AFFIRMATION AND NOTICING: One language teacher’s integration of the InterPlay principles while tutoring

ATLANTA SKYLINE. This photo was taken from the fourth floor of the Scheller Collge of Business at Georgia Tech from a breakout room where I was conducting tutorials with Chinese graduate students enrolled in Quantitative and Computational Finance. (photo by Ruth Schowalter, ESL language coach)

Written by Ruth Schowalter, ESL language coach and InterPlay Leader-in-Training

One-on-one English tutorials with international graduate students are intimate and supremely rewarding for both the language learner and the instructor.  Having taught English as a second language at the university level for more than 20 years, I have met thousands of bright, talented and motivated people of the world and supported their efforts to gain a comfortable fluency using their “academic” language—English!

Now, as an InterPlay Leader-in-Training, I have been experimenting with ways to use the principles of InterPlay in my language instruction. Before I go any further in this discussion, you might want a working definition of InterPlay. Well, there are many definitions, but here is a simple one for starters:

INTERPLAY is “easy, fun, and life changing. It is based in a series of incremental “forms” that lead participants to movement and stories, silence and song, ease and amusement. In the process, we discover the wisdom in ourselves and our communities.” (from the InterPlay website)

To understand how these life changing and incremental principles of InterPlay can be used in language instruction, let me explain a few applications I am currently experimenting with in my one-on-one tutorials with Chinese graduate students majoring in Quantitative and Computational Finance at Georgia Tech.

 

ESL TUTOR AND TUTEE SELFIE. Arthur (his English name) and I took this selfie at the conclusion of our one-hour one-on-one tutorial. I learn so much each time I have the opportunity to meet individually with students, especially now as I integrate the principles of InterPlay into my language instrutction. (photo by Ruth Schowalter, ESL language coach)

AFFIRMING THE GOOD.

As I train in InterPlay, I am learning to discern the good and name it with a greater frequency than I did previously. Affirming the good is one of the tools of InterPlay. However, as a language instructor specializing in pronunciation, I am trained to recognize and record where English language learners are deficient in producing English with an American accent. That is, to point out “the bad” –the opposite of “the good.”

This noticing and focusing on the deficiencies is what students demand. After all, that’s what I get paid for, and in their belief system that is the “only” way to make improvements. Acknowledging their achievements, areas of spoken English in which they demonstrate strong skills, is quickly skimmed over, and dismissed as being insignificant in the learning process!

Previously, before InterPlay, I excelled at outlining my students’ flaws so I could lead them down the avenue towards accuracy. I disregarded their “humanity” and honored their hunger to achieve. In my rich past, I once had a student from Colombia pout during a meeting where I was explaining why she was failing my advanced-level pronunciation course. She was not impressed with the detailed document, which recorded her speaking errors over the academic session. “In your class, we call ourselves the D students,” she told me. My endless hours spent evaluating the shortcomings of their speech was not proving to be the way to motivate them individually or collectively.

I had failed in my ruthless ambition to show them precisely where they could improve. Thus began the reformation of my teaching. My pedagogy evolved. I transformed my role from “evaluator” to “coach.” Instead of grading students based on their performance observing a strict course agenda, I would set up overarching course goals, observe their individual behavior and cheer them on as they meandered on their personal language journey. I developed a new course using the acting tool of improvisation to teach fluency in a manner that enrolled me as “coach” (see this blog, blog, and blog for examples).

Once I had figured out the “content” of teaching language using improvisation along with the collaboration of my improvisation teacher, I needed more of a “how” in order to implement these improvisational tools. Discovering InterPlay has become THE HOW!

Therefore, “affirming the good” is the first thing I am practicing in the one-on-one tutorials I am conducting now with my Chinese graduate students at Georgia Tech. This affirmation practice requires me to retrain my teaching brain. Really focusing on the positive outcomes of each student’s speech demands patience and being present to the individual.

At the beginning of the hour-long session, then, I set up a way to “playfully” interact with the “tutee” and allow him/her to speak for 10 minutes or so without any correction. We do this “playing” while standing up and moving, using our hands, feet, and entire bodies. We have already warmed up our voices and played with vocal variation.

