exercise · all tools

Heave Ho

Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation2 — facilitator
Trust · group readiness★★★established
Disclosure · what is sharednone

Sixteen or more players form two facing lines and link hands into a platform, and one player is passed hand over hand from one end to the other. The source asks for shoes, coins and anything else that might fall to be removed first.

Hold with care
  • A person is carried above the ground by a chain of linked hands; a failure anywhere along it drops them
  • The source's own preparation — remove shoes, coins and loose objects — is a safety instruction and reads here as one
  • Needs a floor, a ceiling height and a group strength the source does not specify; somebody has to judge all three before it starts

Practical

Time
min
Group
16 · large-group
Settings
in-person
Mechanisms
somatic-awareness, behavioral-rehearsal
Change scope
state · repeatable

Instructions

Where
improvencyclopedia.org/games/Heave_Ho.html Improv Encyclopedia, open
Availability
Open online — published at the link, free to read

Source link checked 1 Sep 2026 — reachable

This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.

Origin

Unattributed; compiled by Improv Encyclopedia — Improvisational theatre

In this directory via Improv Encyclopedia

Related: Tossing (variant-of) · Free Falling (alternative-to)

status: checked · added 2026-08-31