exercises in workshops with dancers and actors at Goldsmiths, Laban Trinity and E15 acting school.

It is easy to make a pulse -breath, clap or stamp every 3rd beat, and it is easy to make

a pulse every 4th beat

but it is not so easy to do both together- clap every 3rd beat whilst another person is

clapping every 4th beat.

This work teaches being able to maintain your own rhythm, whilst listening to

another rhythm.

The skill grows as an inevitable consequence of the developing awareness of working

with two rhythms.

This work develops a tension free awareness. and generous collaborative workspace

that helps performers to–

A) be able to continue what they are doing, without cutting out what is happening in

the world around them

B) listen to self whilst listening of others.

C) be inside an activity and outside watching it at the same time.

D) be able to listen to others without, being seduced into their rhythm, or, on the

other, trying to coerce them into your rhythm.

E) Encourages peripheral vision and to be part of an inclusive stage reality created by

the space, yourself, other performers and the audience.