Partner Exploration Exercise

Objective: This partner exploration exercise explores how our mind and body relationship connects to those around us. Through mirroring exercises you can follow your partner, seeing how they move and connect to the space surrounding them. Trust exercises require more vulnerability, but are important to the process of partner exploration. Culminating in across the floors, you can utilize all the techniques you have gathered throughout this partner somatics exercise.

Duration: 40 minutes

Materials Needed:

• Floor space

• Speaker

• Journal (optional)

Exercise Outline:

Warm up (5 Minutes)

• Light stretching: Neck rolls, reach up to the sky and down to your toes, deep plie in second, lunges, spinal twist, butterfly, downward dog, child’s pose

• Brief partner stretching: Push down on each other’s back in child’s pose until you feel a complete stretch

Partner Exploration - Mirroring, trust, and across the floors (30 Minutes)

1. Introductory exercise

   1. Close your eyes in a seated or standing position

   2. Think about a time where someone else motivated you: a friend, family member, instructor, etc.

   3. What was the instance where you felt motivated? When someone else motivated you did you feel empowered? How did you succeed with the motivation of someone else?

2. Mirroring exercise

   1. Find a partner and face each other, designate a leader and a follower

   2. Start by having the leader begin with small upper body motions that the follower has to mirror - Are you maintaining in motion, letting your mind and body lead the way?

   3. Once both partners feel comfortable, add in full body movements that may involve moving throughout the room - Are you keeping aware of your surroundings?

   4. Repeat (follower and leader switch positions)

3. Trust exercises

   1. Counterbalance exercises with a partner: The trust exercises require more vulnerability than the mirroring exercise, however you have developed some sense of comfortability with your partner at this point in the partner exploration

   2. With your partner, hold each other’s arms and lean backwards - Do you feel safe? If comfortable, bend your knees to explore how this changes the counterbalance - Is this difficult? Is it difficult to find an even balance between both partners?

   3. Try a sideways lean (holding each other’s arms out to the side and leaning sideways) - Does this feel any different? Is it more difficult since you are not face to face with your partner?

   4. Lastly try a lunge pull where both you and your partner get into a lunge position, hold one of each other’s hand, and lean backwards - Does this require more strength, is it more difficult to stay in this position for a prolonged period of time?

4. Across the floor exercise

   1. Lastly with your partner explore moving across the floor together as a unit

   2. Improv while maintaining eye contact with each other - Is it difficult to move across the floor with a partner? Or is it easier?

Reflection (5 Minutes)

• Reflect on the progression of the exercises. For instance, if pulling thoughts from a time someone motivated you was beneficial to the partner exploration exercises. Also, if mirroring, trust, and across the floor exercises felt like a positive process for your mind/body health. Additionally, you can reflect on the questions asked throughout the exercises.

Note: Some exercises may need to be altered for various groups. For instance, the trust exercises are the most strenuous and difficult to execute since they are pre-planned, with limited adjustments possible. The mirroring and across the floors are largely based on improvisation, therefore can be tailored to your liking. However, feel free to only do certain trust exercises that feel safe for your mind and body health. This exercise is recommended once you’ve practiced somatic education for a while.