Description Long

The method begins with a warm-up phase in which participants walk around the room and freeze their posture when the facilitator says “Stop”. One of the frozen poses is then selected and precisely copied by everyone. Next, groups of two to three participants are formed, each given a word (e.g. “avalanche”, “fear”). Within one minute, each group develops an appropriate gesture and practises it in synchrony. The groups present their gestures, which are then imitated and synchronised by all participants. The whole group then interprets the gesture, before the original group explains their intended meaning. This process is repeated with up to three different words. Finally, the entire group reflects on the exercise and the insights gained into non-verbal communication.

Illustration

Preparation

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• Find a space where the exercise can be carried out away from the view of observers.
• Make sure there is enough room for participants to move around freely and interact with one another.
• Have a flipchart or whiteboard ready to document the interpretations.
• Prepare a selection of words that evoke different emotions or physical actions (e.g. “tornado”, “friendship”, “fight”).
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Execution

1. Warm-up activity: Participants walk around the room. At the command "Stop", they are asked to freeze in position. One participant’s posture is then selected and should be precisely copied by the others. Pay close attention when copying: are the positions of the feet, fingers, legs, and head identical?
2. Main activity: Divide participants into groups of two or three. Give each group a word whose emotional characteristics are to be explored (e.g. “avalanche”). The groups have one minute to face each other in silence and develop a gesture that represents the word. They should practise the gesture repeatedly until they can perform it in synchrony.
3. The first group is invited to demonstrate their gesture. The remaining participants then try to copy it until the whole group can perform it in unison. Afterwards, those who were not in the original group are asked what they see in the gesture (e.g. “rolling”, “fast”, “helpless”, etc.). The facilitator writes down the responses. Then, the original group is asked what they actually intended to express with the gesture. These responses should also be recorded.
4. Then the next word is introduced and the following group takes their turn.

Hints from experience

• Do not use more than three words in succession, as the exercise may become too long.
• Ensure that gestures are copied precisely and performed in synchrony.

Tools list

• Pencils, board markers
• Flipchart or Whiteboard

References

This method was created by Anne Weidemann and Patricia Wolf for the 2017 Future Forum Lucerne.