As stated by Frantic Assembly’s artistic directors, Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, “the warm up can set the tone for the whole rehearsals” (2014, 94). As most of my choreography involved a high intensity of physical theatre, I felt it my responsibility as choreographer to ensure my ensemble were fully warmed up before teaching the material. Warm ups are an effective way to ensure that the whole ensemble is on the same level of energy and prepares the body for physical movement. It is also where the brain becomes stimulated, and places the ensemble in a creative mindset, ready for the ensemble to suggest creative alternatives should my choreography need adapting. Warm ups should be about “personal and group development” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 94), designed to improve the physicality of the company
(Hutchinson, 2018)
Graham and Hoggett argue that “a room full of warmed-up people leads to amazing results” (2014, 92) and I found that the rehearsals when everybody was fully engaged from the warm up and throughout were when the most productivity occurred. Warming up is the most “essential element” as “it turns a gaggle of individuals into a collective. A team” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 92-93). Graham and Hoggett continue to explain how “a warm up connects a company in a way that even an actual performance cannot surpass” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 93).
An element of trust is created in the warm-up, it can be “where you build your team ethic” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 93). Scenes such as ‘Lucid Dreaming’ were crucial for the ensemble to work as one. Creating a strong team ethic was crucial for this scene, as most of the movements that had to be in time involved the ensemble not having any peripheral vision with each other.
L.R.
Works Cited
Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2014) The Frantic Assembly book of devising theatre (Second Edition) New York: Routledge.
Hutchinson, E. (2018) Leading a warm up [image].
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