Preparation
Take your puppet out of the box. To do so, follow these steps (assuming you put him away using the method below): Carefully, drag him out by the wooden bar (the 'control') - never by his feet! Hold the control in two hands and twist it round and round to decrease the amount of spin and lower the puppet until all the strings are off the control. Open the control to form a cross.
Stand above the marionette in a comfortable position. Do not stand precariously as the excitement of moving the puppet can unbalance you.
Align the marionette so that the strings are not tangled together.
If you are right handed, hold the back bar of the of the control in your right hand, gripping with forefinger and thumb.
Stand him on the ground.
Movements
Bowing. Hold the back string in your left hand and lower the control. Tilting the front end of the control up at the same time the marionette will raise his arms.
Moving the hands. Pull the left front string up (raises left hand) or down (raises right hand) to move the hands. Pulling the left string up and out simultaneously will lift both hands.
Moving the legs. These work in the same way as the hands, but with the string that is attached to the legs.
Walking. Pull the leg string up and down so that the feet make a walking motion, whilst moving the marionette forward will create a simple movement to this effect.
Dancing. Dancing is great fun with a puppet, and can be done in multiple ways. One such way is to make a walking movement again, but instead of moving the control forwards, bounce it up and down. Once you have mastered this, hold the right hand and left leg string together and move them up and down, up and down. To create the best effect, tip the control from side to side as he dances to make his head tilt in time with the music.
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