Blind trust

  Since the rehearsal schedule doesn't include me this morning, I thought I'd fire off a quick blog. One of the exercises I participated in yesterday was too good to not write about.
  It was an exercise in trust. The first, actually, in a long arc of exercises we'll be doing throughout the term. I'm not sure what the end-goal is, but it probably involves throwing and catching people, and may also have to do with stage combat.
  For this first exercise, we were put into teams of two. One person acted as a guide, and the other person had to keep their eyes shut for the entire duration, which was about forty minutes. It sounded simple enough,and I was never tempted to cheat, because I didn't want to rob myself of the experience. These exercises are all done with a distinct purpose.
  At first, there was a lot of just walking around. I had one hand on my guide's arm, and when she wanted me to stop, she'd place her other hand on mine. All the teams were walking around at once, so it was imperative that the guides pay attention to avoid any collisions.
  Soon enough, the stakes were raised, and we started moving in different, unpredictable ways. High/low, random curves. Then, we stepped it up a notch and started jogging. I never once lost trust in my guide, and we did amazingly well. It's a lot easier to move blind than I would have thought. But the trust absolutely has to be there. You can't hesitate.
  We were then led around the room to different objects that we were allowed to touch. I recognized some of them, but others were fascinatingly foreign. At one point, we were told to sit in the chairs that were supposedly behind us. It was a bit unnerving plopping down and hoping that you wouldn't fall on your ass. Again, trust.
  For the grand finale, our partners placed us on one side of the room and let go of us. One by one, we were told to "run into the void." Our eyes still closed, of course, we had to just run blind into the room. At the other end were all the guides, ready to catch us. It was a thrilling experience.
  For someone as untrusting as myself, I really got a lot out of this work. It'll be interesting to see where it leads next!