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Nici Rutrecht Eligible Member // Teacher
IDOCs » 101 games for fantastic fun
This is a collection of games for (not only) dance-classes. They mostly provide and/or help warming up, laughter, stamina, the ability to react, awareness, groupdynamics and are useful for warm-ups, inbetweens, change of moods/states, "healthy confusion" and a lot more... You are very welcome to comment, share your experiences and add your own games (write me a private message and I can add your game) - the Idoc will be updated with new games regularly. When you have experienced some of the games one by one, you can use "infintie mixing". You'll find more about that in the Idoc... ;-) Maybe you are even inspired to start an own collection of games with another specific emphasis... it's so helpful sometimes to throw in a game for a change and also having a pool of "things" to use... Have fun :-)...
2013.04.08

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1) "friends and enemies" by Nici Rutrecht

We're walking through the room and everybody picks secretly a "friend" and an "enemy". On a command you start to play: your friend is always between you and your enemy. after a while you can change the roles of the "friend" and the "enemy", also you can switch back and forth. I recommend that a certain speed is used, so if people are only walking, give them the task to run.

2) "colour chase" by Nici Rutrecht

We walk through the room, looking at colours other people are wearing. Anybody can shout a colour and everybody that wears something in that colour is a chaser and tries to tag as many people as possible. If you are not a chaser, you just chase if you get tagged - for every chase a tag. Of course it's helpful to change colours consistently.

3) "namegame 1" by Nici Rutrecht

Start in a circle, a) say the name of the person to the right, this person says the name to the person the right and so on; b) change the direction of the circle; c) you can say now any name at any time to the fitting person in the circle (just not the names of your right and left partner) - if you hear your name from the right, you say the name of the person on your left, if you hear your name from the left, you say the name on the person to your right, if you hear your name from the remaining circle, you give it back to the remaining circle; you can move throughout this time; d) you start changing places in the circle, so the system will change all the time; e) start to throw in as many names as you can, with music people have to start to shout (voice-warmup and good for shy people to express voice); e) if there is still increase possible, people can move through the space with the circle until the circle shifts to chaos... it's a great game for getting to know names in a new course and going wild with each other.

4) "blue and red" and "blue and red advanced" by Nici Rutrecht

Line up the group in the middle of the room, always 2 people facing each other. Stand on one end of the line as the teacher. One group is "red", one is "blue" - the group who is named chases the partner of the other group along a before agreed distance. Invent different beginning positions: sitting, lying on the back, lying on the belly heads together hands on the back... from time to time say something else like "green"... it's a great game to increase the ability for reaction and people start to react really fast. An advenced version would be (after the basic game) to have them closing their eyes - of course they will be softer, slower (tell them to put their hands in front of them to protect themselves); then you can start to say "change" and they have to change the direction (always 180°) to catch again the other person... from time to time say "pause" to give them a rest; it's beautiful to see, also for them, where they end up...

5) "making triangles" by Robin Berkelman

So, the group is in the space and the teacher gives the assignment to pick in your mind 2 partners without them knowing it. Then ask the group to make a triangle with equal sides with their 2 'secret' partners. As this is quite impossible to achieve, the group will all the time change as everybody is trying to line up with two people. Sometimes it helps to say that they should find it very important and that running to get it done is advised.

6) "making triangles advanced" by Tugce Tuna

You use the basic score of "making triangles" and add the following: the left side person is always on your left side, visual frame/right side person is always on the right side of your visual frame while you working on creating the triangle. Then you add 'domino effect' with speed.. that means everybody tries to use the same speed at the same time.

7) "sitting, stanging and lying" by Robin Berkelman

Same exercise [as number 5] actually. The assignment is that the student has his or her 2 'secret' partners, and of this group of three people one should always be standing, sitting or lying down.

8) "walking around someone" by Robin Berkelman

Everybody picks in their minds somebody around which they should walk or run a full circle. It could also be two people (make a figure eight around two people), or three or four. But pick the persons at the beginning, before entering the exercise.

