A Long Perspective

Tag: InterPlay

  • InterPlay Journal, Friday June 10, 2016

    Paris Two 2010 001Krista was an amazing leader, as usual.  Her theme was nurturance.

    First, before the Warm-up, we stood in a circle, and she had us close our eyes and feel our feet relax and open the top-of-our head chakra.  She said, “Take a few minutes to move in any way you want” which we did.  She shook a shaker style noisemaker to give us a beat.  After that, with our eyes open, we went around the circle and made a shape to show how our energy felt at the moment.

    Krista put on some music, and we did a Walk/Stop/Run in which we connected with others in the room.  After this, we let a partner happen.  Sara was my partner.  We made shapes with our partner both slowly moving to a shape, and then moving quickly to a shape.  Sara and I had a great time doing a ballet together.  We made VERY unusual shapes.  Delightful.   She has a dance background that showed through.  (Also, she once took a welding class at Seattle College in order to work in the shipyards years ago.  Rosie the Riveter!)

    We did the Follow the Leader form with partners.  Partner Number One made faces that Partner Number Two imitated.  Then we went back and forth making face-shapes at will with the other imitating the face-shape.  I played with MaryAnn.   Lorraine said during the Noticing that it hurt to make faces due to her Parkinsons.

    Krista took the “I can talk about “ form and used it in an unusual way.  This time we talked in gibberish.  We kept the same partner as before.  We went back and forth saying, “I can talk about (fill in the blank with gibberish),” but not talking about it at length.   Then, we “talked” with our partner at length about a topic we had mentioned in gibberish.  After this, we took the topic that we had “talked” about in gibberish at length, and we danced it with our partner as a witness.  I did the gibberish and the dance about reading my poetry tomorrow evening as a featured reader at a poetry venue.  Afterward, we did Noticing with our partner.

    Then, the entire group divided into groups of three.  First, in our small group, we went around the group using a word Krista gave us and singing about it individually.  Then, Krista had us do the same thing with different words but for the entire group.  She had us sings about words like Homelessness.   (I sang:  “The Jungle.  The Jungle.  The Beast in the Jungle.  Amen.”)  She gave other groups words like “Politics,” “Urban Planning,”  “Nail Polish.  Our group played with the word, “Body Piercings.”  I sang, “When I lived in Africa, many did body piercings.  They pierced this (pointed to my ears); they pierced that (pointed to my nose) and, they pierced … (I threw up my hands), “OMG, you’re kidding!”

    We ended by doing a toning song.  As usual, she had us start incrementally by trying out different ways to tone.  Then, she set up a rhythm sound sequence (form:  foundation sound, decoration sound, decoration sound), and we started to make tones.  We really got in the groove and kept it going for about eight or so minutes.  We really sounded wonderful!   Terrific morning!!

  • InterPlay Journal, Friday morning May 30, 2014

    Krista was the InterPlay Leader for the morning. She had just returned from Paris and Provence so we did “walk, stop, runs” to French music and listened to Krista faking a French accent much to our pleasure.

    Krista had us “babble” with partners on the following words: lazy, “big cheese,” procrastination, and delight. Then, we each made up a story about ourselves using one of these words. For example, I talked about the delight of being a kid in Seattle and going to First Avenue and rummaging through the thrift shops. I would find buckets of wonderful buttons to sort through. Some buttons were shaped like the rings of Saturn, some of brocade, some of crystal.

    Then, Krista asked us to get in touch with the following inner states:

    Your Inner fashion statement (a lot of sashaying down the run-way of life),

    Your brooding (anquish and melancoly!),

    Your procrastination (not much got done),

    Your inner Louis IX, the Sun King (lots of strutting and grandiosity).

    Krista had seen a French comedian do a routine in Paris on, “How to become a French man in an hour.”   For example, enthusiasm is shown differently in various cultures. The French man showing enthusiasm leans back, folds him arms and looks mildly askance. The American showing enthusiasm says, “OMG! that was WONDERFUL.” He says this over and over while moving his body around vigorously. (OK, it was over the top but fun!)

