This is an extension of The elastic thread exercise.
Once everyone has played with the thread for a while, introduce the idea that once you’ve moved into another player’s orbit, you can make an offer of physical contact.
This means hovering your hand (or chin/ shoulder/ arm/ cheek etc) near another player.
The rule is that as instigator you move 60% towards contact and your scene partner moves the other 40% to complete the circuit.
They also always have the option to turn away from you and not engage.
If connection is made, stand in that moment for a second and process what the stage picture might mean about your characters.
Continue moving around the room and making connections.
This exercise requires real trust and understanding in the group.
It’s absolutely essential to do a boundaries check-in before doing something like this and probably worth establishing some over-arching rules.
The ones I always use are:
Encourage students to say no to physical contact (even if they’re fine with it) every once in a while, just to see how it feels (and to give people who are genuinely uncomfortable a bit of a smokescreen).
Flow through the no - another option is the idea that you might not like what your partner is suggesting, but instead of saying an outright no, you offer an alternative that you are comfortable with.