Five Sense Rehearsal: Smell

In this series about rehearsal using the five senses, we’ve talked about using sound, taste, sight, and touch. This last rehearsal prompt, invites us to use the sense of smell in rehearsal. There is a wonderful saying in the movement practice, the Nia Technique: “smell the moment.” As speakers, in that liminal space just after we’ve rehearsed and warmed-up and just before we open our mouths to speak, we take a breath and smell the moment. We look into the audience, read the room, take in the faces, the space, this specific, particular, unique, exact moment.

This is perhaps my favorite moment, when we are ready, alert, and waiting, peeking over the precipice, through the curtain, our hand on the door before turning the knob. I remember waiting back stage in that liminal space. I was listening to the audience, their chatter and laughter, the programs murmuring, the chairs scraping, the ushers ushering, the expectation and delight. One of the actors asked if I was nervous. I said, “No. I’m ready.” I was smelling the moment and it was alive.

We can use this liminal moment to ground ourselves, notice the audience, invite them in, create the space, and set our intention based on what we smell.

This week, in those minutes or seconds before we speak, smell the moment. Literally breathe in, savoring, noticing, inviting, and preparing to give a gift.