9) "so many hands, so many feet" by Robin Berkelman

Make groups of minimal 3 people (I will give the example of a group of three people, but eventually the groups can be bigger - smaller groups (e.g. 2 people)  are not really working). Line the groups up at one side of the studio. Ask of them that the groups should go across the studio with, for example, only 2 hands on the floor and 3 feet. You could also say, 2 feet and 4 hands, or 1 hand and 5 feet, or whatever is fun and nice and (im)possible. They should always be touching, and the group should construct a groupstructure which enables them to cross the floor WITHOUT speaking. Simply proposing physically by getting hands and feet on the floor or lifting people up, or whatever is necessary. It results in a lot of fun, people immediately lifting and climbing on each other.

10) "magnet score" by Kerstin Kussmaul

Have your group of people walking through space, everyone keeping the same distance to all people at the same time. (Like being all the same magnets). Announce speed changes ("go faster", "go as fast as you can", "slow motion") but keep the magnet score. Include forward, backward, sidewards. Introduce stuffed animals (easier to catch than balls) by throwing it to someone. I use about 1 stuffed animal per 3-5 people. Ask them to keep throwing it but keep the exercies of same distance going all the time. When someone calls out "stop", everyone freezes and puts their hands behind the backs. Check who knows where all the stuffed animals are hidden. Great way to wake up a tired group. Can take about 10-15 minutes, depending on variations.

11) "everyone in the middle" by Nicola Balhuizen Hepp

I usually use this exercise to end a longer walking exercise. Have everyone walking around in space, walking in their own speed. Go from using the whole space to imagine the space compressing, becoming smaller. They will come closer to each other and end up in the middle of the room. Continue with giving them the task that they want to be in the middle/ pass through the middle. This gets the people to have to use their weight to be able to bring themselves to the middle/ prevent others from being in the middle. Fun way to get people to loose their inhibitions about touch.

12) "beeing a shadow" by Nicola Balhuizen Hepp

Let the group walk around in the space, while they are walking ask them to pick out one person to follow at a specific distance. They should not let them know and I vary between telling them approximately which distance should be between you and your secret person or asking them to decide themselves (but stay true to their decision). Funny situations often arise because some people have many followers, and sometimes the whole group gets to run a lot as you try to keep the distance to your person.

13) "Xavier Leroy" by Antoine Effroy

All participants are walking in the room, in any directions, as they want. Each participant keep an other one in his view field. After a while, each participant keep a second person in his view field, so that he can see constantly the both people at the same time.
After a while, each participant have to keep the same distance between him self and each of both people he has to see. Good ambient is guaranteed.

14) "imaginary soccer" by Kerstin Kussmaul

It works like a simple adaptation of soccer. You need two equal groups, two "goals", two goalies and one libero. The ball is imaginary, you can play with every part of your body without the hands/arms and try to shoot as many goals as possible. Discussions will come up, but keep it casual and the last decision has the libero. It's fun.

15) "come into my nest" by Sabine Müller

It's a game to get warm quickly. The people get together in pairs and hold each other by both hands, forming a "nest" between them. two people remain on their own: one person is the catcher and one person is the bird. the catcher tries to catch the bird who runs away and is allowed to hide in a nest, thus replacing one of the people forming the nest. the person who has been replaced becomes the new bird and has to run away from the catcher. if a bird is caught, s/he becomes the new catcher.

16) "threesome tagging"  by Nici Rutrecht

It works like the classic tagging game (one person is the tagger and tries to tag somebody else; as soon as he is successful, the other person is the new tagger), but three people hold each others hands (one is in the middle); the two on the outside are the taggers, it's enough to touch one person of another threesome to change rolls.

17) "saved by power" by Nici Rutrecht

It's another classic tagging game. You can save yourself from the tagger, if you go lie on your belly and lift your arms and legs. It's adaptable for many other positions.

18) "twins" by Nici Rutrecht

You make two groups of people and let them form two circles with holding hands, an inner and and outer circle; the inner circle looks inwards, the outer circle outwards, everybody has a partner to look at. On a command of for example the teacher, the circles start to turn in the opposite directions. On a second command the people let go of the hands and try to find the "twin" from the beginning and when the twins have found each other, one climbs on the other (or they do something else, touch a wall or something) and they win. Try again with other pairs.

19) "shadow shadow on the wall" by Dani Aichmayr

Make pairs. Person A is just standing, walking or running. Person B tries to be the exact shadow behind person A. That means, when person A turns around, person B has to be behind person A again. Basically person B tries to be invisible. Change rolls.

