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Drumming up energy

Votaries of interplay say that through this practice, which involves speech and body movements, one can reduce stress and regain life’s balance.

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Swaying to the tune of your favourite song is refreshing and de-stressing. But would you do it in front of others? Would you let others see the battier side of you? If you do, you would join in interplay.

Votaries of interplay say that through this practice, which involves speech and body movements, one can reduce stress and regain life’s balance.

“You can explain or tell something to your body in five ways — moving, telling stories, vocalisation, eye connect and touch, and stillness and rational thinking,” says Cynthia Winton-Henry, cofounder of InterPlay and co-director of Body Wisdom Inc. Henry founded the practice 20 years ago with Phil Porter. Both of them are artists.

“As an artist, I was drawn to understanding the human experience. I wanted to explore it,” Henry, a dancer, says, adding that interplay is not a therapy but a practice in which there are no expectations of being healed from anything and yet healing is achieved in the due course of time.

Henry and Porter started with a small group of artists and went on to organise interplay workshops and courses in over 50 countries. A typical workshop starts with 30 seconds of story telling, in which two people have to share something with each other on a common topic.

“These small things make people open up,” says Fr Prashant Olalekar, founder of InterPlay India. After the narration session, the participants are supposed to move their hands for 30 seconds. The programme advances with small dance movements, which are a form of emotional release.

“I had people suffering from multiple sclerosis attend my workshop. They felt pain at first, but later came in sync with the others,” Henry, who was recently in India on a Global Peace Exchange programme, says. “In the steps we perform lie the ways of knowing what our body needs.”

She says the adivasis unknowingly know the benefits of interplay. Their dance is a form of communication and also a release of emotions and connection with ‘God’ and Nature.

Problems such as inner conflict and conflict between relationships can be solved through this method, which includes deep breathing, laughing and loud sighing. “Interplay creates conditions for the healing. But a person needs to be willing to get healed.”

Fr Olalekar, who went to the US for studies, attended Henry’s workshop and decided to introduce it in India. InterPlay India was founded five years ago and has been conducting workshops since then.

“I have held interplay workshops for all age groups and also for cancer patients and people suffering from other diseases,” he says.

“Interplay can be used as an art to assist people. There is no age limit to perform interplay,” Henry says. Summing up interplay, CathyAnn Beaty, minister of the United Church of Christ and a beneficiary of the method, says, “I was suffering from depression for many years. Interplay gave me an outlet. I have been practicing it for 20 years and am now off medicines.”

 

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