1. GENERAL HEADING: Warm-up Exercises

2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "Circle Backrub"

3. GOALS: To build responsiveness to touch.

4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Minimum of 5 or 6

5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: None

6. CLASS TIME NEEDED: 5-10 minutes

7. STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION: Participants stand in a circle all facing thesame way, with hands on the back of the person in front of them (their "partner" for this exercise). Leader touches the back of the person in front of her/him in a distinctive way, repeating the touch long enough for her/his partner to discern its pattern. Partner copies pattern of touch on his/her partner's back. That person in turn copies pattern of touch on her/his partner's back and so on around the circle. While the first touch pattern is circulating around the circle, the leader introduces a new distinctive pattern of touch on the back of his/her partner, who then copies it on his/her partner's back, and so on around the circle. Leader introduces a new touch pattern, etc.

8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: Translating touch to gesture: How had touch pattern altered by the time it went around the circle, and why?

9. SOURCE/REFERENCE: Michael Friedman, University of Scranton

10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.

11. VARIATIONS: N.A.