8 Shades of Play V2 - 2 - The Director / The Competitor
The Director
The Collector
8 Shades of Play - Time to Change Up This Groove
ATM ‘dress up’ lessons to ‘try on’ different play styles
Week 2- The Director / Competitor
A variation on the “Dual Pelvic Clocks” lesson from Alan Questel
“Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.”
Dr. Stuart Brown described 8 “play personalities” based on animal and human natural behaviors: The Joker - laughs; The Kinesthete - joy in movement; The Explorer - go deep; The Competitor - games or goals; The Director - organize; The Storyteller - imagine; The Collector - make connections; The Artist - express. This series takes a dive into ‘play personalities’ as a reframe for approaching classic ATM lessons.
This review of the 2022 “8 Shades of Play” series rearranges the pairings - just for fun; rearranging appeals to my storyteller, my connections-oriented collector, and a bit of the explorer - it’s an experiment!
This lesson pairs the “The Director” and “The Competitor”. A bit of ‘going down the rabbit hole’ research got me into research on the brain patterns that differentiate an effective leader from others, and from the ‘flow’ state of consciousness from the everyday.
And the similarities. What is common to these states is the ability to use brain power efficiently, not wasting any energy on non-essential activity. The same state we aim for in Awareness Through Movement lessons.
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
It comes as no surprise that business, military and other power players would turn to neurophysiology to better understand, and possibly, replicate “good leadership.” A 2012 paper on the “leadership” brain pattern shows that complexity, and the ability to focus and release attention as needed, are signatures of effective decision-makers’ brains. According to Wake Forest University’s Sean Hannah and a team of researchers , the prefrontal cortex of the brain can help assess that person’s potential for leadership:
“Think of it as a single core versus a multicore computer’s central processing unit (CPU),” Hannah says. “A multicore CPU can multitask because one core can process a task while the other CPU cores remain free to process new tasks. More complex brains are also more efficient in locking together only the brain resources needed to process a task and then efficiently releasing them when no longer needed.”
The study showed the high complex brains of the great leaders had a different “landscape.” The scans showed more differentiated activation patterns in the frontal and prefrontal lobes of leaders who demonstrated greater decisiveness, adaptive thinking and positive action orientation in the experiment.
In the flow state - Moshe Feldenkrais. source: Iff.og
Contrast this pattern with that considered “flow.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who coined the term, and introduced it in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He defines it as “A mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.” Flow represents humans operating at the edge of their intellectual capability. It represents humans fulfilling their potential, though it can also be difficult and uncomfortable.
In the flow state, known in the scientific literature as “transient hypofrontality,” the prefrontal cortex, the seat of higher-level thinking and inner critic, seems to go dormant for a moment. Networked interactions between multiple brain regions allow energetically efficient organization. In that state, the problem at hand has just the right amount of risk and challenge, the environment has just the right balance of familiarity and stimulation. In flow, people recognize the task’s demands and proceed without requiring excess amounts of energy. There are reams of words written on flow - go for it if you like.
Infinity Hips in action - Hula Hoop master at play
Play at leadership and flow patterns, adding and reducing complexity, shifting from external to interior focus, intentionally leading the movement and letting it flow.
The “Dual Clocks” lesson is our framework for exploration.
As the director, seek the connections from sit bone to sit bone as the hips rock side-to-side, front-to-back, and diagonal-to-diagonal. Be the team captain, tossing the ball to each player and then directing the passes between them. Bring multiple foci of attention into your play by bringing many ‘circles’ into awareness and allowing input from the environment to create opportunities for on-the-fly adaptions. Drive the movement with the intention of getting the whole body synched up and coordinated.
As the competitor seeking the flow state, turn off the internal critic, and allow all you have invested in knowing yourself manifest in easy movement. You are aware of the outside world, but it’s the inner environment that and sensations that guide you. We will create space to allow that to happen.
Set Up:
Seated on a flat-bottom, armless chair, knees and hips even
The Voice-O-Meter Healing Sounds choices this week relate to the emotions associated with each organ:
Heart - HAAAAA - laughter, relief, love, joy
Kidney/Bladder - CHOOO - kindness
Triple Burner - HEEEEEEE - wholeness and integration
How You Might Feel After This Lesson: Hula or Belly Dance ready; Connection between sit bones and ribs; Connection between feet and sit bones; Loose and Free hips; Sexier; Sillier; Joyful; Sensual; Fluid; Happy. In control, or in the flow.
New Student Registration for the series. Continuing students use ongoing login. $40/month or $15/individual class. PayPal or Venmo: jackisue@aol.com. Or Jacki Katzman, PO Box 116, Bethlehem, NH 03574
Gisele Ben Dor conducts Beethoven’s 4th Symphony, 4th movement
Leadership among other things - putting yourself out there, being the role model, the motivating force, the strongest player
Competitor - playing against others, your personal best