Thank you for all the ways you bring body and soul together, play, and create health!~If you’d like to add even more your financial support means a lot to artists who are always dancing on the gap. Donate here.
Tiffany is not an InterPlayer. But she might deserve a spirit of InterPlay Award. Interviewed on CBC Television in Toronto, Canada about her Dancing Through Cancer video listen to her talk about the power of having a witness (on video camera)…and how even dancing on the days she feels down helps her every single time. ELCLICKO!
Shall we take a minute to dance on behalf of loved ones and InterPlayers DANCING with CANCER!
Add their names to the comments below.
If you are new to this idea try a one hand dance. Here’s the instructions.
Join in with the music of THE BIG SEA!
For more on the power of dance and creativity to carry us through the most challenging times check out the Body Wisdom Board President, Sheila Collins new book, Warrior Mother!
Research shows that people in strong social circles have less risk of depression and terminal strokes. FRIENDS + FUN= PLAY. Those who get a lot of Vitamin F are 30 years younger in age and can decrease chances of a cardiac arrest or stroke by 50%.
If you don’t feel like being with friends, having fun or playing, well, POO!
Doesn’t the evil twin just hate it when someone says there’s “Evidence that smiling causes happiness or that While in a state of emotional neutrality, putting a smile on your face can tip you in the direction of a positive feeling.”
Vitamin F or Poo?
Quick boost?
Give your friends some gratitude in the comments.
Forward or like this on FFFFFFFFFFacebook!
Try an InterPlay trick…Raise your arms. FFFFFlaps up. Your body needs a break from GGRRRRavity.
Follow along in the InterPlay Warm-Up for a good 7 minute re-uptake invigorator. I’d like to import it anywhere bodies need to feel lighter in 7 minutes or less.
Want to do it now?
If you’re going with POO! I suggest you say it really loud in a variety of voices!
Occasionally people meet in InterPlay and not only get playmates but a love mate. (Thanks to Gay Guard-Chamberlain for doll art!) That happened to Leslie and Eris and Jurgen and Debra. Do couples who InterPlay have a better chance of making it through tough times? My relationships with husband Stephen and collaborator Phil are still lively after 30 years.
Tough times? Randall and Sharon are literally InterPlaying in and out of ICU, doctor’s offices and cancer treatment!
Fred and Harriet have also been dancing for a while and sent this youtube to our InterPlay India leader Hazel and her new husband in India!
Even one partner InterPlaying can shift the F factor in a partnership or family. That being said, the more the merrier. If your partner doesn’t want to play like you do, play with that! And then go play. You probably need some laughs, hugs, affirmation, creative energy, and an embodied field of hope.
“Dance is one of the most powerful things that we can do.
The women of Congo have really taught me, because they’ve suffered the worst atrocities on this planet,
and yet their capacity to dance and transform their pain into power is remarkable.”—Eve Ensler
or Watch the Video featuring InterPlayer Soyinka Rahim and Cynthia Winton-Henry!
Stop 2! Rise! by Lelavision featuring InterPlaymates Leah Mann, Elizabeth Mendana, Eric Chappelle!
Stop 3! Stories of Creative Courage, Art Addresses Violence
InterPlay Bangalore: InterPlayer Biju Cherayath I Billion Rising was a fantastic success. I also got a fantastic response to the 50 feet long painting that I initiated.See the pictures!”InterPlay Mumbai Hazel Lobo InterPlay leader, Board Member Prabha Desai, Director of Sanmitra Trust said YES to a group of young women, most of them burkha-clad Muslims from the slums, who are a part of the vocational training beautician’s course. InterPlayers Neesha, Omeera, Prashant and I had the privilege of playing with 22 young women who raised their voices and willingness to stop violence and start living – to accept the sacredness of their bodies – to experience their strength and believe that being a woman is a blessing.
Just moving our bodies through the space we became aware of how peaceful it is, how much we hunger for healthy contact, the multiple options and choices available and the joy of being in community as one body. I became aware of how little space these women from the slums have and was amazed how much they do and are in this limited space.
