Performance Skills for Wrestlers: 8-week Course

Mondays 5.30-7.30pm

£25 per session / block booking & membership discounts available via the pricing page

Develop stage presence, identify your strengths as a performer and find out how to build on your natural charisma to become even more engaging, watchable and entertaining. Drawing on techniques from Clowning, Drag, Cabaret, Burlesque & mask work you’ll learn how to connect with an audience and develop techniques to help you take a crowd with you on a performance journey - no matter where you want that journey to go.

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Session 1: Status, Power & Negotiation
Wrestling tells a story about good guys and bad guys, using status and power exchange to create comedy and drama. Learn how to telegraph to the audience if you are someone they should love or hate.

Session 2: Levels of Tension (LeCoq Movement)
Winning over a crowd and leaving them on a high is a matter of stagecraft. LeCoq’s techniques for tension to create comic and tragic moments will give you the power to make your audience laugh or cry.

Session 3: Playing Nice
Playing fair, following the rules & being gracious are all essential character traits for a face. Learn seductive archetypes of the Burlesque and Pantomime worlds to understand how to win the audience’s hearts by being the most likeable performer in the room. Identify your strengths as a performer and find out how to build on your natural charisma to become even more engaging, watchable, and entertaining.

Session 4: Character & Condition (Laban movement)
Every character has their own rhythm. A character’s rhythm expresses underlying emotions, motivations & purpose. Use movement patterns & choreographic techniques to uncover your expressive range, reveal your character’s vulnerabilities, and showcase unique performance traits. Develop stage presence and get comfortable with being ‘seen’.

Session 5: Improvisation & Physicality
Wrestling is a form of improvised entertainment. Discover how improv works so you can feel comfortable in front of any crowd, even when things go awry. Learn the rules of "game" to improve your awareness of patterns and make stronger character choices.

Session 6: Behind the eyes – Impersonation & Mantras
Moves in wrestling are meaningless unless they are imbued with intention and storytelling logic (psychology). Creating clear characters with their own inner dialogue can give your moves meaning, and this session will give you the skills and concepts you need to begin filling your matches with meaningful moments.

Session 7: Playing Mean (Drag)
Being cocky, bending the rules & cheating are at the heart of what makes a heel the bad guy we all love to hate. Discover how to get more boos by drawing on performance techniques that will make you truly despicable. Root your character in the darker side of our primal emotions to become truly hateable.

Session 8: Storytelling and the body (Mask & Commedia)
Every wrestling match tells a story. Make your storytelling compelling by creating multidimensional characters that are capable of holding the hopes, fears, dreams & aspirations of the audience. Learn how to work with masks and connect with an audience using physical movement and develop techniques to help you take a crowd with you on a performance journey.

Class Objectives & Learning Outcomes:

• Develop stage presence and get comfortable making eye contact and being seen

• Identify your strengths as a performer and find out how to build on your natural charisma to become even more engaging, watchable and entertaining

• Learn how to connect with an audience and develop techniques to help you take a crowd with you on a performance journey

• Find our what makes you funny and learn to make more of it

• Explore new ways to make the audience love or hate you

Who is it for?

This is a beginner & improver level performance class. It is for wrestlers & cabaret artists who want to develop the stage craft needed to succeed as a performer. If you want to develop a killer character and execute great promos then do yourself a favour and first learn the fundamentals of how to engage an audience so you can get booked in a variety of contexts.

What do I need to bring?

Come in normal workout gear & trainers, but be prepared to put on costumes where appropriate.