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This exercise is a way to transport a two dimensional image into a collective moving piece, using the body.

Through this exercise, a concept is squeezed out of an image and turned into a choreography, using our bodies to fill the space with intertwining concepts. It is a way to make a collective work by reacting quickly to others and complementing them.

This exercise has been developed for a performance workshop for young art students and it can also be made with teenagers or adults. This session ideally is made in half a day, taking breaks.

For a group of 8 to 12 participants:

1. Bring an image to show to the group (of own art work or any image you like). No words, show the image for 1 minute.
2. Choose the image that someone else has shown and write about it for 5 minutes, without thinking and without lifting the pencil from the paper. We can call this “automatic writing”.
3. Exchange papers with someone else.
4. Read the text you get and summarize it quickly in one word that comes to mind.
5. Remember your word.
6. Now let´s stand around the room and stretch, move our limbs around, make noises for 5 minutes. The noises are random and to make people loosen up.
7. Think about the word and turn it into a simple movement with your body. Practice this movement by yourself until you feel comfortable.
8. Everybody stand in a big circle, stretch out your arms to the sides.
9. Cover your eyes with a piece of cloth and be conscious of the other bodies around you.
10. Make your body movement in place.
11. Slowly start walking around the space while you move. Let´s do this for a long time, trying to consider the other bodies in movement, without looking.
12. After a break, let´s talk about how it feels to move.
13. Now we stand in a big circle and one by one we enter the space in the middle, spontaneously complementing the bodies that are moving in the space.
14. Let´s do this for as long as we want, using repetition, responding to other bodies with out movement.

This Exercise was Contributed by Claudia Del Fierro.

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