Join in rocking the world right where you are. Listen to “With Shanti” from Trish Watts new CD in honor of InterPlay India and the 2010 trip led by her, CathyAnn Beaty, Cynthia Winton-Henry
Stillness poem
by Derek Walcott, from Collected Poems 1948-1984
Remember Stillness, Welcome Yourself
the time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to Itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Raise A Hand in Blessing Video
Last Hallelujah raise a hand in blessing dance of the year with the Silent Monks.
Check out shiny guy, Peter Solness, Illumino Man. Submitted by Trish Watts, co-founder of InterPlay Australia
Shiny Shiny Shinypoem
by Cynthia Winton-Henry
Shiny Shiny Shiny
Shiny Spirit, Shiny Shoes,
Singing is Shiny, Dancing is shiny
Santa is shiny, Hanukkah is shiny,
The Sun is Shiny, stars are shiny
Baubles are shiny, Christmas is Shiny,
Kwanza is shiny, Babies are shiny,
Candles are shiny, Kisses are shiny
Shiny Shiny Shiny
…the darker it gets, the better shiny looks…..
Straight No Chaser- 12 Days of Christmas video
Here’s some shiny voices of shiny guys submitted by Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry, InterPlay Colorado
Shine yourself up with singingPractice
Start with Falalalala.
Get a beat even if you don’t have a tune.
Falala for a minute and check it out
Falala in your car, your shower, your office.
Falala someone you love.
Falala some shine in your eyes
Falala someone grumpy.
Falala all the way home.
Raise A Hand in Blessing Movement
Raise a shiny hand to connect and bless others with Trish Watt’s new CD “Gajara-Singing Peace” honoring InterPlay India as we “Dance Our Lives.”
Invitationpoem by Victoria- Impromptu Movement Teacher, Missouri
Where does faith reside in your body?
Know the unknown.
Let your Self unknow the known,
so that you can let go
of the dance in you that is already done.
Discover the dance in you that is emerging,
the smallest most intimate movement,
the largest most grand of gestures:
are you ready to tap into your unknown?
Do you want to move your Soul?
Pink Glove Dance video
A DOBO doesn’t have to be so serious…
Watch the pink glove hospital dance.
Dancing for Soul Retrievalstory
Enjoy a gift excerpted from Dance: A Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice written by Cynthia Winton-Henry and published by Skylight Paths.
1. Bring a person to mind for whom you feel concern.
2. Take a deep breath and release the need to personally intervene or heal her or his pain.
3. If need be, shake out your own concerns. Put your fingers on the focused place between your eyes, and toss your own worries up in the air.
4. Using prayerful music, such as keyboard or flute, or even something upbeat, imagine something you like about her or him.
5. Imagine blessing with your hands. Gestures of blessing may lead to shapes, as embodied prayers. Or you may sense the kind of energy and dynamic that you see missing and dance it as a portent of things to come.
6. As you dance you may be surprised at movements that come. Gracious communications will arise. I have never seen it fail.
7. Now go one step further. As you move, let this dance serve you, too. Connecting to your own desires can also bless you with wise, intuitive, healthy results. This might seem paradoxical. “Can a prayer on behalf of someone else also benefit me?” On a body level, yes, it does.
Listen to “Love Opens” by Mary Grigolia as you dance.
Rumiquote
Something in God’s eye grabs hold of
a tambourine in me,
Then I turn and lift a violin in someone else,
and they turn, and this turning continues;
It has reached you now. Isn’t that something?
Raise A Hand in Blessing
When we dance hand to hand we often practice opening the space between us. We can often feel that connection even when we aren’t right together. Raise a hand in blessing. Turn in a full circle (or not) and know that others are sending blessings to you too.
This video is from the 2009 InterPlay trip to India. Notice what happens when you watch an InterPlay form on video without being there.
Connect Across the Space Between Practice
Call a friend. Take a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. Invite your friend to join you. Tell a three sentence story about what has been going on since you last spoke to them. Invite your friend to do the same.
