Walking With Intent: Move As If…

The whole group walks around the space and changes the way they walk to match an intention: hurry, curiosity, tiredness, fear, or joy. It warms up the body and loosens up expression while nobody is watching anybody.

How to play

1. Free walking through the whole space, filling the gaps. On a clap, change direction and speed from 1 to 5 (2 min).
2. The teacher calls “walk as if…”: you're late for the bus, you're looking for something you lost, the floor is burning hot, you're coming back from a long hike. Each intention lasts about 20 seconds (2 min).
3. Same intention, three sizes: small, normal, and huge. The group goes from 3 to 10 together, without stopping (3 min).
4. When you pass someone, “infect” them with your intention through your walk. On the whistle, everyone freezes and the teacher guesses which intention has taken over the room (3 min).

Rules

• Always walk; nobody runs, even when the intention is hurry.
• Eyes on the open spaces so nobody collides.
• No comments on how anyone else walks.
• Everyone moves at the same time: there's no audience.

Variations

Adaptations

• Hearing impairment: show each intention on a big card or with an agreed teacher gesture.
• Limited mobility: express the intention with trunk, arms, and head, moving in a wheelchair or on the spot.
• Shy students: they can start at the small size and turn it up only when they want.

Learning goals

• Warm up the body with changes of pace and direction.
• Connect an emotion or intention with a way of moving.
• Lose some self-consciousness by moving as a group with no one on display.

Teacher tip

Call the intentions out loud and fast, without time to overthink. The usual mistake is everyone bunching up in one corner: ask them to fill the empty gaps.

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