ABSTRACT
The whole subject of actions which have the aim of relating in some way to another person or to an object deals primarily with movement motivation and hence is concerned with expressiveness. Exploration of this material can be on two levels—functional and purely expressive. Most students need to progress from functional everyday examples to the more stylized ‘artificial’ versions in exploring degrees of relating. A first introduction to this subject, once students know something about forms of relating, is to enact an everyday sequence such as the arrival of a removal van, as might occur when the lady of the house hears the removal van arriving. After looking out of the window, she runs towards objects wondering what to do. With a selection of real objects on hand the students acting the scene can demonstrate various forms of handling the objects, starting to drop them, dragging them, etc. Objects may be placed on other objects, slip off, be tied up with string, and so on. On the first presentation the movements can be accompanied by conversation, questions, answers, commands, to make it realistic. On the second performance the rest of the class should call out what form of relating is being used at each moment.
