Viewpoints for Aria da Capo by Wendy

Goal: To use Viewpoints as a means of warming up for our evening performance of Aria da Capo.


Warm-Up for Viewpoints:

A) Individual: Stand in a line. Become aware of your breathing. Notice your natural breathing rhythmn, and see if you can notice it without controling it. With soft eyes do a body scan. Where are you tense? Can you breathe through that tense place? Now I will take us through a body scan. As I mention the different body parts, notice if there is any muscle tension there. If there is tension, release it, and then breathe through that particular body part.

Feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, pelvis, hip sockets, lower abdominals, solar plexis, ribs, heart center, shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, hands, neck, 7 vertebrea, throat, head, forehead, top of head.

B) Group: Still standing in a line, use your peripheral vision and your body sense to feel everyone's presence. Feel the desire to jump. Feel it with your whole body. Really want to jump. Without initiating and without following, see if you can jump as a group. The jump will initiate us into line viewpoints.

C) Line viewepoints with suggestions of character:

1. Walk, jump, fall, crawl, reverse direction. Move in a straight line.
As I call out different characters' names, see how the suggestion of the
name affects the way you walk, jump, fall, crawl or reverse direction.
PIERROT
THYRSIS
COTHURNUS
COLUMBINE
CORYDON
Pause. Breathe. Check in. Say your own character's name to yourself.
Repeat your character's name inside your head. Notice the affect your
character's name has on your body.
Walk, jump, fall, crawl, reverse direction.

2. Tempo: how fast can you go? how slow can you go?

3. Duration: how long can you lie down for? how long can you go slow for?
how long can you move quickly?

4. Kinesthetic Response: Allow yourself to be affected by the movement and
and sounds of others in the room.

5. Gestures: Do a gesture that your character would do. Remember you have
hands, arms, legs, head, mouth, eyes, feet, stomach, chest. Repeat it.

Break free of the line. Move where you like

6. Repetition: Repeat the gestures of others in the room.

7. Shape: What shape does your body make in space?
Lines/Curves/Stationary/Moving

8. Architecture: How does the architecture of this space affect your
movement? Floors, Ceilings, Walls, Stage, Furniture, Windows, One another

Texture
Light, Dark
Color

9. Spatial Relationship