I performed for the first time with Penn Strings on Sunday. It was great. We had a kind of simple ease together even though it was our first time performing together. The set included everything from Beethoven to Coldplay, so there was no shortage of variety. I can hardly wait for the next gig!
Contrast this with the fact that taxes are due in less than a month. Lots of numbers, calculations, paper forms, confusing descriptions. Thank goodness, my CPA takes care of most of it!
My music/recording studio has been in a shambles. Between gigs, rehearsals, jams, PULSE, and being lazy after all of this other stuff is done, I had really let it go. So, over the past couple of weeks, I really cleaned it up. Well, actually I’m about half-way there. I can see the floor. OK? So it’s a major victory.
I’m grateful. And ready. To take the next step. Here goes.
Our Monday night InterPlay/improv dance class does a movement meditation on the theme of “easy focus” to a loop I created in the moment before becoming the videographer. Enjoy.
…And here, we do a favorite InterPlay improv form called postcards on Easy Focus. The round cards we’re holding up are from The InterPlay Inspiration Deck (created by Anita Bondi who also teaches the Monday night class).
Once again I’m sitting in my office wondering what the hell I’m doing here. Are you starting to see a pattern here? Don’t get me wrong: it’s not that I hate the work I do. I like making technology work.
“Too much confusion. I can’t get no relief.”
Trouble is that I see “making it work” from an incredibly idealistic vantage point. And I attach urgency to getting it working. In my original neurosis around this urgency, I left no room for genuine creativity and play.
“No reason to get excited…”
It’s taken me almost 30 years to transform this stressed out approach to my job into one that’s merely over-serious. To those of you who are easy-going, this will seem like no great feat.
Easy Focus round card from the InterPlay Inspiration Deck
“There are many here among us
That feel that life is but a joke”
To me, it was nearly insurmountable. Even after many years working and playing through this, I frequently have to remind myself about what’s really important. And none of it turns out to be “stuff.” In the end, I value my own well-being and my relationships the most. Easy to forget. Easy to remember.
“But you and I we’ve been through that
And this is not our fate”
“So let us not talk falsely now
The hour is getting late”
Is it ever too late to wake up to valuing what’s really valuable? No. But, the sooner and more often I wake up to it, the more time I have to enjoy it.
“Outside in the cold distance…”
I’m headed for some enjoyment now!
(Thanks to Bob Dylan for the still-relevant All Along the Watch Tower.)
In addition to the Cheryl Cutler quote, here are what some people are saying about Anita Bondi’s InterPlay Inspiration Deck!
I have been using the deck for my Hospice work… Asking patients or caregivers to pick a card and see how it “fits” them.
Inevitably, the card is just right for the moment.
Some of the families I work with have logged onto the Interplay
website as a result of the cards and have grown interested in Interplay.
It’s a beautiful deck of cards and such an easy way to show what
Interplay is.
social worker, Hospice chaplain
So I brought my fun pack of round cards. I was drawn to the Loosely and Tightly card…..I am thinking take it loosely….yeah…relax…then take it tightly….yeah….strangle it…till it can’t breathe…..back and forth back and forth…loose and tight. And then I turned the card over……Loosely and Lightly. Aaaaah. Ok. No strangling involved whatsoever….interesting concept. I am having to rethink this whole thing now….soften my grip and relax.
under-employed, highly talented and trained person
I love using Anita’s InterPlay Inspiration Deck and the way it helps me tap into my own inner wisdom. The suggested exercies are also a great way to bring InterPlay into my every day.
Anita and I will be heading to Oakland, California tomorrow, to join with other InterPlay leaders in a day of play, reunion, and celebration on Saturday. I enjoy playing with other people who like to play. I’m really looking forward to some (Inter)Play.
I consider improvisation to be a highest form of art. Having heard the mantra “just improv” from other artists too many times, I’ve been continually more and more committed to improvised music and dance and storytelling over the past decade.
Back in 1999, I became “certified” (if not certifiable) in InterPlay, an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body. Under the mentorship of Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry, I moved from a clunky techno-geek to being a slightly less clunky techno-geek — which was a huge change. Above all, I learned that I really do have a body and that it really does inform me about almost everything about me. This was — and still is — a miracle. No matter how “spiritual” I may be (or believe myself to be), I will always be a body in this life. The other thing that I learned is that improvised art (dance, storytelling, singing, instrumental music) is an incredibly cathartic and artful experience. Both of these learning have stayed with me 100% over the years.
What I imagined I’d be telling you about in this post is my passion for improv. Now that I’m here typing this, I find that words are insufficient for what I want to get across. So let me try this scattershot approach:
The Exformation round card from the InterPlay Inspiration Deck
improv art informs my whole self (InterPlay is also about integration of body/mind/spirit)
when I practice my improv artforms I am more grounded and vulnerable
improvisation is an exformation (this is what InterPlay calls moving information out of the body) — I (and I would say all humans) need exformation to stay healthy and conscious
improvising connects with now — how Zen can ya get?
So sing a little song, tell a little story, dance a little dance in the name of now. It’ll be good for your body, mind and soul.
InterPlay Inspiration Deck on FaceBook
The InterPlay Inspiration Deck has lots of fans on FaceBook. Hope you’ll join us and share your experiences of using the deck!
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