Premium

The Significance of Stillness and the Impact of Intentional Movement

Intentional movement—the most underrated yet impactful element of stage performance.

On Stage

Public speaking

Stage performance

Michael

Port

Co-Founder

minute read

Published on

September 30, 2024

Master the technique of blocking and staging and learn to use the most powerful place on stage strategically.

What transforms your speech from a simple auditory or intellectually interesting piece into an emotional experience, a theatrical event, a compelling performance—is movement.

‍

After all, you could put your ideas into an article for your followers to read, like this one. Or you could share your message in a podcast for your community to listen to. But a speech is the complete package. It’s an intellectual, auditory, visual, three-dimensional experience.

‍

And on stage, when you move you must know when to move, where to move, and the why behind it all.

‍

When you do, this intentional movement on stage creates a powerful visual experience for your audience that actually makes it easier for them to digest and comprehend your message. It evokes powerful emotions that make them feel your words, and motivates them to change and take action. It also makes it easier for you to learn and internalize your material in a way that will surprise you.

‍

But, if your movement doesn’t match your message, it can distract, confuse, and bore.

‍

Is this your Achilles heel?

‍

For most speakers, movement on stage is their Achilles heel. You see, how a lot of speakers typically handle movement on stage is largely unplanned—and therefore at the mercy of their subconscious.

‍

After watching speakers perform over the years, I’ve noticed three specific types of behaviors speakers often resort to that benefit them as the speaker but that create a subpar, distracting, or uncomfortable experience for their audience.

‍

#1 Self-Soothing Tactics

‍

You’ll often see speakers pace back and forth, or rock, shift, or sway from left to right. They shift their weight from one foot to the other, or repeat the same types of movements throughout their entire speech.

‍

These actions are the byproducts of pre-event jitters and performance anxiety taking hold of your brain. Your subconscious impulses your body to move with one simple goal: to make you feel better.

‍

Repetitive actions like the ones mentioned above are common examples of self-soothing tactics that attempt to decrease stress and alleviate anxiety. It helps you feel better on stage, but these repetitive movements make your audience lose track of what you are saying. To them, everything you say seems to have the same weight and value—because there is no intentional variation or contrast in your movement.

‍

#2 Exaggerated Emotions or Movements

‍

Actions like running on stage while enthusiastically shouting: “How are we doing? Can I get a round of applause?” can be your sneaky subconscious taking control. Overenthusiasm and attempts to “pump up” your audience shift the focus to you and your needs, and leave your audience long forgotten.

‍

This type of exaggerated energy (in the theater it’s referred to as “pushing”) usually doesn’t resonate because it’s not honest—your actual energy levels don’t match your movement, and your audience’s forced response is not genuine either. Overacting is not beneficial to your audience. But honesty is—in fact, it’s essential for a first-rate performance.

‍

Building energy on stage doesn’t depend on your emotional state, it’s produced by the transformational experience you create and how you make your audience feel—honestly and authentically.

‍

#3 Common Confidence-Building Techniques

‍

Some traditional advice teaches speakers to “stalk” the audience—to walk with power and confidence while keeping a laser focus on each person.

‍

This could make you feel more comfortable, but it’s more likely to create an awkward power struggle between you and the audience. And it’ll likely make your audience feel very uncomfortable. (After all, how would you like to be stared down from the stage?)

‍

As with most performance techniques, to make an impact, your movement needs to be intentional, focused, and fully aligned with your content. If it is, you’re then able to focus completely on your audience, making them feel what you want them to feel—so you can transform how they think and act.

Full Transcript

Don't

let your subconscious take the reins on stage.

plan your movement purposefully for a more engaging performance.

HEROIC Performance Coaches guide alumni on stage to align their movement with their message for a more powerful performance.

What is blocking and staging?

‍

Intentionally planning your movement during your speech is called blocking and staging. It’s a basic theatrical concept that involves aligning your movement with your message to create a more memorable and digestible performance.

‍

When you eliminate unnecessary and distracting movements and plan intentional movement into your script, you actually make it easier for your audience to digest what you are saying. Your words, intensity, and message will align with your movement, making it easy for the brain to process.

‍

Using blocking and staging also increases contrast in your performance—making it more entertaining, enjoyable, and effortless to watch. Movement makes your performance memorable.

‍

Blocking and staging is perhaps the greatest opportunity you have to put your level of performance a notch above the rest. For most speakers, it’s a weak zone. What that means is that mastering this can truly set you apart from the majority of professional speakers out there.

‍

It can take your speech from good to extraordinary. It can turn a boring, regular presentation into an award-winning performance. Blocking and staging is key to performing a speech that feels natural—both to you and your audience.

Don't

Speakers are introduced to blocking and staging principles at CORE | The Breakthrough Experience.

