PART ONE
Romance, the Beginning
Romance investigates the sense of mystery and possibility inherent in the early stages of any relationship. Participants and viewers are encouraged to question the mystique of romance and to examine the ideas we all carry with us from childhood. How do these ideas of romance affect us? What is the story we told ourselves about the partner we would someday have? Romance stems not from a real understanding of the other person, but from our imagination. It doesn’t require revelation—in fact it may discourage it. Revealing vulnerability is one way to get beyond romance and move toward real closeness and intimacy. Revealing allows romance to evolve into another phase. This segment of the series features discussion and exercises on defining your romantic fantasy and on exploring the role of vulnerability in a relationship.


PART TWO
From Romance to Power Struggle
Familiarity breeds…power struggle! As partners reveal themselves, they realize they don’t match up to each other’s romantic fantasy. Romance gives way to the power struggle stage where many relationships get bogged down in the fight for control. In From Romance to Power Struggle, the participating couples discuss and negotiate their techniques for controlling one another, stimulating viewers to reflect on their own use of weapons such as anger, blame and guilt. While the power struggle stage may be passionate, it’s important to be able to step outside of it, to find out what you really want.

PART THREE
Expressing Anger
In a relationship, there’s no way around anger. It’s part of the experience and it has to be expressed. Often the triggers for our anger, and the way we deal with it, come from our past. Expressing Anger highlights the difference between anger and violence. In a powerful sequence, one participant expresses the force of her rage in an exercise called a Vesuvius, after the volcano that destroyed Pompeii. Striking in its raw honesty, this segment reveals how cathartic expressing anger can be, and how important it is to allow this expression. Differences often spark anger and Part Three includes an exercise where the couples examine their differences.

PART FOUR
Moving through the Cycle
The expression of jealousy, fear and insecurity, can increase intimacy. In turn, a new level of intimacy may spark the imagination and bring about a return to romance. Ideally, the cycle of change never ends. In Moving Through the Cycle, the couples explore the wants, needs and dreams they bring to their partnership as well as their bottom-line expectations. This exploration triggers surprising revelations and shows how giving voice to unspoken ideas can lead to movement and growth within the cycle.

PART FIVE
Deepening Intimacy
Touching, feeling, caring. Nonverbal communication is an important part of intimacy. How open is it possible to be with another person? In Deepening Intimacy, partners sketch their own identities and boundaries on paper, and make physical and emotional connections in a trust exercise. Another activity encourages the tender empathy that comes from really seeing the world through another person’s eyes. As the workshop draws to a close, the couples reflect on what they’ve learned from each other, and the notion that people in a relationship can, and should, grow into a full expression of who they are.