Once I have set up an objective, for example, “Tell me about a former work experience,” or “Give me your ‘elevator speech,’” I keep the student on his/her feet moving about the room, experimenting with their delivery while strolling. I stroll or walk with the student too. Once the “walk about” is completed, we sit down and AFFIRM THE GOOD. This begins with NOTICING, another InterPlay term.

CHOOSE A VOWEL. Often English language learners need multiple ways to perceive how to produce target language sounds. Here Boya and I pose with a mirror as she chooses to work with the "ahhhh" sound, which is a low-mid vowel requiring the mouth to be wide open as if having the back of your throat examined by a doctor. Using different lip, tongue, and jaw muscles in another language feels clumsy and makes it difficult to produce sounds accurately. A student's ability to move towards accuracy is greatly increased when having fun, experimenting, being permitted to make mistakes and recover, and then to make choices about future ways to implement these English vowel sounds. Affirming the good in the students progress greatly enhances their optimism in becoming successful communicators. (photo by Shi Tang, QCF student)

NOTICING: COLLECTING BODY DATA, BODY KNOWLEDGE, BODY WISDOM

InterPlay teaches us to “notice” what our body is experiencing; that is, to tune in and see where we might be feeling tension or energy. Is the tension residing in the neck, the stomach, the throat? In InterPlay, we call these noticings, “body data.”

As a language instructor, I am very interested in having my students connect with English and the wider American culture. For me, this connection to our U.S. English speaking culture is more than just intellectual--it is emotional and physical. Having the students be more in touch with their “total” beings, seems a positive way to support their successful language learning. Fluency results from ease and comfort, from connecting with the self and extending that sense of self to others. We use language as a social tool in addition to a cerebral one.

Although it surprises my Chinese “tutees” when I ask them how they are feeling and to share what they are noticing in their bodies, it makes sense to them as we continue our tutorial session. Let me explain....

Well, InterPlay offers a way to use the “body data”! After I, the instructor, has listened carefully to the student observations of what feels good or bad in the body when speaking English, we discuss “why” these feelings are occurring. In InterPlay, we call this “body knowledge.” For example, one of my students expressed feeling more ease when slowing down his speech and making it more musical. Using his hands to punctuate a key idea felt different (slightly awkward) but effective resulting in a feeling of accomplishment.

Many international students learning English for academic purposes equate fluency with speed. The faster one talks, the better one is at communicating. This is a false assumption since their hurried speech generally results in a stream of unstressed words devoid of musicality resulting in a breakdown of meaning.

Well, “noticing” how they felt during the tutorials with these Chinese students revealed that when they speak fast, they feel nervous about finding the right vocabulary and cut off from the listener. Relying on being solely in their heads while speaking distances them from experiencing a fullness when communicating with others.

“Body knowledge” is knowing when these good and bad experiences occur. I’m experimenting with teaching students to be aware of what feels positive and effective when they are speaking English and to practice those behaviors to increase the frequency of fluency. And then the reverse, if something feels bad when they are speaking English to reduce that behavior—like speaking fast but incomprehensible sentences. Implementing what you have learned from body data and body knowledge is called, “body wisdom.”

Whoever thought that as a language instructor, I would be teaching “body wisdom”! As I work and play towards integrating the principles of InterPlay in my ESL teaching, I am surprised, pleased, and expanded!

CONCLUSION. You probably won’t be surpised to learn that I have a lot more to say about this topic of using InterPlay to teach English as a second language! I really really do!  I want to tell you right now about “witnessing” and explore the concept of “incrementality.” But, for now, I will stop with this incremental step, this blog entry about the InterPlay principles of “affirmation” and “noticing”!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I thank my Chinese graduate students for their earnestness in learning English. They elected to take this “accent reduction” course and are very open to trying new strategies and tools to increase their fluency. I appreciate their trust in my methodologies and vulnerability. What a gift you are to us all.