Follow somebody whose energy state you are drawn to. Let your kinesthetic connection move you. They don’t even have to know you’re doing this. Notice what happens in your body.
Reflection
If you can’t be with the people who are important to you, how can you make a body to body connection with them across distance? Is there an InterPlay form that can help?
Leave a comment below to share your experiences and noticings.
Raise a hand in blessing movement
When we dance hand-to-hand we often practice opening the space between us. We can feel that connection even when we aren’t right together. Raise a hand in blessing. Turn in a full circle (or not) and know that others are sending blessings to you too.
Take a deep breath… let it out with a sigh
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Note: This week’s post is created by Kate Arms-Roberts. Kate discovered InterPlay while at Pacific School of Religion and completed the Life Practice Program in 2003. She is currently raising the next generation of InterPlayers in Toronto.
It’s not too late to help support InterPlay ambassadors and their outreach to India! Dance vicariously thru the work of Cynthia Winton-Henry, CathyAnn Beaty, Trish Watts, and other InterPlay leaders by contributing to the Million Connections Campaign. It’s easy to donate online!
From Mother to Daughterpoetry-prayer
by Aine deDannan
I am grateful to be learning
how precious sleep is…
that taking my time allows me to see the world more fully…
to explore the world with my hands and mouth…
how to do hand-to-hand contact from my not-yet-one-year-old…
that life is both fragile and strong at the same time…
to savor every moment with the loves in my life…
Gratitudinal Contactvideo
Time for Contactpractice
Try these simple activities with your family members, whether blood family, chosen family, or spiritual family.
Hand-to-Hand Embrace
Hold a loved one’s hand in your hand
Now find a new point of contact with each other’s hands…hold it for a moment…Then make a new shape and hold it…
And another and hold it…
Continue, and then find a natural point of closure.
For the Love of Children
With a baby or small child, let that child explore your face, your clothes, or your hand with his or her hands. Enjoy the beauty of this child’s exploration!
Connection
Find someone you care about (or several),
Hold each other in an embrace,
Step out enough to lift your hands up into the air,
Lifting up your care for each other in a hand-to-hand dance,
Then lower your hands for an embrace of gratitude.
Raise A Hand in Blessing movement
When we dance hand-to-hand we often practice opening the space between us. We can feel that connection even when we aren’t right together. Raise a hand in blessing. Turn in a full circle (or not) and know that others are sending blessings to you too.
As you move, listen to “Mother” from the Anatomic album by Afro Celt Sound System.
Take a deep breath… let it out with a sigh
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This week’s post is created byÁine E. deDanaan. Aine was first introduced to InterPlay when she started seminary at Pacific School of Religion in September 2000 and subsequently completed the InterPlay Life Practice Program in 2003. She moved back “home” to southwestern New Hampshire in July 2008. After taking time off as a new mom of Finnegan, Áine is now bringing InterPlay to the Keene, NH area! As a licensed massage therapist with a focus in Chinese Medicine, Áine helps people find more ease and wholeness in their bodies. Áine’s husband, Andreas, offers support with his willingness to play, as well as lending his graphic design expertise and video editing abilities…not to mention his beautiful parenting! For more information about Áine’s work (or to sign up for her newsletter) visit www.innerphoenix.org; to see more of Andreas’s work, visit www.dedanaandesign.com.
For anyone in Oakland and the surrounding area–you are invited to the InterPlay Free Sample. There have been so many amazing new developments recently! Come find out what is going on in the world with InterPlay these days. If you are new to InterPlay or if you bring a friend new to InterPlay, you will be entered in a drawing for dinner at Ozumo in Oakland (just two blocks from InterPlayce)! All that is required is to show up and sign in. This event is at InterPlayce, Sunday Dec 6, 2-3:15 pm and is free!
