Leading Exercises

These are various pair exercises in which one player closes their eyes and is led through the room by the other in different ways. The aim is to fully trust the seeing partner and, with closed eyes, develop a feeling for the surrounding space. On a physical level, the improv principle of "leading and following" is also practised here.

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

Tip: it can be useful, when forming pairs, to instruct the players that people of roughly the same height should pair up (in some variants, e.g. "Make a Sound", that doesn't matter).

Leading by the Finger

The participants form pairs. They face each other and touch with the fingertips of the index finger of the left or right hand. The fingers should touch only very lightly. One of the two closes their eyes and lets the other lead them through the room.

Robot

The participants form pairs. One of them closes their eyes and becomes a robot, steered by the other through the room. The steering works as follows:
- tap on the spine between the shoulder blades: forwards
- tap on the left/right shoulder: turn
- hand placed on top of the head: emergency stop!

Make a Sound

The participants form pairs. One of them closes their eyes. The other now produces a short, identical sound at brief intervals, for example "pip pip pip" or "toc toc toc". They move through the room while doing so, perhaps even crouching down or making a sharp turn. The other one has to try to follow them by the sound. The leader naturally has to make sure there are no collisions with others or with objects. It is agreed that the blind player may only move while they hear the sound, and stops immediately as soon as it stops.

Guided Camera

The participants form pairs. One of them closes their eyes. The other leads them through the room and aims their head like a camera at an object. Then they press lightly on the head (like the shutter of a camera). The "blind" player thereupon opens their eyes for a few seconds and takes in the picture they see. Then they close their eyes again and are led to the next object.

You can also combine this exercise nicely with "Robot": the one being led then becomes a "photography robot".

Leading Hand

The participants form pairs. In each pair, one player (A) leads and the other (B) follows. In this variant, B does not close their eyes. A holds their palm about 20 cm in front of B's face. With their head and their entire body, B now follows every movement of the hand, so that the distance between the hand and their face always stays constant. A can thereby steer B as desired (up and down, forwards, backwards, turning, tilting and so on), and B follows the hand entirely without will, like a puppet.

You can often observe that players make very beautiful, graceful movements during this exercise, ones they would otherwise perhaps never have made in this way.

Stick Exercise

Two players are involved in this exercise. A broom handle is also required. At each end of the stick a player stands and presses the palm of the flat hand facing the other player against the stick, which is initially roughly horizontal. The stick must (never) be grabbed or gripped. A lasting connection between the two players, without the stick falling down, therefore exists only if both apply enough pressure to the stick. One of the two is the leader, who walks, moves, and pushes the stick along. They may also contort themselves, stop, use any height between floor and ceiling that is available to them, and so on. The other one, the "driven" player, has to react constantly, that is, in every situation apply counter-pressure by balancing the movements or going along with them, since the task is, despite all the constant movement, not to let the stick fall down.

Pilot

One player is blindfolded, and the room is full of obstacles (set up a few chairs). The idea is for the rest of the group to lead the blindfolded player through the room with verbal instructions. One possible interpretation of this exercise is that of a pilot in an aircraft, which is why this exercise is also known by the name "Pilot". The blind player is an "aeroplane" lost in fog, which the "air traffic controllers" now talk down from their "tower". The other players can also stand on a chair, for example, to have a better overview. The aeroplane has only a little fuel left and therefore has to hurry to reach its goal (the tower). The aeroplane may only move forwards, but can of course also fly to the left or right. The air traffic controllers must take care to give the instructions from the pilot's point of view.

Tips and notes:
- Start slowly at first.
- It's about working together, not about "outsmarting".
- When there is some practice, leading and being led can be swapped spontaneously back and forth.