Movement that puts your audience first

‍

Remember, blocking and staging isn’t for you. It isn’t to make you look more acrobatic, professional, or interesting. It’s to serve your audience, always.

‍

Movement on stage can create a richer, deeper, and more complete experience for your audience. When you know how to block and stage your speech, you can craft a visually stimulating experience—one that entertains, educates, and arouses authentic emotion.

‍

Here are a few examples of blocking and staging techniques that put your audience first:

‍

Boost Recall and Spark Change

‍

During CORE | The Breakthrough Experience, a two-day transformational event where speakers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs gather on our HEROIC Campus to learn the craft of speaking and stage performance, Amy Port explains the Seven-Step Rehearsal Process. As she mentions each of the seven steps, she associates a specific action with each one, and she repeats the actions almost every time she says the steps. As she mentions each one, she’s staged the speech so that she’s standing in the most powerful place on stage—center stage.

‍

Why? To help everyone in the audience almost effortlessly remember the seven steps of the rehearsal process. Her movements help the audience remember what she’s teaching and her ability to influence how the audience feels about it motivates them to try it themselves.

‍

Ignite Your Audience’s Imagination

‍

Intentional movement can create geography and chronology in your stories, help your audience remember steps, processes, and order, and process information visually. Your actions guide your audience’s imagination and help them “see” what you are saying.

‍

Bobby McFerrin masterfully used movement on stage to create an invisible piano, jumping on the keys to show his audience the power of the pentatonic scale. In an unforgettable, fun, and magical moment, his movement captured the attention of the audience and reminded them of the power of the basic principles of music.

‍

When you give your audience just a little bit of help, you can crack open their imagination, bring your stories to life, and create a far more memorable and transformational experience for your audience.

‍

Use your movement to amplify the theatrical experience. A simple pop of the hip, change in posture, or hand gesture can characterize the individuals in your stories and bring them to life. See the stage like a movie set with imagined pieces of your story, move purposely to different parts of the stage for each scene, and play actions for your audience. This can create a powerful visual that combines magically with the wonderful words you’ve created.

‍

Highlight the Most Important Moments—Using Contrast

‍

The variation of moments of stillness with movement creates an interesting, engaging, and entertaining performance. When your message is carefully planned, moments of contrast stand out to your audience and bring even more power to your words.

‍

One powerful example of just how effective contrast can be is Monica Lewinsky’s Ted Talk “The price of shame.” During almost the entirety of her talk, her body is still, situated securely behind the podium, symbolically in a safe, protected place.

‍

As she talks about the public humiliation she faced after her affair with President Clinton, her feet are firmly planted, unmoving, on the center of the small stage. The power of her words—accompanied by her stillness—fill the room.

‍

Then, after twenty minutes behind the podium, she takes a small step out from behind the podium.

‍

Her final words express both vulnerability and power, which align perfectly with her movement—stepping out from behind the safe podium, and onto center stage. Letting the world see her, but with her feet firmly planted in the most powerful place on stage.

‍

This powerful contrast drives home her message that you have the power to decide to stop living in the past and take back your narrative.

‍

A word of caution

‍

There are many benefits to blocking and staging your speech. But I’m not suggesting you do it for your entire speech. Adding movement to every single section of your speech actually isn’t much better than just pacing back and forth.

‍

Only use blocking and staging when you need it. If the movement is unnecessary or distracting, then there's no reason to have it.

Don't

overload your speech with movement and actions. Often, just a few carefully placed actions are more effective than a speech filled excessively with motion.

stay stationary until you know where to move, when to move, and why to move.

Start with stillness

‍

When you're working on new material, it often makes sense to stay stationary until you know where, how, and why you want to move. Blocking and staging does not mean you’re going to be moving on stage for your entire speech.

‍

You must earn movement on stage, and you must earn stillness as well.

‍

If during the majority of your performance you’re moving here and there on stage—then all of a sudden, you stop, and you have a moment of stillness, a moment of simplicity—that will add a powerful contrast and create a memorable scene.

‍

We like to call those moments of stillness “stand and land” moments.

‍

They are best performed in the center of the stage, the most powerful space in the room. There, you let your words powerfully fill the room, entering deep into the hearts and minds of your audience members.

‍

Your core message, the conclusion of your speech, and other big-impact moments are all fantastic “stand and land” opportunities. Plant your feet center stage, take a beat, still your body, and deliver your lines. You, as the speaker, must know what moments are your crucial center-stage moments.

‍

But use this technique with caution; the side effects are powerful. When done correctly, your audience will marvel in awe (and maybe even break into roaring applause).