SELFIE WITH TUTEE. Such fun! A new found way to relax and speak English both on a personal and academic level. I am convinced that academic English cannot be pursued without making personal connections at a very warm human level. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

If you liked this blog entry, see this one that I have written about a specific lesson I taught in the fourth week of September: Embodying English: Integrating the tools of InterPlay into my language instruction

Incorporating InterPlay into my social work

Dear friends,

The "mascot" that greeted me in the classroom

I have been a social worker for over 17 years (really all my life if you ask my parents) and one of the things I do is prepare foster care and adoptive parents to get ready to have kids in their homes.  I have been teaching the classes that these parents need (to meet minimum standards in TX) mostly the same way for the past 12 years.  We talk about things like attachment, grief and loss, behavior management, planning for change, etc.

This past Saturday I was in TX to teach Behavior Management.  Since I have been going through the Interplay Leader training and had just completed a leader weekend with +Phil Porter I decided that it would be a great time to incorporate some of what I had learned.

To begin the class instead of the regular seated introductions I had the class meet me in the back of the room in a big circle.  I introduced the concept of deep breathing and releasing the breath with a sigh and tied it in to self-regulation in children and noticing our body data. 

I facilitated a round of "I could talk about..." with the person saying their name and I could talk about...."  One of the participants said his name and said he could talk about theater - BIBO - I totally relaxed and knew this was going to be great!

The beautiful Texas Sky

We ended up doing four rounds of this "game" before we went into the warm-up.  After we finished the warm up and sat back down in our seats to begin the official training I talked about how children who have been through trauma often times are "out" of their bodies since they felt unsafe and the warm up is a safe and great tool for them to get in touch with their own body data and body wisdom.


One of the things I cover in behavior management is the skill empathetic listening. After lunch instead of just talking about it I guided the group through babbling.  It was a great series where they babbled about adoption, leisure time and free time.  They noticed with their second/third partners and then with the whole group.  The responses were very positive and the group enjoyed being heard.

Isn't being heard such a simple thing?  And it is so powerful!  I have taught this for over 17 years and I truly felt like they understood the concept and could apply it with their future children after using the Interplay form of babbling.

Interplay is such a simple and powerful tool.  I have been using it in my own life now for over 10 years (thanks to +Sheila K Collins) and I am grateful to have the opportunity to share it with others.

Flowers from EarthSprings where I did InterPlay the first time

I enjoyed incorporating it in with my Social Work and seeing it make a fun difference in this training and thought it might be fun to share the experience with you.  I look forward to exploring new ways to include it in my trainings!

Where have you incorporated InterPlay in your work life?  I'd love to hear about them!

Wrapping you around with infinite love and playful delight,

Christine Gautreaux, LMSW
www.christinegautreaux.com
"Unless commitment is made, there are only promises & hopes… but no plans." - Peter Drucker 

GIVE PERFORMANCE A HUG: An Atlanta InterPlayer's Notes from Phil Porter's performance workshop

GIVE PERFORMANCE A HUG: PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP WITH PHIL PORTER (September 2014)--photo by Ruth Schowalter

Written by Ruth Schowalter, InterPlay Leader-In-Training

It’s an exciting time to be an InterPlayer! This October, InterPlay, a social global movement dedicated to ease, connection, human sustainability, and play, is celebrating its 25^th anniversary. On the eve of such an auspicious time, InterPlay Atlanta had the good fortune to host InterPlay co-founder, Phil Porter for multiple events—a performance workshop, Second Saturday, The Secrets of Leading InterPlay training, and a Leading and Following workshop.

PHIL PORTER

Here on this blog entry, I would like to share from my notes a few of the key ideas that Phil Porter presented in his workshop entitled, “Giving Performance a Hug,” to us InterPlay Atlanta performers who have just named our group, “Soulprint Players.”

Here goes...wheee...!

SMOOTHING OUT THE SCARY IN PERFORMANCE

We are surrounded by performance of high caliber and have immediate access to it, explained Phil Porter. Exposure to that excellence can be scary for us in some ways.

In InterPlay, he explained, we are creating endlessly every time we do something. He referred to the “nob of intention” which we can turn up or down depending on what we want to do when we are creating—and this IS performance!