This image comes from the newly created InterPlay Inspiration Deck by Anita Bondi
The Story of Side by Sidestory
The Orangutan and the Hound Dogvideo
Dancing Side By Side/Raise a Hand in BlessingMovement
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Take a deep breath… let it out with a sigh
The Story of Side by Sidestory (From the newly released InterPlay Inspiration Deck)
Side by Side are best friends who have always been together. They were born on the same street, went to the same schools, and now live in the same green-colored apartment building in San Francisco. They like almost all the same foods, work for the same company and even vacation together. Side by Side consider themselves extremely lucky, having mastered the fine art of being totally themselves while being together. They are 100% real and authentic with each other. They know that they are happier together than apart, and so they keep it that way!
The Orangutan and the Hound Dogvideo
Sometimes our friends and playmates are just like us and sometimes they seem to be completely different. What matters is our desire to exist side by side with whomever we choose. Enjoy this video demonstrating that we really do know who we want to be and who makes us feel good, even if the rest of the world says we don’t belong together…
Dancing Side By Side/Raise a Hand in BlessingMovement
Picture three people that you like to be with and imagine yourself dancing with them. Have fun dancing side by side while listening to Stan Stewart’s musical improvisation (created in an InterPlay class for a walk, stop, run on the practice of side by side).
As you finish, hold a moment of stillness, raise a hand in blessing, turn a full circle, and see all of those side by side you smiling and supporting you!
Take a deep breath… let it out with a sigh
_______________________________
NOTES:
This week’s post is created by Anita Bondi and Stan Stewart, InterPlay Leaders in PA. Anita is most excited about her newly created and released InterPlay Inspiration Deck. To find out more or purchase your own set, visit www.anitabondidesigns.com. Stan is having a blast with his newest musical toy: a looper! (That is what he used to create the song above!!) Purchase Stan’s music at www.MandalaDesignWorks.com
For anyone in Oakland and the surrounding area–you are invited to a book release party! Hear Cynthia Winton-Henry read from her new book and meet Anita Bondi and Stan Stewart and the InterPlay Inspiration Deck. This event is at InterPlayce, Saturday Nov 21, 4-6 pm and is free!
Thanks for Algorithms and the math of the universe even though some days it doesn’t seem to add up.
Thanks for Barrie my gorgeous brilliant friend that sends me her thoughts in alphabetical order
Carnage. Yes carnage. Sometimes it really falls apart. Violently. Kali. Kali Kali Thanks.
Doors. Doors and doorknobs and the turning of the doorknob into another room another place, down a hall toward the possible.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Friends and flatulence and the sounds a body makes. Thanks.
Gorgiosity. Thanks for the gorgiosity of me and you and now and crossing time and space and thanks.
Handiwork and working with hands. You are so handy with that. You are handy. I’d like to give you a hand.
Ideas. Look what you thought of. Look at the time you made to be with the idea. Thanks.
Jammin’ jammin’ when you are playing and when you sit down and when you are in motion and when you are jammin’ it is something to behold it is a thing to be thankful for.
Knowledge. Knowing. I know things. You know other things. Let’s make a knowledge tossed salad. Yum.
Lordy, lordy. Throw up my hands and thanks Lordy Lordy
Mmmmmmmmmm
Nickers
Olly Olly Oxen Free Free Free! Thanks for getting called back at dusk from play. Called back from being “it”, from hiding and seeking, from kicking the can, from freezing in tag. Being called home to dinner. Thanks.
Raunchy riled roiled rambling Rocky the dog. Thanks.
Stoic family members of another generation. I melt a heart open for you these years later and thank you for the gentle openings you invited. That must have been hard. Thanks.
Ta-ta, Bye-bye, gotta go. Thanks.
Underwear – preferably cotton and not binding. Briefs. Thanks.
Validity, validation. Thanks. I’d like to not need it. But I’m grateful for it. Trying to wean off it. Thanks.
Fall in love with form with the convenience of A to z, with the structure and all that is possible from rearranging these 26 letters.
