Improv with a DJ: The Scene Changes Genre with the Music

Groups of four improvise a simple wordless scene while one student acts as DJ and changes the music without warning: suspense, silent comedy, western, musical or romance film. The actors must instantly change tempo, posture and movement quality without losing the story's thread.

How to play

1. The teacher plays five clips from film music genres and the group freely explores how a character walks in each one (4 min).
2. Groups of four actors plus a DJ, who builds a playlist with the five clips on a tablet (3 min).
3. Each group improvises an everyday situation (waiting for the bus, a dinner) and the DJ switches genre every 20 to 30 seconds; two runs per group, rotating the DJ (8 min).
4. Each group shows one scene, then discuss what changed in the body with each genre (tempo, tension, gesture size) (5 min).

Rules

• The story continues through every change: the scene never restarts.
• Moderate volume, and only one speaker playing during each showing.
• No rough contact: chases and fights are done in slow motion and without touching.

Variations

Adaptations

• Hearing impairment: the DJ holds up a card with the genre name at each change.
• Autism: gets the list of genres beforehand and may be the DJ on the first run.
• Limited mobility: shows the genre change with torso, arms and face from the wheelchair.

Learning goals

• Adapt movement quality to changing musical stimuli.
• Recognize the physical codes of different performance genres.
• Keep a group story consistent when the unexpected happens.

Equipment for a class of 25

• speaker: 1
• tablets or phones: 6

Teacher tip

With tablets or phones, one playlist per group is enough; spread groups into corners of the room so the music does not overlap too much.

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