Watch a friend, a teacher, or somebody on the street while they're speaking. Watch the person's hands. In everyday life, your hands are an important part of the communication process.

But on stage the hands often feel alien. You don't know what to do with them. You shove them into your pockets. Fold them across your chest or behind your back, put them where they won't be noticed or in the way. What you're actually doing when you hide your hands is limiting the effectiveness of one of the most expressive tools you have.

Director's block you and give notes on movement but seldom give actors much guidance on what to do with their hands. Many dancers and mines are equally guilty of hands ignorance. It's enormously frustrating to watch a dancer whose moves are as fluid as water but whose hands are like arthritic rocks. The audience forgets all about the graceful flow of the dance as soon as they notice the boulders of tension at the end of dancer's arms.

One way to become more comfortable with your hands on stage, and at the same time increase your ability for expression, is to learn what your hands are capable of and to work on improving their strength coordination and flexibility. That's what the exercises in this article are for.

Some of these exercises may be difficult for you, especially if you've never paid much attention to your hands.   I'd suggest taking things slow, and if you have trouble with a particular exercise, move onto another one.  You can always try again later.  Some of my older students have almost no coordination with their hands at all when they first try these exercises but given time  they've mastered them perfectly.

Start by swinging your arms around the shoulders to get blood circulating into the hands. After swinging the arms, shake your hands out to loosen up the muscles - this alone is a good exercise to relax tense hands. Shake from the wrists, first side to side vigorously with relaxed fingers, and then up and down like a child waving good-bye. It helps to shake your hands out between exercises - and for that matter, before going on stage - because it's a good way to release hands tension.