Play : A Shaping of Space

Play is what lifts people out of the mundane. Play is a catalyst. The beneficial effects of getting just a little true play can spread through our lives, actually making us more productive and happier in everything we do. Joy and play is the answer to the question, How does anything new ever come about? - JEAN PIAGET

Play is essential for the human being. It is fundamental and a foundational element of movement that shapes us. We develop behaviors, thoughts, strategies, movement habits, and ways of being by playing. It gives us fresh insights into who we are and provides a desire to experience connections. As I watch children playing, I see them excitedly learning about the world and how their friends interact. Through play, they seem to perceive the emotional state of others and learn to adopt an appropriate response; developing healthy friendships.  

In his Book entitled Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, Stuart Brown, MD, talks about 'play personalities' and how as we grow older, we start to have strong preferences for certain types of play over others. Most of us possess a mix of these categories.


The eight personality types are:

1. The Joker -- makes people laugh, plays practical jokes.

2. The Kinesthete -- loves to move, dance, swim, play sports.

3. The Explorer -- goes to new places, meets new people, seeks out new experiences (physically or mentally).

4. The Competitor -- loves all forms of competition, has fun keeping score.

5. The Director -- enjoys planning and executing events and experiences, like throwing parties, organizing outings, and leading.

6. The Collector -- loves the thrill of collecting, whether objects or experiences.

7. The Artist/Creator -- finds joy in making things, fixing things, decorating, working with his or her hands.

8. The Storyteller -- loves to use imagination to create and absorb stories, in novels, movies, plays, performances.

What play personality do you see yourself as? 


If you have children, what play characteristics do you see in them? 


As you get older, do you feel guilty about play?


How do you stay active and maintain your productivity?


Some of us are lucky and have children, which allows us to play. Our aptitude for play keeps us vital as learners. If you spend time with children, that are allowed to free play, you can see how they flexibly adapt to the changing play and are inventing new solutions with a sense of enthusiasm and exhilaration. Play creates joyful memories, and engaging relationships that last a life time.


Link to The American Journal of Play® for more information. The American Journal of Play includes material that synthesizes and puts into perspective major themes of play scholarship; summarizes emerging areas of play research; presents significant new research about play; illuminates the important role of play in learning and human development throughout the life cycle; examines the interrelationship of play to other aspects of human endeavor; explicates social, cultural, educational, and public policy issues related to play; and explores cultural history through the world of play.

Jean Coté about the roots of high performance

More on play to come.

As you move, so you will become.

                                                         

As you move, so you will become.

Fitness and movement courses, workshops and trainings abound, each looking for the optimum physical performance. But the physical outlook only is incomplete. A Spacial Dynamics® approach to movement takes the idea of space not been a void but something that is alive and when used with the physical body produces a unity. We work with this different quality of movement in a variety of settings to being about the change of healthy movement, ideal movement, and new movement possibilities within the physical body. These spacial movements are the bridges to our thinking, emotions, habits, and image of ourselves.

Todays work and “thought” patterns mainly have to do with gravity. A gesture of “ you must”. “You must go to college”, “You must follow the rules”. Don’t get me wrong following rules is a good idea and gravity is an important force, without it we could not stand and live our lives. Gravity is just one of the forces that surround us. It is a purely physical force and it sometimes get our bodies to stagnate or become stuck in a movement pattern that it is hard to let go! In the work of Spacial Dynamics® we use other forces to help us stand and move. We ask the body to give us another gesture to work with the “must” that gravity allows us to use. A movement quality of “you may”, an invitation in connection with gravity. This “may” invitation is a force of levity, a drawing of oneself out to the periphery. It is like that feeling of standing in the sun after a cloudy morning, feeling the warmth of the sun and expanded feeling of your being. By activating an invitation we create a spacial gesture that the physical learns to follow, then arises the human experience: A feeling of new possibilities, a rejoining and rejoicing of the whole.

It is these “relationship of forces” that lie at the heart of Spacial Dynamics® practice, whether it is during a workout, performance or our everyday activities. It is as if we are in a conversation with our body, its form and function, and the world of motion.