The workshop takes the form of a series of exercises for groups of two and three people, concluding with two whole group exercises. The hour session is planned to move swiftly from one exercise to the next, with participants changing partners after each exercise in order for all group members to experience working with each other. 
The aim of a trust exercise is receptive interaction among participants to enhance responsiveness and orientation in the body, being comfortable with others and awareness of kinaesthetic boundaries in which the participants can feel safe.

The session is designed to launch people into a relaxed, open frame of being group members. It can potentially short-circuit Tuckman and Jensens' six sequential stages of group development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Grieving and Adjourning and arrive at the Grieving and Adjourning stages at the end of an hour. 
The two crucial ingredients of the session are that each participant should be comfortable and take responsibility for him or herself. This needs to be reiterated throughout the session.
 

One and a half hours including reflection and feedback

1 leader/facilitator + 1 other to work if group is an uneven number as there is partner work, otherwise this organiser remains as engaged observer. 

Space for 20 people to move and breathe, furniture cleared, cassette tape player.

Stage 1: Physical trust: (28 minutes total - all timings are approximate)

Exercise 1 - Back rub: (5 minutes)
The session begins with partner work, one person standing facing their partner's side, holding/cupping the upper arm of their standing partner and gently and firmly circling the other hand across the partner's upper back, across both shoulder blades. The massage on this side is concluded in a way that feels appropriate to the 'masseur' and for the massage and s/he moves round to the other side of the partner to repeat the action. There is no right way of doing this - "do as you would be done to" is a useful maxim. Feedback can be shared between the two but the session needs to be kept energised by moving it on, with minimum gap between the activities to keep the work 'in the body'. This helps to inhibit 'the head' responses and 'chat' when doubts and censorship can creep in. Talking can also be compensation and a way of avoiding the work. 

Each person is asked to find another partner, with one or two people coming out of the group to observe and fill in the observation and feedback sheet enclosed. This sheet is for personal reflection through the session and is kept by the participant. 

Exercise 2 - Arm release: (4 minutes)
Both partners stand. One allows her/his partner to hold her/his arm under the upper and lower arm and move it freely, unreservedly but sensitively. The aim of the exercise for the passive partner is to release the arm and allow someone else to move it without controlling this. The moving of the arm can be likened to a flowing dance, drawing in space, forming a trace pattern in the air or sculpting, but the arm mover is always listening in to what the arm is 'saying' as it moves. If the arm mover feels any tension or hold in the arm, s/he simply waits for the partner to release the weight of the limb again into her/his hands. This is about observing without comment or judgement - simply noticing. The arm mover finds her/his own way of finishing. 
Everyone is asked to change partner and role, so that the arm mover becomes the passive partner and vice versa, but with a new partner. The observer continues observing. 

Each person is asked to find another partner with one or two people coming out of the group to observe and fill in the observation and feedback sheet enclosed. 

Exercise 3 - Back to back breathing: (4 minutes)

Both partners sit back to back on the floor, making sure the lower backs are together. It is important that each person is comfortable and each can ask him/herself what is needed to be more comfortable. For instance, if there is too much weight against the back making one of the partners lean forward over her/his legs, does that partner need to assert more weight to find the particular balance for that partnership? The aim is to sit and feel the support of the partner's back, whilst noticing her/his breath in her/his own back. It may be that each can feel the other's breath against her/his back. It may be that the heights are similar so that they can lean the backs of their heads together. As the exercise continues the partners might allow themselves to follow the impulses of movement through the contact with the partner's back/spine, whilst sitting. The partners are given time to find their own way to separate. 
Each person is asked to find another partner with one or two people coming out of the group to observe and fill in the observation and feedback sheet enclosed. 

Exercise 4 - Straw contact: (5 minutes)
Each person touches one end of a straw and together they move keeping the straw held between them changing hands/fingers whenever they wish to do so. They can move it and themselves wherever they like in the space. After a while music is added, e.g. Flute and Koto from Japan. The conclusion of the 
exercise is each couple finding an appropriate way to finish their work together. 
This exercise could be developed into a 'dance' using two straws, one in each hand, and then with no straws whilst keeping the same distance between the hands.

Each person is asked to find another partner with one or two people coming out of the group to observe and fill in the observation and feedback sheet enclosed. 

Exercise 5 - Hand to hand contact: (5 minutes)
The partners start standing with the palms of their hands together, making an arch shape and leaning into the contact. They begin to move their hands, keeping the touch light or allowing their body weight to push into the partners' hands, responding to the weight that is given as well as initiating changes of weight. This is simple contact improvisation (CI). After a while music is added e.g. drumming. 
Contact Improvisation (CI) is a dance technique and, thus, beyond the 'daily' state, but in its simplest form has much to offer the non-performer. CI is ultimately about interdependence through giving into and using body weight in partnership. By its nature as improvisation CI is about spontaneity and through the impulses from contact, the contacter develops the ability to physically dialogue with another person. 
This work provides the actors with a physical example of the unproductive nature of trying to control someone else or the futility of working with preconceived notions of how the dance should be. They learn to listen and notice what is given and make themselves available physically in the dance, whilst maintaining physical autonomy. They learn to become aware when they are allowing themselves to get stuck and experience and develop an understanding of the potential of stillness and not the stagnation of it. If give and take, listening and eloquence are present physically, can they be transferred into a situation when words become the main medium for communication?

