It's that time of year when you might be midway through the year and feeling a dip in motivation, or you're gearing up for the second term and seeking new, innovative ways to start your class to energize your students!
Here are five fresh ways to start your class and warm up your students. These methods shift from traditional teacher-led warmups to more holistic, student-centered activities. They change the class formation and encourage students to move in new ways, energizing both body and mind.
These warmups are also great for theatre rehearsals, drama classes, or even dance lessons in physical education. Feel free to adapt, change, and share these ideas with colleagues! Each warmup can be tailored to your specific group, discipline, and age group.
I've also included some fresh playlists from my Spotify, ready for use in class. Since I teach high school, the music is generally aligned with what my students enjoy and is appropriate for that age group.
1. Circle Warm Up
Standing in a circle, facing into the center of the circle. Each student one by one leads one warm-up movement. An example could be the first student goes into a pigeon position on the floor, holding for 20 seconds on each side, and the next student goes into a butterfly position with a flat back for 20 seconds. I encourage students to speak through and “teach” their stretch the group, explaining the movements, adding in commentary about safety and alignment, where we should feel the stretch etc. I love this warm up, because it takes the ownness off the teacher to lead and gives an opportunity for each student to be a leader for one short moment. Over time students really come to enjoy this warm up, they are excited about sharing a new stretch or movement they love from their studio classes or from other extra curriculars they do. This is also a great opportunity for commentary on safety, alignment and proper order of exercises, eg: not going right into the splits, but instead what are some ways we can warm up the body first before dropping into the splits.
Extension: Could add more directions or rules to the Circle Warm Up when students are more familiar with it. Some examples of this are:
Let's start with movements that stretch or warm up our bodies from the top of our heads through to our feet as we go around the circle.
Every alternating student has to lead either a stretch or a cardio focused movement, like one student does a lunging stretch and the next student does 20 jumping backs etc.
Music: I suggest this playlist for this warmup - Fresh Starts: Slow & Steady
If it is more of a stretch, I would choose something that isn't too fast and on the more chill side of music, acoustic, singer-songwriter works well here. If you want to energize, choose something that has a good vibe, but again not too loud or fast, so everyone can hear the leader.
2. Paired Warm Up
Students love warming up with a partner, so my students always love this one! Pair everyone off, I always encourage students to find someone they haven't worked with this week. Assign students either “A” or “B”. “A” students are the cardio partner and B students are the stretching partner. I like to start with increasing the heart rate, so partner A starts, they lead an on the spot 1-song in length cardio workout for their partner, usually something including jumping jacks, squats, lunges, plank, crunches etc. Their partner mimics and follow their cardio workout for the duration of one song. Partner B follows by leading a one-song stretch, can extend to 2 songs or more if needed.
I often find students love to chat and catch up during stretching, and I usually don't let them during full class warm ups, but when they are partnered up, I allow them to chat and share while warming up, it gives a great opportunity for students to connect and get to know someone new better.
Music: For this I usually choose something upbeat for Partner A, and something slower for Partner B.
Partner A Playlist: Fresh Starts: Cardio Energizer
Partner B Playlist: Fresh Starts: Slow & Steady
3. Student Warm Up
This one takes a bit more planning, but I assign every student to plan and lead a 15-minute warm-up. I do this as a solo project, where students present and lead a warmup individually, but this could be done in pairs or small groups as well. I assess this as well using a rubric, as a summative assessment, assessing the following outcomes:
the use of specific warm up components
safe dance practices
relationship between music and movement
correct alignment and posture.
Attached is my assignment for you to adapt or use if this is something you want to integrate into your classroom! Student Warm-Up Assignment
4. Mirroring & Flocking
Mirroring
Traditional mirroring exercise, in groups of 2, usually partners who are the same height. Students face one another and make eye contact, one leads the other in basic and slow movements, beginning with hands and arms. As they become more comfortable, encourage movements with legs, using the floor and travelling around the space. Encourage focus, commitment and eye contact.
I do this a lot in drama and musical theatre classes as well to get students to move their bodies more freely. In these classes, I choose Broadway tracks or movie soundtracks to introduce more characterization into the movement too. Usually, with movie soundtracks by Hans Zimmer, or movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Finding Nemo etc., students start to take on physicality and movement that matches the characters' movements in the films. Students don't even notice they are doing improvised creative dance movement; that's a win!
Extension:
Could be adapted to be across the floor mirroring.
Option to join another group and continue mirroring, based on dancer’s impulse.
Flocking
An extension of mirroring, but generally in groups of 4. Groups of 4, make a diamond shape, facing downstage. Most downstage people lead movements to begin and the group behind the leader follows. When they want someone else to take over and lead, they transition their body to stage right or left and the new most front leader takes over. I encourage students to reduce the break between leaders and instead transition through to the new leader. Continue to encourage students to copy exactly, adding in movements inspired by legs and floor movement. Here is a video of how flocking works in action.
Extension:
It could extend to a whole class flock, making a large filled in diamond shape and encouraging other students to step in and take the lead.
Could be adapted to be across the floor, more focus on travelling movement
Option to join another group and continue flocking in larger group, based on dancer impulse.
Music:
New Sounds - A playlist of sounds from Indigenous Artists
This is a great opportunity to play music students are not used to or familiar with. Music that pushes them to move and groove in new and different ways.
5. Walking and Greeting Warm Up
Students walk around the space, placing whatever directions you want on this, speeding up, slowing down, neutralizing the body etc. When students walk up to another person, make eye contact and stop, students face one another and each individually lead a greeting gesture with their body – some sort of “hello” with their body in movement. Continue this exercise as students meet someone new, they do a new improvised greeting. Do this until every student has greeted every member of the class.
Extension: Have students use impulse to stay longer with each greeting and turn it into an opportunity for improvised dance between students, either mirroring or just improvising across from each other, students conclude the improvisation and move on walking to greet another person.
Music: Fresh Starts: Fresh & Funky
I hope these five fresh starts for your classes provide you and your students with exciting new ways to warm up and energize. If you have any questions or successfully use these or other methods to extend these exercises, share with me at victoria.reid@fineartsata.ca.
Keep shining!
Victoria Reid
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