Partner-Guided Whirlpool (Patreon)

• If you’re new to LMA, start with our table of contents

In the first "Whirlpool" module, the conditions were imagined. Now, the current is your partner, and the conditions are embodied through touch.

Entering the whirlpool together

You are no longer falling alone. Your descent is co-created. The imagined bubbles from before have become a real person whose touch and motion orient your fall. This is the evolution from solo soft-falling to partnered Wayfinding. Where you once followed ephemeral pressure in the air, you now respond to tangible contact—pressure, friction, momentum.

"Guiding" here means offering direction through physical contact. It is not about control or taking over your partner's fall but rather about creating consistent, readable invitations to descend. Your partner attunes to that contact primarily through the haptic sense. This is an extension of the haptic Wayfinding explored in "Soft Body."

Lowering and rolling

In the video, guides explore how many ways they can lower and spiral their partners down. This is not a fixed technique but an improvisational game: discovering diverse ways to co-create a gentle fall.

• Where can the guide position their head, chest, shoulders, and legs?

• Can the head be a site of haptic pressure?

• How many ways can the trunk be used as a haptic guide?

• Can different surfaces of the body offer guidance?

• Can directions change?

• Can movements be safely combined?

• How can arms safely interact with legs?

Safety constraints:

• No lifting of the partner.

• Avoid locking out the partner's limbs or compromising their ability to protect themselves.

• Surface contact should be consistent and smooth.

• Use loose grips.

• Don't hold onto partners—release them as they move away.

• No attempt to surprise the partner—both partners should feel and see everything coming.

• If both people fall, the person on top still bears their own weight to ensure safety.

The guide swirls and draws their partner downward. This activity is not about taking someone down—it's about offering and exploring opportunities to engage with the ground through guided contact. The guide may hug one or both legs to their trunk to maximize haptic connection and directional influence. The person being guided is not passive; they co-manage the descent by softening, sitting, rolling, and flowing.

Safety and momentum

The descent is not about stopping—it's about managing momentum. Just like in the solo "Whirlpool" module, the body should continue flowing even after touching the ground. Momentum should be spread out over time and surface area.

Exploratory questions for the person flowing down:

• What are all the ways you can engage with your partner and the ground to gently roll down?

• How would you move if you were submerged in water?

• How does water move across a surface?

Considerations:

• One arm may engage with the partner while the other meets the ground as a buffer or crumple zone.

• The fall becomes a segmented, fluid transition from partner to ground.

• Don't let the head touch the ground—looking at your shirt or chest may help.

• Tuck, spiral, and keep moving until gravity finishes its work.

• Don't try to stop yourself from touching the ground.

• Don't stop yourself once you touch the ground.

• Don't try to stop.

• Since there is no added momentum, you can move at a slow pace.

Modern cars don't stop once they're in a collision. They are designed to crumple over time to minimize injury. Likewise, your descent should collapse gradually, segment by segment, until stillness is reached. Abruptly stopping increases the risk of injury.

Tandem physics

Two people touching are not just exchanging haptic information—they are sharing balance. Like a table, their combined structure has multiple legs. When one shifts, the other must adapt. This affects how base, leverage, and stability are experienced.

If one person places their hands on another person's shoulders and lifts one leg, the pair becomes a three-legged table. These shared mechanics change how we fall.

Guides offer themselves as anchors and sliding surfaces. They may crouch or lean forward to spread their balance and stay close to the ground. They may move to avoid becoming obstacles. Notice in the video how the descending practitioners use their arms to slide down their partner's back.

The person descending acts as a collapsible bridge between their partner and the ground. They first tuck into their partner, becoming a compact combined structure. Then, they remained tucked as they roll away from their partner and onto the ground—becoming a new combined structure.

Rather than a sudden uncontrolled fall, they lower themselves down through the use of their environment—their partner and the ground. They started as an independent structure, then became a combined structure with their partner, and finally became a combined structure with the ground.

The physics of two people in tandem is different from the physics of one person. However, moving as if you were moving in tandem can generally transfer over to independent movement. In fact, it's often a safer way to move because it must be stable enough to bear extra weight. On the other hand, moving with someone as if you were moving independently can put both people at risk. Even alone, it's harder on your joints because it's unstable and does not evenly distribute weight. This is especially true for ascending and descending movements.

When you are rolling by yourself, stay compact as a single structure. When working in tandem, stay compact in a combined structure.

Standing tuck and roll

Later in the video, the fall evolves into a standing spiral. The guide holds one leg and one shoulder while turning with their partner, keeping them close and drawing the partner into a tuck and roll. The guide and the partner collaborate to have the partner roll onto their hands, not onto their back.

The person rolling should stay compact and close to the guide's center and, subsequently, their legs. Being tall and spread out will have them falling like a stack of bricks. Being compact will have them roll like a ball.

Facing the guide's legs during descent helps them orient the roll. Since the leg is still up when they make upper-body contact with the ground, a slight build-up of elastic energy occurs—akin to slightly pulling on a slingshot. Once the leg is released, so long as they flow with the energy rather than resist it, they will roll away from the guide.

• The hands on the ground help control the descent.

• They are lowering themselves down while tucking and rolling.

• The guide's contact provides stability and direction.

• Each participant does half the work.

• Being compact means being a compact combined structure and then staying compact as they roll on the ground.

• Flowing means seamlessly transitioning from an independent structure to a combined structure (with a partner) to a combined structure (with the ground).

In later clips, the guide holds the leg slightly longer to reduce speed and help manage spatial constraints like the edge of the mat.

Final notes

Describing this activity in words makes it sound complicated because words complicate things. Words are lacking. But by taking your time and trying it, the activity will develop. It doesn't need to be perfected, only explored.

What you see in the video emerged over iterations as we sought smoothness and safety. Each adjustment was a response to the conditions of the moment: momentum, gravity, haptic feedback, and spatial limitation. The video shows the result of that co-Wayfinding, not a script to follow.

Explore the whirlpool again. This time, together.

– Sam