20) "pick a side" by Dani Aichmayr

The group is walking, later running. Everybody picks one person secretly. The teacher gives the direction - "left", "right" or "back" are possible (try out more possibilities). For example, when it's "left" everybody tries to be on the left side of the secretly chosen person.

 INFINITE MIXING by Nici Rutrecht:

You can now start to mix the games together. Start with two groups and two games. One example: group A plays "friends and enemies", group B plays "walking around someone". All at the same time and, most important, using people (whom do chose... etc.) from both groups. After that... go wild and please share your experiences with us :-D.
My personal aim will be to have 101 people playing 101 different games, which may probably become a stage-piece at the same time... ;-). Or maybe people will start playing "infinite mixing" at many different places and it will become a new "fashion"...  :-D.

Have fun playing and thanks for your support!


Comments:
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Nici Rutrecht Eligible Member // Teacher
2013.04.08
Here a few comments of the Pre-Idoc "101 games for fantastic fun", so we can start again from there...

Esra Yurttut // Teacher
2012.12.06
I tried Robin's game with 2 diffrent groups. Now it is one of my favorite game :)
İt was a very good experince .
I did 3 groups (5 by 5) . I gave numbers of hands and feet diffrently to each group and ask them to create their own walking style as a group. I give them 2 minutes to find their walking system.
After that, they showed what they create, other groups watched.
Than we keep the numbers of hands and feet but groups changed. İt was suprising how diffrently suggestions came out with the each group, many possibilities with the same limit of hands and feet..
Thanks

Robin Berkelmans // Teacher
2012.12.07
Great esra! it can lead to hilarious moments and people immediately become physical with each other. Nice.

Nici Rutrecht // Teacher
2012.12.07
great! i also already tried games of robin already, the one with the sitting-standing-lying in three's was so powerful... everybody was so eager to fulfill it and we went completely crazy... the lesson went completely crazy as well :-D... thanks so much robin! do you know even more games?? and to everybody - please give me your favourite game, just describe it and i can edit it..... i am now collecting them also outside of this platform and as soon as i have enough i will make a fresh idoc with all the games and delete this one...
thanks in advance!!!

Nicola Balhuizen Hepp // Teacher
2012.12.07
I tried both the first game by Nici and the triangle game by Robin, both worked great in warming up my amateurs and getting them to open up to eachother. I also have a game similar to these two that I have used in the past:
Let the group walk around in the space, while they are walking ask them to pick out one person to follow at a specific distance. They should not let them know and I vary between telling them approximately which distance should be between you and your secret person or asking them to decide themselves (but stay true to their decision). Funny situations often arise because some people have many followers, and sometimes the whole group gets to run a lot as you try to keep the distance to your person.

Antoine Effroy // Teacher
2013.01.17
Hi. very good idea. I already tried the first game: "The Friend and The Enemy" with the actor-students I am teaching.
I also tried an other variation: every one tries to stay between his enemy and his friend - but it didn't worked, because after 1 min every body is going to be completely stuck one beside the other one - you just get a human grape.
On other game I am used to use - and they are a lot of colleagues using it - I learned it few years ago in a workshop by Xavier Leroy - so I call this game "Xavier Leroy". (but he leaned it him self from an American artist/searcher):
All participants are walking in the room, in any directions, as they want.
Each participant keep an other one in his view field. After a while, each participant keep a second person in his view field, so that he can see constantly the both people at the same time.
After a while, each participant have to keep the same distance between him self and each of both people he has to see.
Good ambient is guaranteed.

Jack Gallagher // Teacher
2013.02.08
English is just fine! Thanks for the game!

Jack Gallagher // Teacher
2013.02.08
A friend of mine, a Art/ Media Theorist, Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, once told me that personally, he was beginning to think that their is as near to a moral obligation as one can approach for the element of PLAY to be included in every activity we can think of. I've been including play ever since. ;-)

Tugce Tuna // Teacher
2013.03.16
Hello everyone, I tried the game "Making triangle" as warm-up the ambience. I play with making triangle with many different calasses and bodies.
But this time I tried in the prison with the women prisoners.. The 'ambience' became so active and so bright.. aslo there was a rule, basic -keep the left side person always on your left side, visual frame/right side person always on the right side of your visual frame while you working creating triangle.. Then I add 'domino effect' with speed.. it took 15 mintues to make it..they did not talk.. :)

Jack Gallagher // Teacher
2013.03.18
That not talking part changes everything!

