The Encyclopedia of Interactive Performance

Athletes, musicians, singers, and dancers all warm up. So do inter-actors. A warm-up prepares your mind and body before you practice alone, train with others, or perform with an audience.

Internal prep

The internal prep is a two-minute routine that clears the mind and releases the body. Keep the internal prep easy and effortless. Save the more challenging exercises for the general warm-up.

Even when you have limited time, the internal prep prepares you for trainings, auditions, rehearsals, and performances.

Here are some useful internal prep exercises:

• Body brush
• Box breathing
• Opening fist
• Sound detective

General warm-ups

Once you’re centered and present, activate and energize the body, voice, and mind. This is also the time to establish connection and develop skills.

Body – When warming up the body, do exercises that address flexibility, strength, speed, and balance.

• Stretches
• Squats
• Lunges
• Push-ups
• Crunches
• Planks
• Yoga

Voice – The voice is a delicate instrument. Give it the care it deserves. Attend to vocalization and articulation.

• Vocal shakes
• Vocal sirens
• Lip rolls
• Face stretches
• Tongue circles
• Tongue twisters

Mind – Interactive performance requires mental focus and release. Focus keeps you attentive to what’s happening around you. Release keeps your mind from inhibiting your impulses. Strive to attain both.

• Ralphing
• Random access drill
• Link association
• Periphery association
• Square and triangle
• Radio delay
• Two stories, two ears

Ensemble – So far, the warm-ups have focused on individual skills. It’s also important to connect as a group. The three primary focus areas for ensemble warm-ups are trust, group mind, and give and take.

• Mirror exercise
• President’s bodyguards
• Energy toss
• Boom, woo
• Knight’s move
• Cradled lullaby
• Yes circle
• Willow in the wind
• Wall crash

Skill building – Skill mastery takes time and repetition. You can invest this time by drilling skills during warm-ups. The skill might be anything—name recall, generating random ideas, following others’ offers. Any skill can be drilled. Over time, a conscious skill become second nature. When this happens, you may want to move the skill drill into your internal prep. Here are some common skill building warm-ups.

• Party name recall
• Follow every offer
• Firing line
• Called offers

The warm-ups here have been categorized to clarify the areas they address. In practice, however, it’s good to work them together. Combine elements of physical, vocal, mental, ensemble, and skill development. When you layer warm-ups, it saves time. It also better prepares you to play using all areas simultaneously.

Solo warm-ups

Warm-ups are often done in groups, but they’re equally important to do when training alone. Some warm-ups are easy to do by yourself. For those that require a partner, the Gimme Getter can help. It tracks time, keeps scores, and provides outside input. Here’s a five-minute warm-up that can be used as a jumping-off point for creating your own solo warm-up.

• Box breathing (1 minute)
• Thumbs and pinkies (30 seconds)
• Wiggle thumbs with Vocal sirens (30 seconds)
• Tongue twisters from the Gimme Getter with stretches (1 minute)
• Random access drill with Wall pushes (1 minute)
• Called offers using the Gimme Getter (1 minute)

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It’s important to warm up before training or performing. It doesn’t take long and the benefits are many. Warm-ups prepare the body, voice, and mind. They build ensemble and develop skills. Establish the habit of warm-ups and your work will improve in the immediate moment, as well as the long run.