This exercise inspired by "bigger me" from Vo'Arte is meant to develop the skill of expression through the great diversity of bodies in nature. A long time ago when daily life was intimately intertwined with the animals and plants, people developed ways to celebrate and get to know nature by imitating the natural world in their language, their art and their body. Ancient first nation people like the Kalahari bushmen tribes in South Africa maintain a very strong relation with the natural world expressed by their ability to become the animals in motion. It is a way to anticipate how they live and what will be their next move, it's also a call. In this exercise, you will become the animal of your choice by imitating the way it moves. It is an opportunity to get to know each other better and even become the other for a moment. It's easy to find a teacher out there, for example pick an insect, they are almost everywhere if you look closely and move like an ant !

Step 1: Choose a place outdoors where you can see animals easily, dogs, cats, birds and insects are almost everywhere. Don't be shy and start to imitate the being of your choice. Slowly become more and more the other along the practice. Try to anticipate the next move, look at the world from the senses of the other being, feel the impact of the wind, the heat of the sun or the cold and the texture of the ground on your new body.

step one variant for indoors activity: Instead of selecting the beings of our choice, we are told by the participants who we are along our displacment and become a combination of ever changing beings. This practice is inspired by the horizontal gene transfer from bacteria, exhanging bits of DNA between each others.

Step 2: The person coordinating the activity will use a watch or a bell to set up a 15 min alarm and clarify that the participants will be informed when the time of the practice is over.

Step 3:  The person coordinating the activity will invite people to sit in a circle during 15 minutes and comment on what they experienced. It is important to remark that, like people, every being is unique and we do not have to enclose them in an imaginary box defined by the name of their species.

Step 4: The person coordinating the activity can propose to download and walk with the free mobile app Antventure. It is a walking story created by the storyteller David Merleau  in collaboration with Supercluster. We can experience the world through the lens of four different species of ants (https://antventure.ca). This experiment shows how every beings has it's own personality

evaluation: Ask who they identified with and if it is changing their perception of space and time. Are the beings they embodied slow or fast, quiet or agitated ? What do they have in common with the chosen animal or plant and what is the big difference if any ? This transformative experience should provoke in the participants a sense of uniqueness of the being they were imitating.

references: This practice is inspired by great teachers, Nature of course but also Rich Blundell and the Oika project, Jon Young from the 8 shields and the partners from the project No One Forgotten beyond others. Thank you!