Voila! This is where I'm gathering creative exercises concerning movement, music, visual arts, ... to build an open archive. Still looking for appropriate ways of both accrediting makers and letting others contribute.
In duo, one person starts in a neutral 'floating' position, waiting for a touch on the body by the other. When feeling the touch of the other, it can be thought of as a drop of ink, spreading in a body of water, acting as an impuls to engage in …
Draw out the above on an A4. In the first column, write down 3-5 areas/activities in which you can easily be creative (where you can feel the creative energy flow). Next to the first column, write down which positive personal attributes are associated with that activity. In the top …
After warming up the body with several movement exercises, one can start by (for example) taking the others into a scenario such as organising and having a dinner party. You could begin in the supermarket, deciding together who to invite and what to cook. Back home, you are getting everything …
Freewriting is nothing more than what it says, to write freely, without the inner critic or the grammer police intervening. You can start with or without a prompt (a picture, a word, a topic, a thought) or just set the clock for 10, 15 or 20 minutes and just write …
Take the opportunity to feel your own body with your hands. While walking or standing still, try to cover every body part, holding, feeling, scratching, squeezing, the moment is yours.
What are the themes/topics/phenomena you are fascinated by? Write that down on a piece of paper. Then, mark the topics you'd like to work and express yourself within. Share that with the others.
If you have your mission statement, and know what you would like to bring across, what kind of medium would be suiting to deliver your message? Take a few minutes to consider the different channels through which a story can be experienced. What brought you to believe in that in …
Take a piece of your writing and tweak it until it flows. Narrate it out loud and correct where necessary. Now record your narration. What happens to the story when it's read out? Does it work like this? Are there any gaps or distracting sidetracks? Could you add some ambience …
Negative space is a concept widely used across the arts, referring to the empty space, the space that is not filled. When moving your body, you constantly define new spaces with your body parts. By having your legs apart, you create a space inbetween, just as by holding your arms …
Stand up, stand still or walk around, lift your arms up and breathe in simultaneously. Stretch your body and breathe out when dropping the arms down. Do that 5-10 times and by the end, easily let the arms fall and take that swinging motion to start an improvisation.
Stand up and shake of your day. Shake your complete body, altering in shake-intensity. Shake as hard as you have to, or as little as you'd like.
Either with two headphones and a splitter, or a set of good speakers, take some time to exchange music. Have it comfortable loud and take the time to listen to the full song. Then ask why the other has chosen to play this song and what is inspiring about it …
After warming up the body with several movement exercises, one can start by showing the others how they used to bake bread (or any other activity), physically showing every step of the baking process. The others mirror the actions. Now it's up to the one who's showing, to ask someone …
Start with exploring the relation between hips and upper body by holding one hand under the belly, and one the chest. Now shift the focus completely on your legs, stretching out the individual toes, heels, ankles and knees, involving each of those in a little dance. First, keep your chest …
Choose 10 sentences from your freewriting exercise, your story, your draft, that draws your attention. Exchange your selection with someone else. Strike a third of the other person's text and rearrange the order. Give it back to the author. It's everyone's task now to write a story, where the newly …
With one hand, hold your forearm firmly. Now make a fist and tension your arm with all of your strength. Try to move the tensed arm around and perform a little fist-choreo while keeping it tight. Then let go. Soften your arms but hold your hand up, performing a new …
Ask yourself or someone else the question: When thinking about the art you'd like to bring, what kind of feelings would you want to generate among people? Take a piece of paper and a couple minutes to write down what comes to your mind.
After warming up the voice, take a backing track or a put a beat together (ideally without vocals) and play it on repeat. With or without a microphone, start vocal jamming on the backing track, whether you are humming silently, are screaming out loud, use your voice and try out …
Stand in a neutral position, with both of your feet under your shoulders, keeping the arms relaxed. With or without closed eyes, let your head make a small back and forward tilting motion, letting your neck and spine follow, imitating the movement of a wave. Go back and forth at …
Ask yourself or someone else the question: What do you want? Take a piece of paper and 10 minutes to write down what comes to your mind. This question/exercise is good for the very beginning of a process of expression, as it can help to formulate desires. Take the …
If your current mood was a state of the sea, what would it be? Calm, misty, a light breeze or heavy waves and wind? Interpret that bodily and empathise with that big mass of water. Stay in it for some minutes to then change to a different state of the …
Free yourself of any bags or anything your carrying. Now just walk. Start off with thinking how your mother walks. Or your father or brother. How do they walk and can you imitate that? Once you think you have it, you can really exaggerate, making your walks sillier and sillier …
Ask yourself or someone else the question: What's your life motto? Or your values to live by? Take a piece of paper and a couple minutes to write down what comes to your mind. Then, ask the follow-up question: In what way are you not living by that motto? Or …
Either with two headphones and a splitter, or a set of good speakers, take some time to exchange music. Have it comfortable loud and take the time to listen to the full song. Then ask why the other has chosen to play this song and what is inspiring about it …
First, consider what topics there are you'd like to write about. Then take one of those topics and do a couple of rounds of freewriting, formulating all of the association you make with that topic. Now pick out the sentences that draw your attention. Write those down and put them …
The ‘Wunderfrage’ is a classic coaching question in which someone is asked to envision the outcome of a process. One can help the other imagine a scenario in which there was a showing moment among peers at the end of a creative process, where you are having a drink and …
Stand firmly on your two feet. Start rocking your body back and forward. Now stretch your limbs and start with waking up your whole body. Can you feel the way your arms are connected to your torso through your shoulders? Now oil your joints. Move your fingers, wrists, elbow and …
Lift up your arms in a floating position and imagine that from the tip of your hand, inside your body, a smooth oily ball starts rolling wherever gravity will take it. Play with the ball and let it travel through your body, leaving via your shoulders through your torso into …
Lay on the ground and let your body sink into the floor for a moment. With your heels touching the floor, push them into the floor, pointing your feet slightly towards you. Repeat this movement back and forwards and let your complete body join the rocking. Feel how the movement …
Stand still and breathe. Keeping your feet on the ground, move your torso in different directions. After a minute, slow down until you can't feel wether you are moving or not. Now place one hand just above the pubic bone and the other hand on the chest. Discover the agency …
With or without music, let everyone take a moment to find their movement. Now try to keep track of eachother and follow (mirror/interpret/...) the person with the most obvious moves. Does it influence the collective movement aesthetic? Allow for taking over and handing over the lead. After a few …
Cut a two meter (or shorter) piece of string and tie it around the middle of a matchstick at each end. Let one person hold one of the matchsticks between their fingers and give the other end of the string to someone else. Do this until everyone's hands are connected …
When inside a room, position yourself in front of an open window. Listen to what is there. What do you observe, what are you hearing? Is there a specific sound or noise which gets your attention? Try to take in that sound by producing the same tone vocally, but softly …
Start with finding your own slowness in movement. What happens with the positioning of your body? Make eye contact with someone in the room and allow yourself to sync to their movement. If you think you are going slow, go even slower. How slow can you go? And does slowness …
Imagine one of your body parts being connected to another one. It could be your hand to your foot, but also your hips to your elbow or head. The envisioned connection can be linear (through a rope), rather elastic or even inverted, as long as there is a connection between …