1. GENERAL HEADING: Warm-up Exercises

2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "Body Swings"

3. GOALS: Physical warm-up and mental concentration.

4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Group Exercise: unlimited maximum

5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: None.

6. CLASS TIME NEEDED: 5 -10 minutes

7. STEP-BY-STEP-DESCRIPTION: Tell your students to stand in a wide stance with legs slightly turned out (about 45 degrees). To prepare, reach high with both arms to one side as you shift your weight mostly over to one leg. To swing, bend your legs, fold at the waist, and drop your head as you swing the arms and upper body down in front of you; then recover over to the other side, finishing with legs straight, arms stretched overhead, and weight having shifted over to other leg.

Let gentle swings of the upper body in any direction carry you through space with a soaring, free-wheeling sensation.

Provide students with accompanying images: swing with a steady rhythm to hypnotize someone; swing freely and delicately like leaves blowing in the wind; swing in odd, irregular rhythms like someone who is wracked with pain.

8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: Physical relaxation combined with imagination enables the actor to work without tension.

9. SOURCE/REFERENCE: From Stanley Kahan's Introduction to Acting, Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1991.

10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.

11. VARIATIONS: N.A.