Trust and getting to know the environment

This exercise helps participants to communicate through the use of their hands and touch. Throughout the exercise, the participants are able to experience what it is like being in a role of a leader and what it is like when you’re in the role of a listener-follower.
The main purpose of this exercise is for participants to strengthen trust in themselves as well as in their exercise partners and increase their sensitivity to non-verbal forms of communication.

Instructions: Work in pairs.

Part 1
Participants are instructed to find a partner within the group. When in pairs, one of the partners takes on the role of a leader and leads the way, while the other one takes on the role of a follower and just follows the leader, with eyes closed. Later, the roles in pairs are reversed, so that everybody can experience being in both roles.
The leader in the pair leads their partner into movement by touching their hand. The follower simply follows the leading partner through the sense of touch, with their eyes closed.
The pair of them move together in all directions (up, down, left, right, when moving, they can use their whole body or just parts of it). The only really important thing in this exercise is that the pair is in contact only through the palms of the hands touching, in silence.

Part 2
In the second part of the exercise, the same pairs explore the shapes and things within the space they are in. The leader in the pair leads their following partner through the space and directs him/her towards a certain object in front of him/her, using a hand movement. The following partner explores the object with eyes closed, just by touching it, in silence. By using only the sense of touch, the follower explores the object, its shape, texture, warmth, etc. While exploring the object like that, he/she thinks about everything that can be perceived, using only the sense of touch.
Later, the roles in pairs are reversed, so that everybody can experience being in both roles.