Playing with kids at the Ansteys building 2012
“It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.” D.W. Winnicott, Playing and Reality
In her profession as a play facilitator/teacher/collaborator Anthea adopts playful methodologies that encourage risk taking, experimenting and participatory practice. Anthea has over ten years experience in working with play in the arts and she has dedicated the most part of her life to the study and practical implementation of embodied playful methodologies. This has led her to facilitate various play workshops locally and internationally.
As we get older we are told to ‘grow up!’ and so we tend to forget about the playful side of ourselves. Anthea strongly believes that playing is basically learning through doing and that in today’s world there is no time for mistakes, failure or for experimentation. So, adopting both a dramatic and visual arts approach, Anthea seeks to make space for play, where mistakes, experimentation and even possible failure (!) can take place. She believes this is crucial in developing our own understanding of ourselves and others, the world and our place in it.
Please see various past projects for more. Contact her if you would like to include a workshop in your yearly activities. She works and plays with anyone and everyone - from kids, school children/adolescents to students and corporates.
PLAY AS PARTICIPATION and COLLABORATION:
Play invites participation – it is quite hard to play alone and it is often more fun and rewarding to play with others. Here the participants engage in collaborative playful practice, where they are challenged to let go of their individual practice and invite alternative ways of making together in developing one art work/experience/game. They are challenged to use active listening skills and to share and experiment with various modes of participatory making together.
Flipside game participants learning the teleportation dance, Braamfontein 2012
PLAY AS RISK TAKING:
Building upon the last point: in letting go of the preciousness of the individual artwork, the participant takes a risk: they risk failure! In experimenting, in playing games there are many risks that are experienced: the risk involved in trying new things, in working with others, in singing a song, in dancing a dance, in making a mess or a mistake, in surrendering to the process instead of fixating on the perfect end result. Taking risks are a crucial part of the creative process as with each risk taken the participant will get braver in their experimenting.
Players at Have City Will Play game Newtown, 2007
PLAY AS ESCAPE and AS FANTASY:
Playing often involves a bit of ‘fantasy’ or ‘make-believe’. As we get older we are encouraged to minimize time for these childish activities and focus on our work. But these times are crucial for the imagination to run wild, to expand, to make room for the unexpected, and to make new connections
Oprah Winfrey School grade 11 girls performing "Dada's Daughters" 2010
