Dinamicas de Animacion (icebreakers)

Idea for a warm-up that helps build shared understanding of group's similarities and differences.

Set up is like Red Light/Green Light, with all players lined up at one end of the space and joker at the other end. The joker turns his back and calls out some identity or trait that people might share: for example, "Postal Workers" or "Single Parents" or "people who love John Legend", then says "`1, 2, 3" dragging it out or suddenly speeding it up, then turns and yells, "stop!" Repeat until some player reaches the joker.

So: "People who are union members. 1, 2, 3.... Stop!"

It's an obvious idea, but seeing video of people using the People's Microphone, I decided to teach the technique in my English for Activists course and use it for language practice.

The Flow

• Introduce this as a technique used at Occupy Wall Street as a solution to a very simple problem: no sound permit. (Could lead to an interesting discussion about laws regarding speech and assembly in different countries.)

This is a fun way to get people talking with each other and to help them loosen up. Good for a group where people already know each other and may find it hard to strike up a conversation that isn't stale. Going deeper: this activity frees us from the usual sense of obligation/desire to tell the truth, which may conflict with our feelings of shame or just a sense of privacy. Taking the liberty to lie, to betray our principles, to espouse reprehensible beliefs, may free us from inhibition and help us find new truths.

The Flow:

A warm-up activity that raises (!) the question of power, what/who is powerful and what is not. Should be done quickly, but may lead to discussion that deserves time. This could be a good warm-up for a fuller discussion/analysis using, for example, the power line activity.

Flow

• Group sitting in chairs, warn them that they need to ready to stand up quickly.
• Joker starts by naming something s/he thinks is clearly powerful -- for example, "CEO" -- and pointing to the next (or another) person.
  

Over time, the standard chants and slogans used on picket lines and in demonstrations, protests, and marches, become stale and cliche. The content gets lost and the music becomes sing-song. The chants have no impact. The whole experience becomes disempowering. (This has been true for so long that even complaining about it is stale and cliche!)

The idea of this game is to help people develop their ability to make a range of expressions by magnifying and reducing motions and emotions made by others.

Good for: breaking down barriers to expression, observing degrees of expression, developing registers of speech and motion, learning culturally specific forms

Setup: empty space, standing in a circle

Number of people: three at least

Materials: none

Time: 30 mins or so

Flow:

Participants form a circle, standing, and count off.