Presentation Gestures: Be a Symphony Conductor
After discussing the art of definitive, deliberate, and descriptive gestures in a recent seminar, I was approached by one of the attendees who was a military retiree–from the Marine Corps Band. He was struck by the similarities between the principles of gesturing I had discussed and modeled and his instruction as a band director or symphony conductor.
“It’s amazing!” he said. “We, too, learned that the signals (gestures) we give the band are within parameters, within a ‘box.’ Essentially, it is exactly within the pitcher’s strike zone, just as you described. Like your gesture description, the flow of the conductor’s signals have both depth (out from the body) and latitude (the horizontal extension of the arms).”
“The conductor’s movements must have meaning and must be fluid, just like the way you have taught us to use our arms and body to produce a visual image of the spoken word.”
As he explained these concepts to me, he used his arms to visually explain the way a conductor keeps the desired rhythm but also brings in various instruments and soloists, sometimes with elaborate gestures, sometimes with just the lift of an eyebrow.
I was struck by his astute insight but also by how his analogy captured the essence of purposeful, non-random gestures. Movement matches meaning. Meaning must have purpose or it is wasted and worthless.
Presentation gestures are different from “talking gestures,” which are more random and repetitious. Presentation gestures are:
1. Between the beltline and shoulders
2. A full extension of the arms and hands out from the chest, with firm wrists and “soft” hands–I call them “mitten” hands, not “glove” hands, which have tense, extended fingers
3. And most importantly, useful in creating our personal “Power point space” in the “box” by aligning the concept with the movement: “on the other hand,” “as we move forward,” “let us all work as a team,” etc.
When we speak, we really are conducting an orchestra; we are the band leader. The audience looks to us for meaning and that meaning must have a narrative flow as well as a physical flow. “Presentation gestures” are one of the many ways to achieve both.