Write your name in space using your shoulders.
Write it large on the sky using your elbow or a knee.
Spell something with your body.
Spell nothing.
Wonder at all the language that is in your alphabetic poetic body.
Shake it out.
Raise a hand in blessing movement
When we dance hand-to-hand we often practice opening the space between us. We can feel that connection even when we aren’t right together. Raise a hand in blessing. Turn in a full circle (or not) and know that others are sending blessings to you too.
Take a deep breath… let it out with a sigh
NOTE: This week’s post is created by Julie Caffey. Julie is a member of WingIt! Performance Ensemble and was in the very first graduating class of the Life Practice Program (then called the internship program). She is a performer and arts administrator based in the Bay Area with a long collaborative relationship inspired by the alphabet with friend and artist Barrie Cole. Julie will be performing an excerpt of her new solo work, “AlphaBrick” at ODC theater in San Francisco, November 21, 22 and then in Chicago at the Illinois State Museum and the Prop Theater in December 2009 and January 2010.
By body grooves we know things.
A practiced heart anticipates heaven and hell
makes ritual out of sensitivities
-a joke, a hope, a connection,
a conjured chorus of love.
The Common Chorusvideo
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates our connection to the pentatonic scale using audience participation, at the 2009 World Science Festival on June 12, 2009, “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” http://vimeo.com/5732745
Anticipating grace? practice
Put hand on heart. Still beating? Grace.
Take a deep breath. Let it out with a sigh. Still breathing? Grace.
Shake out what you’re sitting on. Let go a little? Grace.
When we dance hand-to-hand we often practice opening the space between us. We can feel that connection even when we aren’t right together. Raise a hand in blessing. Turn in a full circle (or not) and know that others are sending blessings to you too.
Happy Halloween! Ready to trick or treat? America is.
Evil vs Goodquote
“Twins of Evil”video
Evil TwinBody Wisdom
Evil twin tricks (Bwa ha haaaaaa…) practice
Treatmovement
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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh!
Evil vs Goodquote
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”- Simone Weil
“Twins of Evil”video
Playing with “evil” is a human tradition. It is how we rise above it and poke fun at it.
Evil TwinBody Wisdom
Brain Herring (of Raleigh, NC), sharing about their Evil Twin Performance Jam tradition “The Evil Twins Strike Back,” says people are encouraged to “Tell your scariest story, sing your most haunting song, dance like the zombies are after you in InterPlay’s version of open-mike night, joining with others to create a special Halloween performance!” He says, “The first time we did the Evil Twins performance jam, at the last minute I threw in two words at the end of the description,”Costumes welcome.” I didn’t really expect many people to come dressed up. I was astonished at the effort and creativity that people put into their costumes. People had a blast and a tradition was born. Being given permission to do stuff (move, sing off key, talk loudly) felt vital. In the naming circle, the fake identities start to be revealed. No one uses their real name! Stories and songs and dances come from other places. And yet there is a sense that a greater truth is being revealed than is otherwise allowed. One man is a brain-damaged mental patient. Another is the winner of a wet t-shirt contest. Where else, even in InterPlay, would this crew be so brazen?
Evil twin tricks (Bwa ha haaaaaa…) practice
•Fling your focuser (and your serious self) up in the air for 30 seconds.
•Thrust your pelvis forward and walk around. Can you keep a straight face?
•Hold your face in a strange position and keep it there. Let your moves flow from your facial expression.
•Dance in a completely jerky, quirky way to “Amazing Grace.” From Dance: A Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as Spiritual Practice p49 “Trickster Dances”
Cassandra Sagan's dog Zusha, the abominable snow dog
Friday Morning Virtual InterPlay: Just for Fun
Just for Fun story
Mozart on roller bladesvideo
DW3Practice
Dancing the World into Form Poem
Anti-Depression Videovideo
Raise a hand in blessing movement
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Take a deep breath, let it out with a sigh.