Therefore, we can begin to smooth out the “scary” part in performance by thinking of everything we do as a constant process of creating.

EXPANDING OUR RANGE

When we acknowledge the aspects of our humanness, InterPlay performers can push or play with what they or “doing” or “creating.” We can pay attention to what part of our “performance” is consistent and expand our range from there.

For example, what might I learn about myself, my partners, my world when I talk loudly or softly, quickly and slowly, or in a high-or-low-pitched voice? Walking in an “unusual” way or path is another activity, which allows us to experience a wider range of possibilities when creating. “Ideas for walking are endless,” Phil said, “A pot full of ideas, living things, trying to crawl out.” He assured us that something--the “fullness”-- is there, inside of us.

InterPlay asks us what we are capable of doing.  And by expanding the range of our possibilities, we have more access to information about ourselves, thus enhancing our lives and performances! Hurray!

PERFORMANCE AS HABIT

As performers, we must be IN our bodies so we have access to it to perform. Phil describes the people in his InterPlay performance group, “WING IT! Performance Ensemble,” as “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

In InterPlay, we have a wide range of forms available to us such as “side-by-side stories,” “following and leading,” or “shape and stillness.” We play with them regularly so that they become a part of us and our repertoire as humans and performers opening us fully to our voice, movement, and story telling abilities.

THE IMPORTANT CONCEPT OF OPPOSITES

Ask yourself, “What am I doing? How can I do the opposite?” Performing allows us to make aesthetic choices. In the same way a painter who has used a lot of green on her canvas might add a splash of red for contrast, so might an InterPlay performer slow down or speed up his movement or speech. Opposites enhance!

“We tend to go back to the middle,” Phil Porter said. He encouraged us to play around with the range of what we think is possible.  In one vocal exercise, he asked us to play around with volume at either end of the spectrum of loud and soft. When we finished, he asked us to measure our “loud” and “soft” on a scale of 1-to-10. Then he had us do the speaking exercise again to try to increase our existing range on either sides of the spectrum. To support this change in behavior, we were asked to step farther apart from our partner and not be too concerned about what our partner could or could not understand. Oh, was that fun playing around with speaking REALLY LOUD and REALLY SOFT!

SIMPLICITY VERSUS COMPLEXITY

Other forms of dance like ballet might provide simplicity or structure by having the dancers look and dress alike. In InterPlay, which fosters multiplicity of voices, performers are all different sizes, shapes, ages, and races. Therefore, it is the structure of the InterPlay forms that provide the SIMPLICITY for a performance.

And the COMPLEXITY comes from individual choices that InterPlayers make. For example with the form, “Walking, Stopping & Running,” individuals can choose when to walk, run, or stop, to enter and when to leave. They can choose to move alone or with others, to go with or against them. The possibilities are infinite!

MOVING INTO NEW TERRITORY

By exploring the concepts of opposites, simplicity and complexity, and expansion, we can move into new territories of BEING. As we create, we expand, we connect with others, and the change becomes a part of ourselves. We discover that our willingness to expand has allowed us to grow.

Ta da! Expanding our humanness, expands our creativity, which enhances our performance!

 

MULTIPLICITY OF VOICES. Here are some of the participants at the conclusion of Phil Porter's performance workshop, "Give Performance a Hug."--photo by Ruth Schowalter

MULTIPLICITY OF VOICES

The beautiful aspect of using the improvisational tools of InterPlay is that it results in a multiplicity of voices being heard and affirmed. InterPlay performers are individuals making choices about how they want to BE in the moment either as a solo performer or an ensemble one—indeed a creative act!

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Summarizing my experience from Phil Porter’s workshop, “Give Performance a Hug,” I have these thoughts:

I love InterPlay! I love Phil Porter and my fellow InterPlayers.

I appreciate being “given permission” to BE more myself through play.

I find it exciting to think of the actions that I take in my life as an endless process of creating.

Being invited to expand what I know about myself through playfulness alone and along with my community excites me.