    We did a “contact” dance with a partner to music.   Some partners stood back to back and “rolled” from side to side. Some did free form dances.   What larks!

  • InterPlay Journal, Friday morning, April 11, 2014

    Body Wisdom: To change your life, change your practice!”

    Patricia led today on the theme of “intersections.” What happens when we come to an intersection in our lives when we must choose one way or another? What do we do, and what do we not do? What needs to be let go in order to move forward?

    In one form, she has us find a partner. We walked to music “together” as partners although just looking at each other peripherally. We took turns following and leading in movement, gesture and sound. When we “noticed” later, one said that she and her partner, “moved as one body.”

    In the Babbling form with partners, we babbled for 30 seconds on the word, “choices,” as well as the phrase, “the path not taken.”    Finding new partners, we babbled on the question, “What do we want to do?” Then, we babbled on the question, “What do we need to do to make that happen?”

    Patricia had us form three lines. Each person was to walk in a way that showed what needed to be done to get to the state desired. The second time, each person was to walk as if what they wanted had happened. Well, there was some strutting!

    Toward the end, we formed a circle and spoke our concerns briefly into the circle.   Many woes emerged such as illnesses, injuries, natural disasters etc. To music, we did a “dance on behalf” of those concerns expressed.

  • InterPlay Journal, Friday morning, April 4, 2014

    Steve (the man with the gray goatee) led InterPlay this morning.  “Spring” was definitely the theme today.  About 20 of us were milling around and chatting at the start, so he had us find a partner and begin to massage their upper shoulders. This felt terrific especially as part of it turned into a scalp massage done by my partner, Joy! Then we traded roles.

    Babbling: We found new partners in order to “babble” for 30 seconds on a particular word, saying anything that came to mind. The words today were “flower,” “lawnmower,” “rake,” and “hummingbird.” We traded partners several time but only “noticed” with the final partner.  All this liberates the brain from its normal pathways. Refreshing.

    Walk-Stop-Run: Steve divided us into two groups to do a walk-stop-run to music. The first group witnessed the other group and then switched. The group I was in did a lot of flying/flapping movements as we walked-stopped and ran. MaryAnn and I did a playful tango for a bit with some glorious silliness.  Joy skirted the group at one point, preferring to be one her own.  The role of the witnesses sitting on the sidelines is to notice how the movements watched felt in his or her body.

    Toning: Steve started with holding a tone (note) for one breath. As he moved through this form, you could chose to make the same tone, a different tone or listen silently to the tone. Basically, we could vocalize as loudly or softly as we wanted, on whatever note we wanted. Very freeing to race up and down the scale just for fun! 

    InterPlay.org      “InterPlay is a global social movement dedicated to ease, connection, human sustainability and play. Unlock the wisdom of your body!”

  • Interplay Journal, Friday morning, March 29, 2014

    We did a long warm up to the music of Stephane Grappelli as Joy led the group. She had us do a number of walk-stop-runs with our group of 18 women and 2 men. We walked fast, then slowly. We walked in curvy lines, then zig-zag lines. We stopped and watched others move.

    Joy had what she called a Muse Cube which she threw down during one of the walk-stop-runs. The “sound” words on the die were: howl, yell, sigh and whoop. Another one had words for movement such as “bounce.” We could incorporate the sounds or movements.

    We “babbled” taking turns with our partners on several words: reflect, pause, wander, spontaneity.

    Joy talked about “body grooves,” and how we get into patterns that can be fun to challenge. She taught us a song (with motions):

    Tall trees              (Extend your hands to the sky.)

    Warm fire            (Put your arms around your upper torso.)

    Strong winds        (Move your arms back and forth.)

    Deep water            (Move your hands close to the ground.)

    I feel in it in my body.

    I feel it in my soul.

     

    At the end of the morning, we stood holding hands in a circle and threw in words like “love, rest, strength, joy, pleasure.” What larks!

    InterPlay.org      “InterPlay is a global social movement dedicated to ease, connection, human sustainability and play. Unlock the wisdom of your body!”