The floor is your first partner.

Start with the smallest fall

Falling gets a chapter this early because it decides how safe everything after it is. A dancer who can meet the floor calmly can take risks with a partner. A dancer who braces against it gets hurt, and tends to hurt the partner too. You can learn the basics alone, on a clean floor, in about ten minutes.

The idea of beginning with tiny falls, alone, before any partner work comes from a progression Martin Keogh teaches and has written up on his site. The exercises below are our own versions, so read his as well.

Try this: settle into the floor

1. Lie on a mat or a clean, non-slip floor and let your limbs go wherever they go. You are already supported, and nothing needs holding up.
2. Watch your breath for a minute. Then scan for tension in the jaw, the shoulders, the hands and the backs of the knees. Let each one go heavier, one at a time.
3. Come up onto hands and knees. Lower one hip toward the floor and let yourself tip the short way onto your back. Then try the other side. Keep the drop to a few centimetres.
4. If anything pinches or jars, make the movement smaller or stop.

Landing is a transfer of speed

Every fall builds a little speed, and a landing has to pass that speed on to something. If you stop dead, all of it goes into one small spot, usually a wrist, an elbow or the tailbone. If you let the body keep travelling, with a roll over the shoulder or a slide along the hip, the speed spreads across a wide area and can even carry you up into sitting or standing.

That is why a straight arm makes a poor brake. A wrist is a small joint, and it cannot absorb a whole fall. Let the big surfaces, the thigh, the hip and the back of the shoulder, meet the floor first, and keep the arms soft and travelling with you.

Try this: three falling shapes

Stand on a mat, clear of walls and furniture. Fall a very short distance in each of these ways, and repeat each a few times before you move on. The idea of separating these three shapes is also from Keogh's progression, and the images are ours.

• Fold. Crease at the hips and knees, like a coat sliding off a hanger, and settle into a pile.
• Roll. Keep a rounded, toned shape, like a ball, and let it travel across the floor in one direction.
• Stretch. Extend along one long line, like a plank tipping onto its edge, and meet the floor along the whole side of the body.

Afterwards ask which shape was easiest to recover from and which one made you tense. Most beginners favour one and avoid another. Give the avoided one a few more goes, always from a small drop.

Try this: soft and toned landings

Repeat the same small drop twice. First let the body go loose and heavy, so the landing is quiet and you stay where you land. Then keep a little tone, so you roll on and travel. Compare how each one feels when you try to stand. The toned version is the one that lets you rise without pressing your hands into the floor.

Before you add a partner

Falling next to someone comes later. Read safety and consent and the blog post on how to fall without getting hurt first. Keep your nails short, take off rings and watches, and tell a partner which way you are heading.

Stop when you feel sharp pain, as opposed to effort. This guide is not medical advice. If you have a condition that affects your joints, back or balance, talk to a clinician and to whoever leads the session.

Try it again tomorrow

Five minutes is enough. Lie down, follow the breath, roll and drop, and finish with one fall in each shape. The floor stops feeling like something you land on and starts feeling like something you can ask for help.