Mirror Exercises - The first knowledge sharing application in Vietnam

Basic Mirrors /
Mirrors!
/ Circle Mirror /
Who Began?
/ Mirror Canon / Movement Telephone
/ Fun House Mirrors / Emotion
Mirrors
Mirror
Mirror
This is not really one lesson, but several activities all stemming from
the idea of mirroring. I introduce mirrors with my very youngest
students, as a control device–see “Mirrors!” below–and by the second
grade we are doing fairly elaborate activities and games with mirrors–see
“Who Began?” or “Mirror Canon” below. Yet I continue to use even
the “Basic Mirrors” exercise with older children and even adults.
Mirroring is a way of developing concentration skills, and of honing those
skills. It can be used to help cast members bond, and develop that
instant communication so necessary for really fine theatre. It teaches
careful observation skills, which serve students well not only in the Theatre,
where it helps them to develop accurate and believable characterizations,
but in all aspects of their increasingly complex life. Plus, it is
a lot of fun! Try the ideas below, or make up your own. Good
luck!

Basic
Mirrors

You are probably familiar with this activity. I certainly didn’t
invent it. Everyone takes a partner. (If there is an odd number,
the teacher pairs with someone.) Partners stand facing each
other, about three feet apart. One is the leader, the other, the
“mirror.” Moving only from the waist up, the leader begins to make
simple gestures or movements. The “mirror” duplicates the leader’s
movments exactly–just as a mirror would. (Some students have trouble
with the right-left shift. If the leader raises his right hand, the
“mirror” should raise his left, just as the figure in a real mirror would.
When they fail to do this, I tell students they are being a “video” instead
of a mirror.)

Most students will want to make this harder than they should.
The goal is to mirror the partner perfectly. I tell my students that
if they are doing a good job, I will not be able to tell who is the leader
and who is the “mirror.” I coach them to use smooth, continuous movements,
because abrupt movements almost always catch the “mirror” lagging.
I coach them to look into each others’ eyes, rather than at their hands,
because this facitates more precise communication. I try to keep
them from using their lower bodies until they have really mastered the
arms-and-face mirroring.

I challenge my students to really focus on the process. I point
out that it is the leader’s job, as much as the “mirror’s” to see that
the exercise works. The leader does not try to trick his partner–on
the contrary, he works very hard not to trick him. It is the
leader’s responsibilty to perform movements that the “mirror” can follow
precisely. I remind the leaders that they should be looking right
at their partners, because their partners must look at them, and
therefore the only way the mirror illusion can be perfect is if the leader
also looks at the partner. (If the leader looks away, and the “mirror”
duplicates this movement, the “mirror” can no longer see the leader to
mirror him.)

Once you’ve got all the students concentrating on mirroring, have them
switch leaders a few times. At first, every time they switch leaders
they’ll have to start over, but they should reach the point where they
can switch leaders in mid-stream, without interrupting the smooth folow
of movement. If the group is older and advanced enough, see if they
can switch leaders without communicating ahead of time. (When the
“mirror” feels it is time to take over, he simply takes over, and the original
leader is sensitive enough to perceive it and become the “mirror.”)

Eventually this exercise can grow to involve the whole body, and even
movement in space (locomotion), but be wary of beginning this too soon.
I usually don’t do it at all except with my older students. It is
too difficult. I use the metaphor of model building. Some people
buy the biggest, most elaborate model kit they can find, and take pleasure
in building something really complicated. But others take their pleasure
out of making a simpler model absolutely perfect in every detail.
The second attitude is the one it is necessary to apply to mirrors if their
full value is to be had.

This is my principle control device with my younger students. An
instructor of mine had a tambourine he carried with him. The sound
of the tamborine was a signal for everyone to freeze and be silent.
Others use a hand signal, a whistle (ugh) or switching off the lights.
In Drama class you really need some such device, because you are frequently
setting the students loose to process all at once, and you need a way to
bring everyone back to earth. I use mirrors. All of my students,
from pre-kindergarten up, learn that whenever the teacher calls out, “Mirrors!”
they are to drop what they’re doing and become mirrors of the teacher.
We discuss the fact that mirrors do not talk, but move just like the person
looking in the mirror. This is an extremely effective control device
because it takes real concentration to mirror accurately, so the students
not only stop, but stay stopped. We practice this in the first few
classes every year (“Okay, let’s all get a little crazy. . .Mirrors!”).
It works. And since I nearly always begin my movements with a characteristic
gesture, it works even when the noise in the room has grown too loud for
me to be heard.