Finally, it just takes my breath away to think that BEING MYSELF and playing with others through voice, movement, and story telling can go to the stage and become performance!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thank you to Jennifer Denning, InterPlay Atlanta director and founder of “Soulprint Players,” for holding the space for InterPlay to grow in Atlanta and nurturing it in numerous ways. Jennifer has lovingly cultivating a group of InterPlay performers in the past year, ensuring that we Atlanta InterPlayers get training from the best (see this blog, this one, and this one for performance workshops with Sheila Collins).

PHIL PORTER with Ruth Schowalter--photo by Christine Nichols Gautreaux

Thank you to Phil Porter from coming to Atlanta and giving us such an enriching weekend. Thanks also to Cynthia Winton-Henry, co-founder with Phil for developing such a rewarding way to live our lives playfully. Sheila Collins you have given us a wonderful foundation for “Soulprint Players” here in Atlanta!

The Practice of Doing Nothing

by Jennifer Denning

I’m having an unproductive August. I have been visiting family in Ohio, biking, reading a good book, staying in my pajamas. I haven’t been on Facebook much. Haven’t written much or tackled many of those “to-do’s” I had in mind at the beginning of the summer. My children’s rooms remain cluttered as does my closet.

Doing nothing with my daughter, Elise

I’m okay with this. In fact, in this moment of quiet, I’m taking a savoring moment to celebrate the value of relaxing my agendas for a while. I notice that my well-being depends on periods of inner and outer relaxation. The openness of my agenda makes room for the unexpected. It’s in this restfulness that “something more” sometimes shows up. Organically I find myself pulled to write this morning and I feel an aliveness in it; embracing the wind on my face as I bike reaffirms my trust in the goodness of life, and allowing some disorder in my home is good practice for remembering there are many things I am not in control of.

A line from the movie, “Boyhood” sticks with me this morning. One of the characters says something like, “People are always talking about ‘seize the moment’, but I think they’ve got it wrong- the moment seizes us.” Perhaps periods of “doing nothing” create some space for those moments.

A moment that seized me- tranquility at The Holden Arboretum in Ohio

In InterPlay one of our practices is stillness. Taking a deep breath is a moment of stillness. Pausing before speaking is stillness. Listening for what wants to happen next is stillness. We don’t always need long stretches of “doing nothing,” sometimes little daily moments are enough.

Wishing you little sips of stillness as needed and affirmation that sometimes we also need to rest a while with an empty cup!

AUGUST SECOND SATURDAY: Saying YES!

INTERPLAY ATLANTA "SECOND SATURDAY": Saying Yes (photo by InterPlayer Ann Connor)

by Ruth Schowalter, leader-in-training
The second Saturday of each month rocks in HOTlanta! Why? Because InterPlay Atlanta (Like us on Facebook at InterPlay Atlanta) meets to play for 90 minutes!

WALK, RUN, STOP. Play allows us to make choices that are affirming. Here Atlanta InterPlayers make choices about what feels good--walking, running, stopping--we can do it all at the speed of our own bodies! (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

This month, Jennifer Denning, director of InterPlay Atlanta, was away and invited leaders-in-training Christine Gautreaux and me, Ruth Schowalter, to lead the August Second Saturday. Since many play sessions have a theme, Christine and I decided to choose something decidedly affirmative to play with--the theme of YES!

Using Alice Teeter's poem, "Say Yes," from her book, When It Happens to You, as a foundation for our play, we moved forming shapes and stillness around her poetic words:
 

Say Yes

Step off into this unknown

Into this marvelous and terrible Yes

Yes to unknowing, Yes

Fling your arms wide to Yes

Be light and say Yes

Say Yes softly in a whisper

Float on Yes

Carry Yes like a feather you find floating

That the wind will take away

Blow Yes like a dandelion seed

Scatter it to the winds

And me, I say Yes waiting for your Yes

Leaning in and watching for it floating down

A maple seed on the breeze spiraling

Wisps of white floating across my field of vision

My ears are listening for that whisper

You are standing on the sweet spot of the stage

Your voice will carry for eons and leagues

In your softest song say Yes to me

I hear you from this thousand miles away

We babbled on the theme of YES...

(photo by Ruth Schowalter)

 We made hand dances on behalf of YES...

