Lesson 5: Energy

Objective
● Students will be able to communicate meaning using energy in movement by performing scenes that utilize Lecoq’s seven levels of tension.

Standards

● Utah
○ Standard 7-8.T.P.4 - Communicate meaning using the body through space,

shape, energy, and gesture. ● National

• ○  TH:Cr3.1.7.b. Develop effective physical and vocal traits of characters in an improvised or scripted drama/theatre work.
• ○  TH:Pr4.1.6.b. Experiment with various physical choices to communicate character in a drama/theatre work.
• ○  TH:Pr6.1.8.a. Perform a rehearsed drama/theatre work for an audience.

Sources
● 7 Levels of Tension

Materials needed

● Chairs stacked to move

Warm-up

● Board Question
○ What gives you energy?

• ●  Stretch and Shakeout

• ●  Review

  ○ Staging
  ○ Physicality

  Hook

• ●  Energy Growing Circle

○ One person makes a small noise/movement and it passes through the

circle, growing in energy with each person!

Instruction

● Discussion
○ What gives you more energy? What gives you less energy?

○ How can you tell when someone has more or less energy based on their body movements?

• ●  Lecoq

  • ○  Athlete - running, swimming, and gymnastics
  • ○  Eventually linked sports to theatre and did mimes and clowns
  • ○  Came up with 7 levels of energy

• ●  For each level, have the students walk around the room and practice what their movement might look like within that level of energy. Ground rule is always be situationally aware. You don’t have to RUN to show you have energy.

  • ○  Exhausted or catatonic. The Jellyfish. There is no tension in the body at all. Begin in a complete state of relaxation. If you have to move or speak, it is a real effort. See what happens when you try to speak.
  • ○  Laid back – the “Californian” (soap opera). Many people live at this level of tension. Everything you say is cool, relaxed, probably lacking in credibility. The casual throw-away line – “I think I’ll go to bed now”.
  • ○  Neutral or the “Economic” (contemporary dance). It is what it is. There is nothing more, nothing less. The right amount. No past or future. You are totally present and aware. It is the state of tension before something happens. Think of a cat sitting comfortably on a wall, ready to leap up if a bird comes near. You move with no story behind your movement.
  • ○  Alert or Curious (farce). Look at things. Sit down. Stand up. Indecision. Think M. Hulot (Jacques Tati) or Mr Bean. Levels 1 – 4 are our everyday states.
  • ○  Suspense or the Reactive (19th century melodrama). Is there a bomb in the room? The crisis is about to happen. All the tension is in the body, concentrated between the eyes. An inbreath. There’s a delay to your reaction. The body reacts. John Cleese.
  • ○  Passionate (opera). There is a bomb in the room. The tension has exploded out of the body. Anger, fear, hilarity, despair. It’s difficult to control. You walk into a room and there is a lion sitting there. There is a snake in the shower.
  • ○  Tragic (end of King Lear when Lear is holding Cordelia in his arms). The bomb is about to go off! Body can’t move. Petrified. The body is solid tension.
• ●  Then start yelling out different levels and having them change the energy levels as they are moving randomly.

• ●  Discussion (in partners)

  • ○  When are times in your life when you’ve been at these different levels of

    energy?

  • ○  How long can you be at certain levels of energy?

○ Think about something you do every single day. Eating breakfast, brushing teeth, hanging out with friends, football practice, being in class, etc. What level of energy are you at with that thing?

● Choose one of those things you do every day and do that thing with the seven levels of energy.

Practice

● Rehearsal

• ○  Get into groups and create a scene that features three different levels of

  energy. Maybe everyone is at the same level and it raises or lowers based on what’s happening in the scene. OR you could have three different characters who are all at different levels of energy. There needs to be a beginning, middle, and end.

• ○  No death:)

  Assessment

• ●  Performance - Showcase the scenes to each other, then discuss.

  • ○  What energy levels were featured in their scenes?
  • ○  How did it make the scenes exciting?

• ●  Submit a grade in “energy” on a scale of 1 (below standard) to 4 (advanced).

  Challenge

● Keep track of where your energy levels are throughout the day. Come back next time prepared to share where you think you mostly live and what makes your energy levels raise or lower.