Each person is asked to find another partner with one or two people coming out of the group to observe and fill in the observation and feedback sheet enclosed. 

Exercise 6 - Falling and catching in 3s: (5 minutes)

A group of 3 form a line with the two outside people facing into the middle person and with a small distance to start with between them all. The person in the middle falls like a tree i.e. in one unit, forward 'into' the person in front of them. This person receives the fall and gently uses this taking in the weight to push the middle person backwards into the hands and the 'body' of the other person behind. This second catcher 'rescues' the falling middle person and the pushing and receiving continues between the person in front and the person behind. What does one need to do to be more comfortable but still do the task? The distance apart need only be small but it is important to allow the middle person to truly fall and not be guided or controlled into the hands of the person either in front or behind. Roles must be changed so that each person experiences the falling. 
The ability to allow each other to fall and to risk falling is vital - the metaphor of falling too is potent for a performer; letting go within the context of the partnered physical support creates a 'supported space'. This ability to receive someone's weight 'into' the body and use this to push the body away into the next fall and 'rescue' enhances the reflection in the body. 

One/two people come out of the group to observe and fill in the observation and feedback sheet enclosed. 

Stage 2: Group exercises: (35 minutes total)

Exercise 7 - Balancing the space: (5 minutes)
The whole group's task is to balance the space physically. This might mean using furniture to stand on or sit under, adopting different positions, dashing to fill spaces or moving more fluidly. 

One/two people come out of the group to observe and fill in the observation and feedback sheet enclosed. It is important that each member of the group be observer and so anyone who has not observed should give themselves the opportunity to do this in this final exercise. Observers can feed back into the action again if they want. 

Final Exercise - Group move: (5 minutes)
The group starts in line with a wall and begins to walk/move as a group. Leadership frequently changes as directions are given by any group member, as the group makes its way round the room. Instructions are "right, left and about face/turn". Right means 90 degrees, left means 90 degrees and about face is 180 degrees. Directions become an imperative when, for example, the group is about to collide with an object. It is important once again to be comfortable and although the steps need to be small at first to prevent stepping on each other's toes, the steps do not have to be robotic and stiff but can be easy and flowing. Music can be added after a while. 

Once a group feel has developed, further instructions - "fast, medium, slow" can be added. 

The above can produce creative work, and has the potential to provide conflict, but also degenerate into a power game between members of the group over the direction calling. Exercises like this can elicit all sorts of group behaviour issues, which can contribute to the development of self- awareness. All group games can reach the stage of familiarity and there is the potential for them to become boring. They can, though, be taken on into something quite extraordinary and subtle if the group wants this creative approach or if the facilitator is skilled in choosing and changing the activities to suit the group's needs. Pina Bausch's dance theatre piece 'Café Muller' contains an example of trust at its most 'dangerous', with a blindfolded dancer dancing in an abandoned way around the stage full of objects and with another performer having to move the obstacles out of her way, alert to her every move and whim. This demands a heightened sensitivity to others and a profoundly well-developed performer's group consciousness. 

Stage 3: Reflection time: (5 minutes)
Self-appraisal within group experience as well as appraisal of group dynamic. 
 

Stage 4: Group feedback: (20 minutes)
Use of observation sheets and feedback guide as framework.

Pictures by Yasuko Hasegawa

Advice and warnings for facilitators:
The work would not translate across all areas and ages and needs to be used judiciously. Work involving touch would normally be introduced over a longer time scale to allow for the necessary trust to develop. The workshop is run swiftly to lessen any discomfort that may arise and each participant is encouraged to take responsibility for her/himself and to ask how s/he can make her/himself more comfortable within the context of the work. The workshop as planned is safe but if any more extreme physical exercises were added a physical a warm-up would be required.

Our acting students can build critical attention and skill in articulating by witnessing and involving themselves with another's work. Contact Improvisation involves work in couples and changing partners regularly throughout the session so that different experiences can be drawn from and reflected upon. Students are also introduced to a system of buddying in the first and second years on the BA (Hons) Acting course, CSSD, which is about 'being there' for the partner throughout each term's work. The confidence that is developed by working in twos is evident early on in the first term, with each partner practising giving close witness or attention to the work produced by the other. Through this process, self-awareness grows and feedback skills are developed with the result that communication can feel liberating. The ability to offer constructive criticism becomes the practice. This workshop has been devised with this process in mind, with opportunity for experiencing working with each person in the group, self-reflecting, as well as feeding into the group endeavour.

Bryan, C. & Green, D. 'how guided reflection can enhance group work'. (paper) 

Tuckman, B.W. & Jensen, M.A.C. (1977) Stages of small group development revisited, Group and Organizational Studies, 2, 419-427 

"Enjoyed real experience. Found trust exercises very useful demonstrations. The 
last exercise was useful to get insight into group dynamics. Would have liked to be 
an observer as well on this one though being in it allowed another experience and 
reflection. Good session."

"it's a smashing session and one I am glad I experienced and feel privileged to now 
have a record of."

"I have never done any physical work of this sort and approached the session with 
trepidation. Through the gentle exercises and sensitive direction, I soon realised that 
I had nothing to worry about. I felt in safe hands (literally and metaphorically) and 
relaxed into a more honest state of being. I think this influenced in a most positive 
way, how we worked as a group for the remainder of the time".