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Review: InterPlay

15Oct07
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Location: 2323 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA
What it is: Gosh…InterPlay is one of those experiences that defies description. But I’ll try anyway, if you promise to do your best to imagine what I’m talking about! By definition, InterPlay is a community-based, improvisational arts practice. Gather a bunch of regular-ish people in a dance studio and invite them to play together…being as silly or serious, goofy or silent, as they care to be. Mix together some clearly led structures for storytelling, movement, and singing, and you get…InterPlay!

Growth Potential: Maybe I should just paraphrase what my friend told me the other day. This friend, let’s call him Igor, has been attending the Tuesday night class with me for a year. As we were sitting around my chiminea one night, he said: “Finally, I can tell how much of a difference InterPlay has made in my life. It’s crept up on me. I’m much more comfortable with uncertainty. When things at work go differently than I’d like, I don’t get so bent out of shape. Also, I think I’m dating this woman now because of InterPlay. I’m much more comfortable in my body than I used to be, and I’m more willing to take risks, like not freaking out when I asked her out.”

Pop Potential: In some ways, InterPlay doesn’t look much different than a lot of other New Agey improv/movement workshops in the Bay Area. However, founders Cynthia and Phil have taken great care to articulate BOTH the improvisational structures AND the underlying philosophies of InterPlay, in a way that mainstream audiences can appreciate. They know how to ease regular people into finding freedom of expression in a sneaky, incremental way. For example, participants don’t do a solo improv dance right away; instead, they do a simple 30-second hand dance. Or…participants learn to improv stories by talking about anything for only 30-seconds. ANYone can talk for 30-seconds! If my friend Igor, who is a tech Geek in his late-20s, can do this…anyone can!

“Get Real” Potential: Although it’s hard for me to admit, there are some people who just don’t want to play in public. And they feel free enough in their bodies without having to go to a silly class. My friend “Stacy” is one of these people. She just feels too self-conscious being that silly in public, and would much rather connect one-on-one over a glass of tea than move and tell stories in a group of people. So for Stacy, InterPlay is quite literally NOT her cup of tea!

What I Got out of it: OMG, I’ve gotten SO MUCH out of InterPlay, I can’t even begin to summarize it all (can you tell that this is my most biased entry on this website?). The Tuesday night InterPlay group is a huge gift in my life, kind of like church is for some people. For an hour-and-a-half I can move and play and connect with others and throw all self-consciousness out the window. But I can do it in a way that feels safe, not like the dance jams around town where there are often questionable boundaries that border on the sexual or the uncomfortably ecstatic. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of the gifts I’ve gotten from InterPlay…but if I tried to explain more, you’d just think I’m a nut. Come try it first (Tuesday nights from 6-7:30 most weeks are where you will find me).

Learn more about InterPlay

    Filed under: Courses/Workshops, Growth, Improv, Pop, Video   |  6 Comments

    6 Comments on “Review: InterPlay”  

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    1. 1 marc on Oct 15th, 2007 said:

      This looks like a lot of fun. I looked at the site and it’s also really financially accessible. I’ve been thinking a lot about how expensive personal development is these days, and some of InterPlay’s work is so cheap it feels like I’d be stealing!

      • 2 Gretchen on Oct 15th, 2007 said:

        Thanks for finding that You Tube piece, Marc!! It helps to show, better than I could have, the “pop potential” of InterPlay. From homeless women to kids in juvenile hall to middle class folks who need to (as one of my 7th grade students put it) “take a chill pill.”

        And I too have noticed how expensive personal development has become! I have to admit that the other day in a workshop on prosperity I felt positively foolish as I looked around at all the serious people in intense diads, trying so earnestly to transform, and I thought to myself, “WHAT are we doing, and WHY are we spending so much money to do it?”

        • 3 marc on Oct 15th, 2007 said:

          Thanks Gretchen, but the truth is that Scott found it.

          As for price, I think that personal development _is_ worth paying for. And in a conversation with Scott about a new venture of his, we agreed that paying for it actually puts something at stake. If I pay money, especially if I pay near the limit of what I feel is “worth it” then you bet your butt I’ll give it my all. And since personal development is all about how much you put into it, then the money actually serves a purpose other than supporting the coaches: it supports _you_ too.

          Read more on the thread in our forums

          • 4 scott on Oct 15th, 2007 said:

            I love the idea that improv can loosen you up to really have freedom with people and situations. I think it’s really true and is one area I want to work on for myself…how do I loosen up those vocal chords, especially when I’m nervous!

            • 5 Gretchen on Oct 16th, 2007 said:

              I’m with you that certain personal development workshops are worth paying for! And DEFINITELY people are more invested when their money is at stake (I can speak for myself here and say that is definitely true). I think about this a lot as a teacher of middle school students, and the differences between public and private schools…and the fact that even at my private school, the kids who are doing the learning are not the ones paying for it, so their motivation for being there comes from a different place than their parents!

              I guess my discomfort comes in when the ONLY way that people grow is when they go to workshops. What happened to communities as sources of strength and growth and love? I guess in many ways, these workshops have replaced church in our cultural life. I think, too, about Malidoma Some’s book The Healing Wisdom of Africa”…perhaps I’ll post a separate review of that book.

              I also have some questions about the inherent classism/elitism in the way personal development workshops are structured. And I often wonder about the huge emphasis that is placed on individual growth and ego-redemption… which is why I so appreciate Growth Pop as a medium to explore some of these questions, so that I have a forum in which I don’t have to take my craving for transformation too, too seriously.

              • 6 Gretchen on Oct 16th, 2007 said:

                Thanks, Scott, for the YouTube piece! :-)
                And come play with us some Tuesday night…the more the merrier!

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