Ready to Play?!

Well, no, actually. ‘This is not an acting workshop’ said Annie. If our subtitles were on you would have seen a series of question marks above everyone’s heads. Instead, we were going to be doing a series of exercises, learning to listen to each other, trust each other and be part of a team. Okay. What followed was the most fun I have had in ages. Apart from there being no balloons or jelly and ice cream, you might have thought we were at a Children’s party! I’ll show you what I mean. We played:

The Stage Directions Game
Have you Ever? (Musical chairs)
Red Ball, Yellow Ball
The Rhythm Game
Leading your Blind Partner Game
Rubber Chicken
Me to You Game

And we learnt:
The importance of listening
How to focus on one person and instructions
How to communicate without words
How to keep in time with a group
How to be in a team.
The energy in the room was really upbeat and warm. I was so surprised to learn that two hours had flown by and I was still fully engaged.

I’m going to tell you about what happened when we played Me to You and you can see what I mean about it being fun as well as teaching us stuff.Seated in a circle, one person starts by holding out their arm as if offering an apple to someone across the space. They say ‘Me to you’ in a nice, weighted way. That person then repeats the exercise, choosing anyone they like. They look the recipient firmly in the eye as they do this. You do this for a bit, then stop speaking and just rely on the arm movement. Then this stops and you are simply receiving someone’s look, absorbing it and then looking at a new person and so on. And this is where the magic starts, in this silent space. In complete silence we were communicating, expressing emotions, conveying our moods. You heard of The Flow?

From wikipedia:
Flow in positive psychology, also known colloquially as being in the zone or locked in, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one's sense of time.[1] Flow is the melting together of action and consciousness; the state of finding a balance between a skill and how challenging that task is. It requires a high level of concentration.

Well, the Flow was in full force, yesterday afternoon. Our eyes criss crossed the room in a lattice formation and we were in perfect harmony. Pathos, fear, hilarity, boredom, affection were all spun out of thin air and shimmered briefly for all to see. So clever, so simple and such a strong bonding exercise.

Cake and bubbly to end the afternoon was a delightful touch. And I was on such a high that I wouldn’t have said no to a game of Pass the Parcel or Pin the Tail on the Donkey!

Rebecca Shields