Circle
Mirror

This is really only a way of practicing for the game, “Who Began?”
The class stands in a circle, about arms’ length apart. (The easiest
way to make such a circle is to join hands, extend the circle out as far
as it will stretch, then drop arms.) The leader performs simple arm
movements, and everyone in the circle “mirrors.” Immediately the
problem of left/right rears its head. Those opposite the leader in
the circle will instinctively reverse them, like a mirror, but those next
to or nearly next to the leader in the circle will want to do same-side
movments. Those half way in between will be torn. Usually I
tell my students that for this exercise, left and right don’t matter.
Plus I usually do movments with both arms together. This is a good
way of working with a class whose members are having difficulty focusing
in pairs. Since the teacher’s eye is on everyone–circles are nice
that way–sometimes such students are better able to concentrate.

Who
Began?

This is a game I have seen under a number of different names. It
is a natural outgrowth of the “Circle Mirror,” and can be used as a motivational
tool for getting students to take mirrors more seriously. (My students
live in an extremely sports-centered world, and any kind of competition
is instantly attractive to them.)

Begin with a circle just like in “Circle Mirror.” Practice making
very smooth, rhythmic movements. The best kind of movements for this
game are ones that repeat in rhythm, and gradually change. (A true
pattern won’t work–it is essential that changes happen.) Once the
group is good at this kind of movement, someone is chosen to be “it.”
That person then leaves the room or turns his back, and the teacher chooses
someone in the circle to be the leader. The leader begins to move,
and the rest of the class to mirror. “It” is invited back into the
circle, and must try to guess who the leader is. The more perfect
the mirroring, the more difficult this will be, until, theoretically, it
becomes impossible. I usually give “it” three guesses before I declare
the thing a draw. A new “it” is chosen and the game is repeated.
As the game is played, I coach the leader as necessary to vary the movement,
or to make it more smooth, or whatever, but always addressing him as “leader,”
and never looking at him.

I usually don’t introduce stratetgy until we have played a few times.
I like the students to come up with the strategies, rather than having
them handed to them. But there are some basic strategies that make
the game harder for “it” to win:

Don’t all look at the leader. At first this seems
like a contradiction, but the students eventually realize that as long
as some
people–probably the ones opposite the leader in the circle–are
looking at the leader, the rest can look at those people. usually
the best thing is for everyone to “mirror” someone opposite them in the
circle. This means “it” cannot pick the leader by following everyone’s
eyes.

Leader look at someone. The leader is the only person
in the circle who is not compelled to look at someone else. If he
allows his eyes to wander, “it” can easily pick him out this way.

Don’t make noise. Any movement–such as clapping, snapping
or slapping–that makes a sound will give the leader away, since he will
probably be slightly ahead of everyone else.

Again, rather than telling my students these “rules” I coach them to
figure them out for themselves.

Back to top.
Mirror
Canon
This can be very beautiful when it works. It can also be used as
a tie-in with a music curriculum, because the canon form is very important
in music.

Everyone stands in a circle. Everyone turns to the left (or right,
as long as everyone turns the same way) so that they are looking at the
back of the next person. One person is chosen to be the leader, and
begins to make simple movements. (The leader must be careful not
to bring his arms fully in front of him.) The person behind the leader
mirrors him, but with a “delay” of about a second. The third person
mirrors the second, again with a one-second delay, and so on around the
circle. Eventually the leader will see his own movements recreated
in the person in front of him–but delayed by many seconds. The effect
for someone standing in the middle of the circle is of a “wave” of movement
making its way around the circle. For the leader, the reward is seeing
that movement come back to him.

