The Exercise

Here one part of the students mimes different kinds of emotions. The other part is looking and guessing what kind of emotion is mimed.

Doing this exercise the girls get into the subject "body language" in an easy way. So we prepare the lessons about how to use body language in self defense.

Step One : Preparing the Cards For this mime cards are used. Following the link above ("Cards") you will find cards that can be printed out. If you plan to do the exercise more often, it may be useful to print the cards on adhesive film and to put them on a piece of cardboard.

You make two stacks of cards, one for each group. Some of the described emotions are easy to play, some are more difficult. So you can choose a selection of cards that is suitable for your students. There are "friendly" emotions to be played as well as "unfriendly": cheerful, self-confident on one side - sad, nervous on the other side, for example. Each group should get approximately as much friendly and unfriendly cards as the other group.

The Rules

• The emotions are to be mimed, i.e. they are played without words.
• In each performance all girls of one group take part.
• Simple expressions like "sad" can be played in that way that each member of the playing group mimes the expression individually. More difficult expressions like "interested" are better to be played in a short scene.

Doing the exercise

When you have explained what to do, the girls divide into two groups. Each group gets a stack of cards. The groups go into different places of the room; so they can make their preparations without being overheard by the others.

When both groups have discussed and practised the expressions, the playing starts. I have found that there is usually a especially good dynamics if the two groups are playing in turns.

There should be a good applause after every scene!Cards