(photo by Ruth Schowalter)

We sang one and three breath songs expressing YES...

(photo by Christine Nichols Gautreaux)

We collaborated in trios saying YES...

When YES happens to you! (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

We concluded our 90-minute session feeling energized, playful, and embodying YES. Think about how you might embody YES in your life. And think about attending one of our Second Saturdays.

YES! (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

We have a special Second Saturday happening in September.  Phil Porter, one of InterPlay's co-founders will be facilitating and offering some other playshops while visiting Atlanta! InterPlay Atlanta keeps building momentum!

INTERPLAY WORKSHOP #3 (May 2014) WITH SHEILA COLLINS: Creating a container and engaging the audience

GETTING IDEAS FROM THE AUDIENCE. Here InterPlay performer Christine Gautreaux takes notes as Pittsburgh InterPlayer Sheila K. Collins (far right) instructs Atlanta InterPlayers, (right to left) Jennifer Denning (Atlanta InterPlay Director), Kate Savannah (Asheville InterPlayer), and Sister Jewel (International InterPlayer) how to engage the audience. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

by Ruth Schowalter, InterPlay Leader in Training

Yes! We Atlanta InterPlayers are fortunate to have Sheila K. Collins, the dancing social worker, author, and seasoned InterPlayer instructing us on how to develop as an InterPlay Performance Ensemble. On her third workshop, we focused on how to develop our relationship with the audience.

"Create a container and engage the audience," Sheila explained. "Welcome people. Get everyone to breathe and invite them to breathe with a noise or a sigh. This is one of InterPlay's root practices--breathing. We improve how we feel using oxygen. We are all people, and we need to breathe." 

After breathing together with the audience, Sheila instructed us InterPlay performers to continue warming up the audience getting them to move in their chairs by stretching, clapping, and stomping. We could play with rhythm and noise, dividing the audience in half to do one or the other. This kind of audience engagement is part of the InterPlay practice.

Once the audience is engaged, it is time to delve into their creativity and get ideas from them on the theme. For our purposes, we worked with the idea of "wild places in nature," and we experienced what  the audience members might feel while generating the ideas. We came up with the following cues or triggers for performance: wisdom, cycles, birds, trees, peace, and fragile.

PLAYING WITH REPETITION AND SIMPLICITY. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

We reviewed InterPlay practices of ecstatic following and leading, simplicity, and repetition. We played with the side-by-side story, the gesture choir, the big body story, the dance-talk 3, and the three-sentence story.

THE GESTURE CHOIR. Here Sheila tells a story that is too large for one body to hold or express it, so InterPlay performers echo her movements. "It's a billboard instead of a flyer," Sheila described this InterPlay form. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

Atlanta InterPlay's third performance workshop concluded with these insights from Sheila: 

• The more we play together, the more our bodies work together.

•  The idea of the "aesthetic group collective" is that individual performers make sacrifices or choices that help shape the overall group performance.
• "The Mystery of the Still Point" is an incredibly fascinating way to create moments of newness said Sheila. Watch the group creation and ask "Where do I have to be for something new to occur?" Be in a place of stillness, "hanging out in the sanctuary." Allow your hand to move, create a shape, use your whole body. Four to five performers hold shapes as long as possible, experiencing the psychological edge. "Go into that place and have the next movement occur from that place."

INTERPLAYERS REUNITE. InterPlayer Marquetta Dupree and her son, Zaire, visited us at the end of our performance workshop. As Jennifer Denning builds our Atlanta InterPlay Performance Ensemble, we are collecting InterPlayers in the Metro-Atlanta area. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

If you want to read more about the Atlanta InterPlay Performance Workshops that Sheila Collins has conducted, check out these blogs:

ECSTATIC FOLLOWING: Learning what it means to be part of an InterPlay performance group! 

 

INTERPLAY WORKSHOP #2 (March 2014) WITH SHEILA COLLINS: Saying Yes and Finding the "thing"!

INTERPLAY WORKSHOP #2 (March 2014) WITH SHEILA COLLINS: Saying Yes and Finding the "thing"!