I recommend that the teacher not participate in this exercise, but rather
watch closely to make sure it is working. All it takes is one student
not paying attention to put a stop to the “wave,” and you need to be there
to light a fire under any such students. You also might like to pull
a few students out of the group at a time and let them watch from inside
the circle, because it is so cool.

Variation 1: Once the canon is working
in the circle, you can spread the people about the room randomly.
Each person must remember who he is mirroring, and make sure he can see
that person, but other than that they can be anywhere in the room.
This is much more difficult, because there is usually at least one person
closer than the one we’re supposed to be mirroring, and we have to concentrate
on the person we’re supposed to mirror while ignoring the others.
But when it works the students feel a great sense of acomplishment.

Variation 2: For advanced students.
Find an actual musical canon–something simple!–and listen to it a few
times. Two-part is probably best. Work in pairs. The
leader imporvises movements in time with the music (the first part of the
canon). The partner mirrors the movements in time with the second
voice of the canon, so that music and movement work together.

Movement
Telephone

I learned this from a member of the National Theatre of the Deaf.
Basically it is movement version of the child’s game we used to call “Telephone”
when I was a kid. The kids in PA call it “Whisper Down the Lane.”
I’m talking about the game in which children sit in a circle and whisper
a message from person to person. By the time the message gets back
to its original source, it has invariably changed, usually with humorous
results. I usually play “Telephone” with my students before introducing
“Movement Telephone.”

Students stand in a straight line, facing the back of the room.
The teacher stands at the back of the line and taps the last person on
the shoulder. That person turns around to face the teacher.
The teacher performs a very simple series of hand movements. Only
the last person in line can see this, because the rest of the class are
facing the other way. Then that person taps the next person in line,
and passes the movement on. Eventually the movement series makes
its way all the way to the front of the line. Then the teacher shows
the whole class what the original movement looked like, and everyone marvels
at how much it has changed.

Often when I teach this activity, I use it as a jumping-off point to
talk about the way that rumors and innuendo can get started. If even
in a class in which everyone is doing his best to get things exactly right,
an idea can change so much in transit, is it any wonder that half-truths
and even utter falsehoods can arise from honest if catty gossip?
The resulting discussions are often illuminating.

Fun
House Mirrors

Everyone has seen those mirrors in fun houses that make you look taller
or shorter, etc. They are the metaphor behind the following mirroring
variations.

Magnifying Mirrors

Work in pairs. The leader tries to keep his movements “small,”
but the “mirror” makes all the movements “bigger.” This is lots of
fun, and calls for imagination, because it is not always obvious how to
make a movement “bigger.”
Shrinking Mirrors

Like “Magnifying Mirrors,” but in reverse.
Opposite, or Video Mirrors

The “mirror” does not reverse left and right. This allows for
some very interesting effects, because unlike regular mirrors, it allows
the partners to enter each other’s space. In regular mirrors the
partners can touch, but can go no further because the point of contact
becomes the imaginary glass of the mirror. But in “Opposite Mirrors”
the partners can even move around each other and change places.

Back to top.
Emotion
Mirrors
You can do this in pairs, or with the whole class mirroring the teacher.
In unison, the leader and the “mirror”(s) speak some familiar speech.
(This could be something like the Pledge of Allegiance or the lyrics to
a familiar song, or it could even be reciting the alphabet or counting.)
The leader tries to change his emotional affect frequently during the speech,
and the “mirror”(s) try to duplicate the leader’s emotions exactly.
No attempt is made to mirror the leader’s physicality–the point is to
mirror his emotions. This is a great acting exercise for experienced
and beginning actors.

Try out these variations, too!

Enlarging or Shrinking Emotion Mirrors

Mirror the emotions of the leader, but make them “bigger” (If
the leader is mildly put out, the “mirror” is furious.) or “smaller.”
Opposite Emotion Mirrors

You figure it out.
Use Emotion Mirrors in a Scene

This is an interesting exercise to try with a cast who is having trouble
connecting to a script. Run through a scene, but with all the actors
“mirroring” one actor’s emotions. Then try it again, “mirroring”
a different actor. Interesting discoveries here!

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