Obliqueness as an aesthetic choice
is tempting if your intention is to only speak truth
(a dubious aim of art in any case)
or at least to never lie...
but if you want your art to spread love
then you must be bold enough
​to be understood

We need to learn to touch each other when we come into the studio. This means exercises.

• 1. Creatures waking in a cave after the deepest of animal slumbers. In groups of three, lay down together. Each mask wakes, one at a time, and explores the bodies of the others, however they like. Then they fall back to sleep, perhaps in a pile. 

Performers are often inhibited because they do not know one another's boundaries around touch, and do not want [to be seen] to make anyone uncomfortable. Set boundaries verbally - and then explore edges. What about hitting? touching the face,?nipple with the back of a palm? hair? kissing with closed mouth and open? lifting one another? Explore edges to find freedom later on whilst keeping everyone safe. It's rarely fun to have boundaries crossed and it's not fun to upset someone by unwittingly crossing a boundary. Wearing kid gloves whilst playing is not fun either. 

Enjoyment. Our bodies should enjoy the touch we encounter in the studio. 

• 2. Bent over massage to warm up. Balms, not fingers. It can lead to the lean into space. In pairs, one person hangs from their waste while the other rubs their back, neck, arms, shoulders, the top of the bottom. The hanging partner is then placed on a knee, and their torso guided up to sitting. Then a kick in the butt and they are up. You can pull their hair at this point. Then take them by the pelvis and let them lean frorm the pelvis into the space...bring them back. Let them lean again. Bring them back again. Next time when they lean they will take a step and you must hold them back, give them enough resistance that moving is a challenge (but a surmountable challenge). Then...let them go. The walker does not hurry off but keeps the potential, the power, that they have built up, and appreciates it at a normal pace. 
• 3. Rub and chat. The group rubs someone while they monologue. One person lies down and a group of three to six people give them touch, while they talk. They should try to not stop talking. Then at some point the group will hoist them above their shoulders like a corpse and deposit them somewhere else in the room. 

A gentler beginning to touch:

• 4. Lead by the little finger. Two masks connect. One leads the other arounud the room by their little finger. In the first place the person being led has their eyes closed. Then the leader closes their eyes and the follower opens their eyes. A squeeze from the follower is enough to warn the leader that there is an obstacle ahead. 

Connecting physically is important in a very basic sense for devision, so that in an improvisation actors are not inhibited from, say, hugging, if the scene requires it. 

It also allows connection that is less controlled. Often the ways that our bodies speak is surprising and the creative outcomes more original. 

It also is important for that elusive quality...trust.