exercise · all tools
African Massage
Also known as: Loosen Up
Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation1 — host
Trust · group readiness★★some
Disclosure · what is sharednone
In threes, two people work on the third, who stands bent forward with head and arms hanging. The two tap with cupped hands from the shoulders down the back, harder over the glutes, then down the legs, finishing with long light sweeps — and then take responsibility for helping the third person back up to standing. All three take a turn.
Hold with care
- Hands-on work between participants: ask for consent explicitly rather than reading participation as agreement, and make stopping easy at any point
- Not neutral across bodies, histories or cultures; offer a role that involves no touching and do not ask why it was taken
- Percussive tapping on the back and glutes of someone bent forward — the pressure needs negotiating, not guessing
- The sheet's instruction that the two helpers bring the third back up to standing is a safety step: standing up fast from that position makes people faint
Practical
- Time
- — min
- Group
- 3–∞ · small-group
- Settings
- in-person
- Mechanisms
- somatic-awareness
- Change scope
- state · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- teatermila.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Afrikansk-massage.pdf — Teater Mila — Övningar, open
- Availability
- In the source document — the instructions live inside the material linked, on its terms
Source link checked 1 Sep 2026 — reachable
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Teater Mila, Luleå — Swedish dramapedagogik
In this directory via Teater Mila — Övningar · DramaTips
status: checked · added 2026-08-31