Nicolas HUBERT // Teacher
2013.03.18
Hi Tugce,
what's the 'domino effect' (added to "making triangle") ?

Kerstin Kussmaul // Teacher
2013.03.21
@antoine: i copied


user avatar
Nici Rutrecht Eligible Member // Teacher
2013.04.08
@ who is interested: in your opinion,what is the difference between a game and a score?

Nici Rutrecht // Teacher
2013.03.21
A game is always a score but a score is not always a game :-D...

Tugce Tuna // Teacher
2013.03.21
Nicolas, I added speed and levels to create domino effect. if some of them starts to slow down as speed they all have to aware of it. Also the same rule for using levels. if some one goes down to the floor or any 'level' the rest have to flow until they became to the same level..

Jack Gallagher // Teacher
2013.03.22
that's sounding like some realistic 2013 processing!

Jack Gallagher // Teacher
2013.03.22
Have to agree with Nici there

perroud celine // Teacher
2013.03.30
hey Nici your proposition 101 games for fantastic fun work verry well ! it is fun and verry dynamique for the web sid, great idea!

Nici Rutrecht // Teacher
2013.04.03
thanks :-)... dear people, please give me games if you know some more, a lot of spaces to fill still... - i will delete this idoc soon and open a proper one, which can be commented and where we can discuss without everybody always getting messages... thanks in advance... :-)


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Clint Lutes Eligible Member // Teacher
2014.04.01
Communicating in Movement Score
http://www.idocde.net/idocs/68

Working in pairs. One person gives physical directions to the other for a certain amount of time, then they switch on the command of the teacher (generally 1-2 minutes each). The partner should always try to react immediately to the offered gesture. Change partners between each command/gesture.

It is important to work as simply and clearly as possible at the beginning to establish an array of tools from which to explore. But still try to have fun.

Physical commands/gestures:

- Handshake - offer a clear handshake, try to shake it. Play with the gesture.

- Hug

- High five

- Point/Gesture to WHERE your partner should move (additionally you can add HOW to move - slowly, quickly...)

You can then do a round with all four gestures/commands.

Next the person receiving direction can (physically) negotiate the proposition.

Both people can eventually give and take direction simultaneously. No time limit. It is often interesting at this point to have the possibility to watch the other groups, so often I split the workshop into 2.


user avatar
Virginie Dejeux // Teacher
2014.09.26
The cat's game
I learn it from Régis Rasmus

We need couples, with space arround.
A and B are face to face, at a distance of 2 arms (the finger of each partner can hardly touch the fingers of the other).
We surround the feet of each with a tight circle : this is the home.
A try to touch B, and B try to avoid A. For each :
only one foot can leave the home – or it's possible to jump if the feet land at home right at the end of the jump.
only one 'mouvement 'is alowed to touch (we aim a place, we go there in 1 or 2 second, with a straigt or curve line, and then we come back at home) or to avoid.
Often students try to touch with the hands : it's interesting to try other parts of the body.
Variation : allowing 3 steps (walking on the hands is possible) to touch or avoid.



Le jeu du chat
Je l'ai appris de Régis Rasmus

Les élèves se mettent en couple, il faut de la place autour de chaque couple.
On se place face à face, de manière à ce que les bouts des doigts se touchent à peine.
On entoure les pieds d'un cercle imaginaire assez serré : la 'maison'.
Tour à tour, chacun essaie de toucher l'autre,
Pour celui qui tente de toucher comme pour celui qui tente d'éviter :
un seul des pieds peut quitter la maison – il est possible aussi de sauter, à condition d'atterrir directement dans la maison.
on a le droit à 'un mouvement' pour toucher (on vise un point, on y va en 1 ou 2 secondes en suivant une ligne droite ou courbe, et on revient dans sa maison) ou pour éviter.
La plupart du temps les élèves tentent de toucher avec les mains, il peut être intéressant d'essayer d'autres parties du corps.
Variation : autoriser 3 appuis (penser aux mains aussi), pour toucher ou éviter.


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