In a small congested room of about 20 by 10 feet with bodies so close to each other, no boundaries, no space to reclaim self and yet we were there all playing together with HOPE in our heart that one day “Sab Mangal ho, Sab Mangal ho, Aurat ka jivan Mang al ho” (All shall be well, all shall be well, the life of a woman shall be well)
InterPlay Boston: CC King, Life Practice Program Leader
Several intrepid InterPlayers were part of an”Instigator’s Team.” We found the phrase: One Billion and One Rising and noted that the “one” was each of us. On V Day, with prayer and then a speaker on violence and challenges in our political system, we stood and reflected on the very snowy front lawn of our local arts center, Emerson Umbrella.
We gathered words of remembrance of violence against women; to the soft musical whispers of Sweet Honey in the Rock, we carried Caution tape among the bodies, and as inspired by Cynthia stood together in witness of the harm to all. To the song “Break the Chain” our bodies began to lift and sway and pulse.
We had 4 lead/follow moves: 1. Step UP!, 2. Push Aside oppression and rage; 3. Break the Chain of violence and intolerance; and 4. Take It Back: safe touch, health of bodies together in community, stillness and rest. WE DANCED!!
Then we pledged: a specific action, large or small, to be taken in the coming year to change the flow of violence. We let these out into the night air.
Then, the privilege of being one of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologue voices.
Our community arts center answered my calling to host this event with a huge uprising: staging a reception and the Vagina Monologues and really appreciating the opportunity for all of us to stand together and truly act as a community arts organizing energy.
InterPlay Pittsburgh Sheila Collins: Life Practice Program Leader
The main event attracting over 400 people was organized by an organization that InterPlayer Toni McClendon started, New Voices Pittsburgh: Women of Color for Reproductive Justice. Young mostly African American women put together, with the help of volunteers of all ages, the most soulful, spiritually enlightening, community inspiring two hour event in Pittsburgh’s downtown Market Square. It was a great honor to support these women in bringing their vision to such a spectacular outcome.
On the stage dancers from the August Wilson Center performed and hundreds of women danced Break The Chain,
Another corner of the square contained a tent the size of a solitary confinement space in a prison. The construction held artwork and petitions to obtain release for women incarcerated for defending themselves against the violent acts of intimate partners.
A candled altar space occupied another corner, a place for remembering women from our community who have lost their lives to violence
Another space labeled the Comfort Tent, offered support and respite for anyone strongly affected by this topic of violence against women.
Paul Hawkens, thought leader, environmentalist, and author of Blessed Unrest emailed this to the 30 Break the Chain SF teachers:
“I have never seen such joy at an activist/political event or rally. The diversity of participants had permanent grins on their faces. The dancing was tribal and ecstatic. It set the mark for all future events in my mind, no matter the cause. No more tired recycled progressive can’t please. I want joy, dance, embodiment.”
News came from Missoula, Claremont, CA where Penny Mann danced with students, shelter women, and Pilgrim Place Seniors (Click here), Atlanta, Des Moines (click here), and Beyond!
Final Stop! Keep Dancing! Learn the Dance for International Women’s Day and V-Day 2014.
March 8th International Women’s Day:
Caution Dance Meditation download a pdf of this ritual. Best Break the Chain choreography video
There’s a Massive Movement Going On: One Billion Women, victims of gender violence, are dancing to break chains and end their suffering. Dance is power. Give the World a Valentine! Today and on V-DAY!
InterPlay unlocks the wisdom of the body through dance, voice, story, stillness, and connection. It’s keys open the door, the heart, the path to health in kind and fun ways. InterPlayers know that What the Body Wantsis to heal and enjoy life without being retraumatized! That is one reason why InterPlay works! Given health the body will rise!
InterPlayers in Bangalore, Claremont, Boston, Raleigh, Atlanta, Oakland, San Francisco, and beyond are Breaking the Chains! My incredible InterPlay colleague Soyinka Rahim and I will lead a flash mob in San Francisco’s Women’s Prison.
