Awkward Study

Standing across from partner, notice any subtle senses of awkwardness that you feel and amplify them. Make yourself feel more awkward. This is NOT about violating one’s own sense of boundaries, but about investigating the sense of awkwardness. Get specific and subtly adjust to amplify the sense of awkwardness within oneself.

Attempt gross level adjustments to explore generating new senses of awkwardness.

Steer into the sensation through subtle adjustments instead of executing the action called for by the sensation. If the awkward feeling is a call to move away, perhaps move a little closer so that you feel that pull more strongly rather than satisfy it.

Posture, facing, eyes, distance, action, mental state, touch or not, amount of clothing on or off, etc… these are all things to experiment with.

What makes it more awkward?  Or, what makes it a different specific flavor of awkward?

Be engaged with a personal sense of curiosity in the feeling of awkwardness. This could mean making the feeling more specific, or in amplifying it, making it “bigger”. Again, it is not about seeing how far you can push yourself, but about following your active curiosity with a willingness to test edges. As a variant, one can try to make one’s partner feel awkward, but this assumes the establishment of consensuality and agreement of exploration, which might need to happen before the exercise or might exist in the working process already as a whole.