There have been more than a few times in workshops when I have jumped between being a participant and some level of facilitator. I have been involved with preschoolers through senior citizens in groups that featured some aspect of the Halprin Method/Motional Processing/Life Art Process. I get invited to lead/teach in a variety of settings that always requires sensitivity to how people react/respond to direction given. Here is an example (out of possible hundreds) that demonstrate how I have applied some aspects of the life art process in group of kids.
In 1997 I decided to change pace from only working with adults to working with children at the local YMCA in their after-school and preschool programs. I applied, and they were quite happy to hire me being a man, and having group experience (abet with adults). I would show up twice a week, and the teachers would bring a group of kids down to the gym, and I would do my thing while one or two teachers watched and the others took a break. I brought a hand drum, some percussion instruments, a bamboo flute, and some music. I also brought a bag of scarves that I used as props for the kids to move with.
The kids really loved this class, they were told at the beginning by their teachers that it was a special treat/class and I was often used as a tool for discipline. In other words, if you did not listen or obey, then no class with “Mr. Richard!” So, for eight dollars an hour, I put my decade and a half of experience working with adults to the test by doing more or less the same thing with kids.
The two-year-old group averaged nine kids in a class, and occurred once a week for about thirty minutes. I decided to use the name game to meet the three basic intentions I had developed for the two-year-olds. The intentions were, to get the kids to sit still in a circle, listen and follow directions, and increase the possibilities of play/movement within that structure.
In the name game, a person says his or her name, and uses movement to express something in relation to his/her name. In most circumstances, the group mirrors back the person’s name and the movement. This is a very simple exercise, and an easy way to begin movement in a group, and to have participants express with their bodies in front of others. It’s also, the beginning of making a connection between what you are thinking and feeling, your body, and how you are expressing yourself through your body.
The two simple directions, say your name and do a movement, can be opened and expanded in a variety of ways. For instance, you could direct the person to create a movement based on a theme, such as what they are feeling. You can expand further by having the group echo back the name and/or the movement of the person with the same qualities, or with the qualities that are experienced when the name and movement is mirrored back. You could also have the name expanded by using a nick-name or a name that each person wants to use for that moment. There are many ways to expand dependent on the dynamic of the group and/or the intention/theme of the class.
The first obstacle I faced with meeting the intentions was the location. My classes took place in the gym where the teachers would get to the door of the room and literally unleash the kids. All the children, with a great amount of glee, would run forth and play with some abandon as soon as they stepped into the room.
In order to create a smoother transition and to maintain some control, I asked the teachers to bring the kids into the gym in a line (which they used to get them from their class room to the gym). From there they proceeded to chairs which were in a row placed against the wall of the gym. It only took a few times for this new way of entering the room to become the standard.
Having two-year-olds sit for fifteen minutes in a circle on the ground seemed to be something that all of the teachers thought of as a bit daft. As one later confided in me, they thought of me as some hapless expert who had no real life experience in the field. I knew that I had some distinct advantages: I was a man in a facility of all women, and I had a never-ending bag of group process experiences. Granted, these process experiences were designed for adults but I figured I could follow Anna Halprin’s words of advice from years earlier; “….with the life art process you can take any theme and expand or contract it at a moment’s notice to an hour, day or week-long experience.”. Using that bit of advice, I simplified the name game and other process experiences and kept them to their core themes.
In using the name game with the two-year-olds, I decided to keep the options for expression fairly closed. For the beginning of each class, I would have the kids enter the room and sit on the chairs. I would sit on the floor and when everyone was present and focused, I would have them come to me and sit in a circle around me. For the first few months or so, I had the teachers join in the circle.
For the first month, I talked about voices and sound and level of sound, what a whisper is, what being really loud is, and what using your voice in-between is. I asked the kids, one at a time, to say their name in a normal/regular voice. I repeated their name and mimicked their movements/mannerisms that were expressed.
For instance, one child was very shy and cocked her head to the right side when she said her name. I echoed her immediately after by saying her name (with the same voice quality) and cocking my head to the right.
After everyone had a chance to go, I repeated the exercise, but this time I had them whisper their names. The last round was shouting their name and raising their arms up. A few kids chose to stand when they did this and I did not discourage it. I repeated this exercise (amongst others) every week, sometimes expanding it to include the group echoing back, sometimes having them create their own movement.
As the weeks went on, I expanded it further, by including holidays and how that might be reflected in voice and movement quality. From that point I expanded to feelings, staying with happy and tired. Not being a therapist and this not being therapy, I did not want to go too deeply.
The first time in September when I worked with the two-year-olds I had three teachers helping me, sitting on the floor and corralling the kids from running away. By December I had just one teacher helping when needed, but who basically sat on the side and watched. I met my intentions with just the name game. The kids learned about following directions and appropriate behavior with voice and movement modulation requests. I engage them in such a manner that they did not feel a need to jump up and run around (or away from the circle). I helped them to noticed and create connections between voice, movement and feelings. I even had one child, who the teachers had literally never heard talk, one day suddenly stand up and say her name when it was her turn.
Reprinted from my unpublished manuscript: Renewal and Rediscovery of the Self in the Life Art Process
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