Just for Fun story
by Cassandra Sagan of Portland, OR
When I was a kid in Brooklyn I was a contestant on a TV show called “Just for Fun.” I had a terrible time. Before the live broadcast began, the host, Sonny Fox, went around the audience asking for jokes. My dad had written me a perfect one: I would ask Sonny Fox, “What do you get when you turn funny socks inside out?” Sonny Fox! But he was sweaty and impatient in person. He picked seven other kids and never even called on me. My team lost a carload of prizes—Suzy Homemaker ovens, talking dolls, games with fancy plastic moving parts— because I couldn’t sweep a ball fast enough across the slippery floor. I felt chubby and ashamed. The losing players got one of those metal looms where you make pot holders out of mop fibers.
Tom Robbins says “It’s never too late to have a good childhood.” Studies show that children learn by playing. And as we become more and more a culture of lifelong learners, we require Lifelong Playing. So let’s play, “Just for Fun.”
Mozart on roller bladesvideo
DW3Practice
Dance Write Dance Write Dance Write
I love to sit on my balance ball and write. The poem, the song, the midrash, the e-mail is in my body, my feet on the ground, my breath blowing my lips to raspberries. I’m a sloppy writer, bouncing a little, leaning back and working those abs, circling my hips and breathing into my kidneys, or my liver, whatever it is back there that needs breathing into. I drape my body over the kitchen counter, the Muse at my back, kneel on the rug with my tush in the air, curl like a cat on the sofa. I take a legal pad and walk all over the house, the deck, the yard.
Do a DW3—Begin in stillness.
Take a deep breath and let it out with a sound.
You can do a one hand dance, a full body dance, a chair dance, balance ball dance, lie on the floor for a couple of minutes and roll dance. It might be a different dance each round.
And then write. Let the words come out of your dance, your body.
You can write longhand or type. Try thrusty writing, flowy writing. It can be utter nonsense phrases hooked together with commas and conjunctions. Write in a shape. Imagine you can breathe the words out. Start out with something you always say. Write in Fake German, capitalizing Significant words. If you happen to write something Pulitzer that’s lovely, but it’s not the goal. Just write for the sheer fun of it. A few minutes, a few lines, a few words. And then dance again, write again. Do that three times.
Dancing the World into Form Poem by Cassandra Sagan, the results of a DW3
Words, I’ve missed
the way you slipped through my hands
onto the page, slithering
a while before you disappeared.
It was you I was looking for:
all those years all those men,
writhing from one excruciating love poem to another.
Poor Younger Self had all the right components
dumped into her like a junk drawer.
But, Girlfriend, I’ve missed
the way we used to play
freeze tag, you were beautiful
the way shadows are beautiful
flickering on the edges of light.
Remember how we danced with the Clown Goddess?
All it took was a smile,
a Tai Chi flick of the wrist.
We were twelve-years-old
torn between the childhood we’d lost
and the womanhood we could only long for.
Living Words, I want to press
myself against you until my DNA whirls
in synchrony with your Hebrew, Sanskrit, cuneiform,
I want to kiss you
like a prayer book, a siddur,
like tzitzit, the fringe of my prayer shawl
wrapped around us as we dance this world into form.
Anti-Depression Videovideo
Raise a Hand in Blessingmovement
When we dance hand-to-hand we often practice opening the space between us. We can feel that connection even when we aren’t right together. Raise a hand in blessing. Turn in a full circle (or not) and know that others are sending blessings to you too.
Note: This week’s posting is created by Cassandra Sagan. Cassandra is a new Portland, OR InterPlay leader and organizer, a writer, a poet in the schools, a Ukelele playing songstress, and a leader in her synagogue. She will assist Cynthia Winton-Henry at the Applied Improvisation Network conference in Oregon this November.
Posted by fridaymorninginterplay 
Posted by fridaymorninginterplay 
Posted by fridaymorninginterplay 
