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Ice-breaking, Group-building
& Communication
through visual arts related activities  


NAME & GESTURE

Objectives

 

1. Getting to know each other and building trust 
2. Initiating communication by observing others and imitation
3. Moving instead of speaking
4. Using the whole body
 

Time frame

10 minutes depending on the number of participants 

Material needed

Only a spacious place to stand in a circle and to move easily

To brake the ice when starting a workshop with people who has never met before, you may look for something short, funny, light and easy integrating both visuality and movement. It is also a mnemonic method to remember each other‘s names.

1. Everyone stands in a circle. The facilitator explains the activity as follows:

"We will introduce ourselves with our names adding a gesture to it. The gesture can be very simple. For example it can shows how you are feeling now. Please, don't overthink it. Your first idea will be the best! After each name and gesture we will repeat all together and simultaneously the same movement and the name. Then, the next participant in the circle does a new gesture and says its name, and the group will repeat it. And so on... "

 

The facilitator can give an example to begin by making a movement with its hands, or legs, saying its name. Then he invites the participants to reproduce it. 

It is important to make something easy to repeat and to say the name clearly after the movement.

2. When the round is over you can go for a second round with the same gestures, but in a quicker rhythm.

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