InterPlay and a Cup of Tea!

InterPlay goes ahead at DADAA in Midland. DADAA works across Western Australia  to enhance the social inclusion and wellbeing of people with disability or mental illness through participation in the arts.

We have had an introduction session and we are about to go into our second week of the term. 

With this group I am taking a very different approach to a regular InterPlay group, not that any InterPlay groups are 'regular'. We take it very slowly, with plenty of simple, repetitive movements and instructions. It is a joy to see the participants follow some of my movements and improvise some of their own. It is good to see these participants having fun and laughing. I am challenged as never before to be flexible with what I have planned while continually adjusting and improvising to match the abilities and confidence of the participants. I am really enjoying our cup of tea stop for 15 mins in the middle of our two hour session...that's different!

We are all different shapes and sizes and abilities at our InterPlay groups. 

These are little figurines and critters that I'm collecting from second hand stores for Sand Play Therapy. 

Your Body Knows What It Needs

We are stiff and breathless 

Everyday we sacrifice our body 

to the exploits of the mind and work

Let us relax and let our muscles soften

from the holding pattern

Simple movements clear away the mental clutter

help you to feel more present 

in the here and now

More relaxed

more peaceful and lighter

Creaky bones moisten into languid expressions

small breaths get deeper

Your body knows what it needs

 

Excerpts from 'The Art of Dance as a Spiritual Practice' by Cynthia Winton - Henry

InterPlay Group in Perth WA

InterPlay Group starting up again...Yaay!

If you want to join an InterPlay class, checkout our web page:

 www.interplayaus.com.au 

Contact  0412 223 469

Email janetpfeiffer@mac.com

Connected by our Conscious Awareness

Almost a week ago now since I found myself with about 18 other contact improvisation dancers as we moved in harmony (well most of the time we did) together for about 3 hours as we followed Nancy Stark-Smith's 'Underscore'.

It was very special to share these moments in one of the WAPA dance studios in Mt Lawley, near Perth WA. We joined with about 50 other countries who were dancing at the same time all around the world.

It was like praying together but it did not matter what spiritual tradition you were in, as each group of CI Dancers in each country were connected by our conscious awareness of each other as we danced and also stood in silence at the beginning of the underscore and at the end.

Wonderful group of people we have here in Perth and such a joy to join with them, even though I am relatively new to contact and as always, I took great pleasure in observing the improvisation and skill of transferring weight with their bodies...lots of fun!

The Global Underscore

Will be taking part in The Global Underscore this Sunday night. Should have mentioned it a week ago and you could have come with me... 

                    Date: Sunday 23rd June

Time: 9pm- 1am

Venue: WAAPA*

What is the Global Underscore? The Global Underscore is a simultaneous practice of the Underscore around the world (read below for a little more info of the Underscore).

                   The Underscore

The Underscore is a long-form dance improvisation structure developed by Nancy Stark Smith. It has been evolving since 1990 and is practiced all over the globe.

The Underscore is a vehicle for incorporating Contact Improvisation into a broader arena of improvisational dance practice; for developing greater ease dancing in spherical space—alone and with others; and for integrating kinesthetic and compositional concerns while improvising. It allows for a full spectrum of energetic and physical expressions, embodying a range of forms and changing states. Its practice is familiar yet unpredictable.

The practice—usually between 3 and 4 hours—progresses through a broad range of dynamic states, including long periods of very small, private, and quiet internal activity and other times of higher energy and interactive dancing.

           

There are 20+ phases of the score—each with a name and a graphic symbol—which create a general map for the dancers. Within that frame, dancers are free to create their own movements, dynamics, and relationships—with themselves, each other, the group, the music, and the environment. Each Underscore is unique, providing rich and often inspiring experiences of the human and artistic phenomena of dance improvisation.

The GLOBAL UNDERSCORE is an annual event in which the Underscore is practiced simultaneously for a 4 hour period by people all over world near the summer solstice (northern hemisphere). In 2012, there were 70+ sites. Claire Filmon proposed the event to Nancy in 2000 from a desire to connect dancers all around the planet to dance and to compose together in the moment and organized it until 2010.

 www.globalunderscore.blogspot.com

To participate in an Underscore, one should have some experience with Contact Improvisation and attend a talk-through of the Underscore (Perth will do this at 9pm), which often takes about an hour.

Starting up InterPlay in Midland

Found out this week that the board for InterPlay Australia Inc. approved $500 to fund my regional new initiative with DADAA an established group, who provide access to arts and culture for people with disability or a mental illness. 

 I am very excited to be leading this project and the fact that I have a beautiful space provided by DADAA in Midland to teach in and about 10 participants will be selected by DADAA to attend. I will teach a 2hr x 8 wk Introduction to Interplay working incrementally through the forms and tools that make up InterPlay. My goal is that the participants will become a cohesive group, become a little more active, and enjoy simply playing with improvised movement, story telling, singing and stillness that make up the sessions.

I have no idea how these participants will respond but I hope and pray that they will benefit and get great enjoyment from it, so much as they will want to continue after the 8 week course. That would be very satisfying to me but we'll just have to see!

Body Tales

I just discovered 'Body Tales' on the web. Very much like InterPlay.

— Olivia Corson, Body Tales founder says:

    "With humans, stories matter. Stories weave the fabric, sometimes whole, sometimes torn, of every family and culture. When we move and speak our embodied stories, and they are received and valued, we reclaim our humanity."

More about Olivia Corson