You don’t have to a) be a woman or b) learn choreography or c) show up somewhere to break the chain. Today and on Valentines Day put on the music and dance on behalf of mothers, daughters, sweethearts, and girls health. Dance to end this crushing violence. Dance to change the world!
Break the Chain
Lyrics by Tena Clark, Music by Tena Clark/Tim Heintz
I raise my arms to the sky
On my knees I pray
I’m not afraid anymore
I will walk through that door
Walk, dance, rise
Walk, dance, rise
I can see a world where we all live
Safe and free from all oppression
No more rape or incest, or abuse
Women are not a possession
You’ve never owned me, don’t even know me
I’m not invisible, I’m simply wonderful
I feel my heart for the first time racing
I feel alive, I feel so amazing
I dance cause I love
Dance cause I dream
Dance cause I’ve had enough
Dance to stop the screams
Dance to break the rules
Dance to stop the pain
Dance to turn it upside down
Its time to break the chain, oh yeah
Break the Chain
Dance, rise
Dance, rise
In the middle of this madness, we will stand
I know there is a better world
Take your sisters & your brothers by the hand
Reach out to every woman & girl
This is my body, my body’s holy
No more excuses, no more abuses
We are mothers, we are teachers,
We are beautiful, beautiful creatures
I dance cause I love
Dance cause I dream
Dance cause I’ve had enough
Dance to stop the screams
Dance to break the rules
Dance to stop the pain
Dance to turn it upside down
It’s time to break the chain, oh yeah
Break the Chain, oh yeah
Break the Chain
Dance Break Inst.
Dance, rise
Dance, rise
Sister won’t you help me, sister won’t you rise (x4)
Dance, rise
Dance, rise
Sister won’t you help me, sister won’t you rise (x4)
This is my body, my body’s holy
No more excuses, no more abuses
We are mothers, we are teachers,
We are beautiful, beautiful creatures
I dance cause I love
Dance cause I dream
Dance cause I’ve had enough
Dance to stop the screams
Dance to break the rules
Dance to stop the pain
Dance to turn it upside down
Its time to break the chain, oh yeah
Break the Chain, oh yeah
Break the Chain
It was New Years Eve in Oakland. People were spry, full of flavorful food from GraceHearth. They had on their “I Survived 2012” Doodle and Destroy T-shirts. see InterPlay New Years Eve
We were in a good mood in spite of fiscal cliffs when Laurie said her grandma always jumped off the sofa on New Years eve saying, “One should leap into the new year!” Amos said, “Yes, like jumping into gratitude gulch!”
Though we might be unsure about 2013.
Whatever we put passion into will increase gratitude. So lets slide down into the green gulch of gratitude and grace, dance, sing, go out and play for keeps. People the world over will do just that.
Grateful for InterPlay, for playmates, for creative energy, for food, for shelter, for beauty in so many forms. What makes you sing and want to move toward grace this year? Check out InterPlay to see what you can find. I’ll make grace and a few messes in Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Oakland, Healdsburg, Boulder, Santa Fe and on some virtual wave length where even more gets dreamed up.
Make wide the pivotal moment,
Breathe deep in times of change.
Return to the wisdom of the body.
Our CPR for the planet: Create, play, and rest MORE.
Do less. Make space for synchronicity.
Surprise and Spontaneity are how the light gets through. Learn how to InterPlay everyday
InterPlayers are A OK if our only entertainment is each other. Every bit of us is usable. Better yet, all movement, voice, story, stillness, heart, and soul can get offered up for joy, love, and truth no matter how banged up we are.
What landfill have you overlooked? What if its the source of new music?
Check out InterPlay.org to learn how a family reunion, party, business meeting, retreat, or snow day can be transformed into a hilarious, hopeful harmonic convergence! Talk about the SHIFT of the Ages!
Step one: Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…….
Step two: Shake out whatever you are sitting on……
Step three: Make sounds like a fake violin for 20 seconds AND change the way we all see the day!
Posted by Cynthia Winton-Henry 
Virtual Friday Morning InterPlay 