THE ATLANTA INTERPLAY PERFORMANCE GROUP.  This is our March 2014 InterPlay Performance Workshop with Sheila Collins. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

By Ruth Schowalter InterPlay Leader-in-Training

“InterPlay is a big ‘YES,’” proclaimed Sheila Collins at the second performance workshop she facilitated for Atlanta InterPlay (see this blog about our first workshop) at the Mask Theater in the Little Five Points Community Center in March 2014.

Sheila instructed us to look for the “Yes” in our own bodies and in our troupe of fellow InterPlayer performers. In addition to taking “cues” for words from our creative movement, we also practiced “ecstatically” following one another in both movement and vocalization.

To build a performance, an InterPlay troupe works with a “theme,” one that is chosen ahead of time and then developed with input from the audience. For example, if a performance is being done for an environmental group, a variety of nautre-related words or phrases—such as relaxing, endangered, fun, climate change—might be gathered from the audience and used throughout the performance.

For our second InterPlay workshop with Sheila, we chose to play with the word, “creativity.” What might be our stories surrounding this word?

HELLO! MY NAME IS...I'M FROM....  Christine Gautreaux introduces herself at the beginning of the Pittsburgh form brought to us by Sheila Collins. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

We began playing with “creativity” using the “Pittsburgh” form—one that involves the entire InterPlay troupe. One InterPlayer begins a movement, which everyone on stage follows ecstatically. 

ECSTATIC FOLLOWING IN THE PITTSBURGH FORM.  Atlanta InterPlay Director, Jennifer Denning creates a new movement after introducing herself. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

Then one player steps into the “spotlight,” introduces him/herself (name and city), says something about the theme (in this case, creativity), and generates a new movement and leaves the performance space, after the rest of the performers, who have been “holding” a shape while the spotlighted performer speaks, replicate the newly introduced move.  These steps are repeated until each performer has introduced him/herself and said something about the theme.

SIMULTANEOUS STORIES WITH A THIRD PERSON.  Here two InterPlayers tell their stories about "The Scariness of Creativity" while Sheila Collins moves. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

Next in our workshop, we played around with a form called a “Simultaneous Story.” In this form, two people tell their own stories, yes, at the same time—simultaneously! And to spice it up, Sheila added a "mover" to the two story tellers. This time, the performance theme of “creativity” gets approached from a different angle—“The Scariness of Creativity”! The two storytellers are instructed to speak playing around with the following ideas:

• repeating the words or movements of the other,
• traveling around the performance space,
• using silence, and
• finding an ending.

 Sheila advised us that making a story shorter rather than longer and that finding an end or resolution doesn’t necessarily mean a “happy ending.”

After the simultaneous stories, we had the opportunity to see how a group of five people could perform together on the topic of “The Fire of Creativity.” Two people stood on the side of the performance space and chanted while three people moved. The progression of this performance occurred in this manner:

• The players began by taking a solo shape then moving by themselves.
• The chanters started after the movement and in response to it.
• Then the movers found a way to interact with one another.
• The form was completed when stillness was found.

Sheila’s performance workshop concluded with a whole-group performance, during which we moved in and out of the performance space as we wished—everyone could be performing, or five, three, two or one could be performing, the number of players shift continuously.

PLAY WITH YOUR BASKETBALL BRAINS. When moving together as a group, we are asked to think about spatial relationships and are invited to create the "dramatic diagonal." (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

During this last form, Sheila reminded us to think with our “basketball” brains, asking us to see how we were creating a range of movements in our performance space and paying attention to concepts of the “dramatic diagonal” and “spatial relationships.”

The fun part of this last performance activity?  It is looking for what we are learning to call “the thing.”  As a “group body,” each one of us performers gradually recognizes “the thing” that emerges out of what we are doing together. Ecstatically following occurs and our performance gains a “rehearsed” polish while remaining improvisational movement!

Our performance workshop with Sheila ended with us being energized from experiencing an individual and big body YES! InterPlay is, indeed, a big YES!

YES and FINDING THE THING! Here I am between two InterPlayers from Asheville, North Carolina, and I am say "YES" and finding "The Thing." (photo by an InterPlayer Performer)