Exploring Emotions Through Colour
Students Improvise Movement As Reaction To Colour Prompts
These improvisations may help you and your students explore the way colour effects our relationship to movement and self expression.
How do we get to know about emotions associated with colour?
Is colour important to the young theatre student?
Use these explorations to help the theatre student link colour and emotion.
- Red
Ask the students to plan a story board for a play called "Danger." It will be a play where actors must warn others of a dangerous situation. They must find a way to warn others about this danger but they cannot actually say what is happening. They can hint, draw pictures, write words, mime, but they may not actually say what is about to happen. The only visual clues that may be used are black, red and sharp or jagged lines.
- Yellow
Invite the students to dress in yellow and to have only yellow props and images in their immediate vicinity. There is to be no script for this! It is just a yellow day. (Or hour, session etc) See what happens as the students experience this exercise with you. Do they cheer up? How do they move, act feel? See whether a script evolves naturally from this artificially constructed situation.
- Blue
Take the students through a guided imagery exercise. Talk them through situations that are blue. Under the sea, flying through the sky anything that will take them to a place of serenity. As they come from this meditation ensure that there is art materials available laid out ready for use. Have long sheets of paper already taped to the wall and gently guide them to this area. Encourage them to paint and draw together. See what eventuates and see whether a movement eventuates from the experience
- Orange
Don’t warn the students about this exercise. As they walk into the session room toss each one an orange. If they don’t react other than to catch it – throw one across the room to be caught by a student. If this exercise is approached in a playful manner the students should naturally begin to do tricks with the oranges. See whether a juggling session eventuates.
Search for variations of this exercise such as
- lying across a sea of oranges.
- building orange castles.
During the debrief, check in about feelings and see whether the orangeness of the props caused them to see think and feel in orange.
- Purple
Suddenly ask the students to stand. The only thing they may do is say the word purple. Make sure that no other word can be uttered in the room but purple. Accentuate it, yell it, whisper it, and sing it. Continue for 30 minutes. Ensure your own respondability within the session as the students explore possibilities. Have the students write a paragraph about the aura of the room and the people in it as the session finishes.
- White
Ask the students to be angels. Ask them to talk to an angel. Give them sheets of black paper and ask them to draw an angel in white gouache within its frame. Now ask them to be that angel. Create a movement from this experience. Ask the students to choose music to fit the movement. Invite the students to perform this dance for the others in the class.
If you would like to share the outcome please post about your experience on the discussion boards.
This recipe for a Colour Wheel might be helpful when talking about colour.