‍

Three things to know BEFORE you move

‍

Moments of stillness that interrupt a constantly moving presentation are powerful, and the inverse is also true. Intentional, planned, and rehearsed movement that interrupts a more static, stationary performance can make just as big an impact. Suddenly, your movement snaps your viewers’ brains into focus, grabs their attention, and subconsciously tells them what you are doing is important.

‍

When it comes to blocking and staging your speech, always be intentional in your movement. For that matter, always be intentional in all of your choices. It's the key to a successful performance.

‍

So, before you move on stage, you must know three things:

‍

Where you're going to go
When you're going to go there, and
Why you're going to go there.

‍

This is the opposite of letting your subconscious determine your movement on stage. This is purposefully and intentionally planning a speech that makes an impact and transforms your audience. Know where to move, when to move, and why to move on stage—and your speech will come to life in front of your audience.

‍

For example, if your speech compares what the world looks like now with what it could be in the future—you might situate yourself on stage right while talking about the now, and stage left while talking about the future. Why?

‍

Well, from your audience’s perspective, they’ll see the events play out from left to right and it will logically make sense to them. Their eyes will travel as if they were reading a book, from the past to the future. This creates an obvious divide in your audience’s mind and logically presents the information.

‍

If you have three main points in your speech, three qualities or major concepts, you could talk about each one in a different place on stage—stage right, center stage, and stage left. This sets it up logically and separates the concepts.

‍

Then, after completing that portion of your speech, each time you mention one of the three points, you could move to that same space, or gesture back to it. Even just a simple gesture to that area will trigger in your audience’s mind the topics you discussed there. It helps them re-see and reconnect the ideas of your speech and bring them together into one whole.

‍

Make your move

‍

There’s no one right way to block and stage your speech. When you sit down with your script and start to plan your movement, you can make hundreds of different choices. Yes, some will work better than others, but there’s no one size fits all.

‍

But do remember this: movement is something to be treated with intentionality. The more precise you are with your movement, the more professional you look. Know when you’ll move, where you’ll go, and the why behind it and you’ll be well prepared to craft a performance that captivates, inspires, and transforms your audience.

‍

The stage is your blank palette, where you can create anything that your imagination can dream of. Add color, build beauty, and let your imagination take the reins. Make choices, try different things, and then test it out in rehearsal to see what feels right to you.

‍

As you start to add intentional movement to your performance that amplifies your ideas and your stories, you’ll realize that you don’t need to rely on slides to entertain, teach, or impress your audience.

‍

You’ll find you’ll even start to build an instinct for blocking and staging the more you do it. After all, it's one of the reasons why you script your speech. The words you’ve so carefully crafted will inform your direction, the timing, and the motivation behind your moves.

‍

And when you master the craft of blocking and staging—knowing how, when, and why to move on stage—you’ll be able to do it almost effortlessly, in the moment, even when you’re speaking off the cuff. You'll feel it "in your bones." And your audience will feel it too—because you’ll deliver a performance like you’ve never done before, one that transforms, entertains, delights, and inspires.

Don't

|

Helpful Links

Learn how to block and stage your speech.

GRAD

|

Stage Performance Mastery

Discover how to use professional performance principles to craft thousands of entertaining, contrasting, and enlightening moments.

Learn more

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

What is blocking and staging?

‍

Using blocking and staging also increases contrast in your performance—making it more entertaining, enjoyable, and effortless to watch. Movement makes your performance memorable.

‍

Dont

HEROIC Performance Coaches guide alumni on stage to align their movement with their message for a more powerful performance.

Movement that puts your audience first

‍

Remember, blocking and staging isn’t for you. It isn’t to make you look more acrobatic, professional, or interesting. It’s to serve your audience, always.

‍

Here are a few examples of blocking and staging techniques that put your audience first:

‍

Boost Recall and Spark Change

‍

Ignite Your Audience’s Imagination

‍

Highlight the Most Important Moments—Using Contrast

‍

Then, after twenty minutes behind the podium, she takes a small step out from behind the podium.

‍

This powerful contrast drives home her message that you have the power to decide to stop living in the past and take back your narrative.

‍

A word of caution

‍

Only use blocking and staging when you need it. If the movement is unnecessary or distracting, then there's no reason to have it.

Don't

overload your speech with movement and actions. Often, just a few carefully placed actions are more effective than a speech filled excessively with motion.

stay stationary until you know where to move, when to move, and why to move.

Start with stillness

‍

You must earn movement on stage, and you must earn stillness as well.

‍

We like to call those moments of stillness “stand and land” moments.

‍

But use this technique with caution; the side effects are powerful. When done correctly, your audience will marvel in awe (and maybe even break into roaring applause).

‍

Three things to know BEFORE you move

‍

When it comes to blocking and staging your speech, always be intentional in your movement. For that matter, always be intentional in all of your choices. It's the key to a successful performance.

‍

So, before you move on stage, you must know three things:

‍