Blind Lead

These are different pair exercises in which one player closes his eyes and is led through the room in different ways. The aim is to fully trust the seeing partner and to get a feeling for the space around him with closed eyes. In addition, the improvisation principle of "leading and following" is practiced here.

In all variants, the partners should change roles after a few minutes. Afterwards the people talk about their experiences (in pairs and/or in circles).

Tip: it can be useful for finding a partner to tell the players that they should be about the same size (in some variations, e. g."make a sound", this does not matter).

Guideing at the fingertips

The participants form pairs. They face each other and touch with the fingertips of the index finger of the left or right hand. If possible, the fingers should only touch slightly. One of them closes his eyes and lets the other guide him through the room.

Robot

The participants form pairs. One of them closes his eyes and becomes a robot that is guided through the room by the other. The steering works like this:

Tapping on the spine between shoulders: forward Touch left/right shoulder: turn Put your hand on top of your head: Emergency brake!

Sound

The participants form pairs. One of them closes his eyes. The other one now makes a short, similar sound in short intervals, for example "pip pip pip" or "toc toc toc toc". He moves through the room, maybe squats down or turns a sharp curve. The other must try to follow him on the basis of the sounds. The leader must of course make sure that there are no collisions with the others or with objects. It is agreed that the blind person may only move as long as he or she hears the noise and stops immediately as soon as it stops.

Guided camera

The participants form pairs. One of them closes his eyes. The other one leads him through the room and aligns his head to an object like a camera. Then he presses it lightly on the head (like the shutter release button of a camera). The' blind' player then opens his eyes for a few seconds and takes the picture he sees. Then he closes his eyes again and is led to the next object.

You can also combine this exercise with "robots", the guided one becomes a "photographer robot".

Guiding Hand

The participants form pairs. In each pair, one player leads (A) and the other (B) follows. B does not close the eyes with this variant. A holds his palm about 20 cm in front of B's face. B now follows every movement of the hand with his head and his whole body, so that the distance between the hand and his face always remains constant. A can steer B as desired (up and down, forward, backward, turning, tilting, etc.) and B follows completely without will, like a doll, the hand.

One can often observe that the players perform very nice, graceful movements during this exercise - which they might never have done otherwise.

Stick exercise

This exercise involves 2 players. A broom handle is also required. At each end of the stick there is a player standing and pressing the palm of the flat hand, facing the other player, against the stick. This must not (never) be grasped. A permanent connection between the two players - without the stick falling down - therefore only exists if both of them exert sufficient pressure on the stick. One of them is the leader, he walks, moves and pushes the stick. He may also make dislocations, stop, use all possible heights between floor and ceiling, etc. The other, the "driven", must react permanently, i. e. exert counter-pressure in every situation by compensating for or participating in the movements, because the task is not to let the stick fall down despite the permanent movements.

Tips and hints

• Start slowly at first.
• It's about working together, not fooling around.
• When there is a bit of practice, you can change spontaneously between leading and being led over and over again.