Everyone walks the room at once while the teacher calls out numbers from one to ten — one is the lowest Status in the world, ten is the highest — and every body in the room transforms on the call. Status Walks trains the move from understanding status to wearing it: posture, pace, eye line, and how much space you claim, adjusted one rung at a time.
How to run it
- Walk the room neutrally: even pace, no talking, filling empty space rather than orbiting your friends.
- On each called number, shift your walk to that status. At one, you hug the walls, glance and look away, apologise with your whole spine. At ten, you own the floor, head still, letting others move around you.
- Work through the middle numbers deliberately — a four and a six should look different, and the difference is small: where your eyes rest, who yields when paths cross.
- Freeze on a signal. Look around. Guess the numbers other people are playing, then compare.
One variation
Split the room secretly — half the class is assigned a three, half a seven — then let everyone mingle and greet each other silently. Watch what happens when two sevens meet at a doorway, and how quickly a three gives way. Discuss what people noticed before revealing the numbers.
Change the body, not the face
Beginners play low status as a sad face and high status as a smug one. Status lives below the neck: the speed of your steps, the stillness of your head, whether your chest leads or hides. Get the body right and the face will follow on its own — that is the whole trick of the game.
Curriculum connection
A3.2
use a variety of expressive voice and movement techniques to support the depiction of character (e.g., use volume, tone, accent, pace, gesture, and facial expression to reveal character and/or intention)
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