Between the “real me” & the me that I play

The Deep Play Institute presents: between the “real me” & the me that I play: a 5-day deep play workshop series in Berlin [June 16-20]

This workshop series is a collection of experiments aimed at combining, remixing and integrating two distinct lineages of practice: 1) performing arts practices — in particular improvisational & expressive movement, dance and theatre, and 2) healing arts — in particular somatic-psychodramatic practices, as well as here & now practices oriented towards authenticity. ​

On one side are practices of healing, transformation, and group process — Circling, Authentic Relating, Authentic Movement, Processwork, Partswork, Family Constellations and Psychodrama, among others. These practices are typically more for ourselves than for an audience, and more for collective transformation than for aesthetics. They attempt to strip away performative personas and ask with penetrative honesty: what is really happening?

On the other side are performative, dramatic, and dance practices that favor aesthetics — contact improvisation, Viewpoints, butoh, physical theatre, performance art, etc. These practices are devoted to the fascination, depth, composition and texture of our expressions. They value beauty as something which strikes and inspires us, whether pleasant or unpleasant, numbing or provocative, dangerous or safe, good or bad.
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Running through these two traditions are questions of truth, authenticity, and identity. Who is it that is performing? What me is present? What masks am I upholding? Does my art touch a deeper self, a more personal self, a more tender self?

Between performing and being (between the real me and the me that I play) there is a strange and incredibly fertile grey zone. Many of us have had the experience of watching someone perform and then, over a drink afterward, feeling far more connected to something real in them than we did during the show. Or the experience when someone begins playing music in the middle of a serious conversation, and suddenly the mood has entirely shifted. Or a moment when we are playing with a character whose emotions overwhelm and overtake us. Can we stay longer in these liminal in-between places, hold them open, and keep them from collapsing into one side or the other? Can we find the moment when play feels genuinely uncertain, when we are not quite sure if we are playing, and rather than retreating, stay there? Can we bring enough safety to keep going, to fold playfulness into existential questions, to take real moments of shame, embarrassment, anger, or blame and find the aesthetic beauty inside them? Can we hold open the spaces where we aren’t quite sure if this is art or healing? Can we hold open the moments where our “real” self bleeds into our “performance” self? And once there, can we create and co-create even further, even deeper, even more? These are some of the questions that we will explore together in this workshop series.

Who is this for? This workshop is for anyone curious about where these two worlds meet. For artists, dancers, and performers who want to bring transformative-healing arts, somatic practice, and authentic relating into their work. For therapists, coaches, facilitators, and somatic practitioners who want to lean into the aesthetic — to let expression, play, and performance become part of their practice. And for anyone drawn to these questions without a home in either world. It is recommended that participants have some prior experience in dance, theatre or movement practice.

Day 1 — Expressions of Truth | Tuesday, June 16 “What am I now? And now? And now?” This day draws from Authentic Movement, clowning, Fools Expression, Processwork, and Authentic Relating to explore a simple and surprisingly difficult question: can I bring what is actually true in me out into my body, my gestures, my voice? We’ll draw from practices that each approach this differently — some with tenderness, some with humor, some with a kind of unflinching attention, some more with our bodies and others more with our words. The thread running through all of them is asking what kind of “me” shows up across different activities and bringing in a deepened honesty and authenticity.

Day 2 — The Relational Field | Wednesday, June 17 From out of the first day’s exploration of “what is happening inside me?” on our second day together we will begin deepening into the question of “what is happening between us?” Through contact improvisation and Authentic Relating we’ll turn our attention to the relational field — the charged, living space between us. We’ll work with and without words and we’ll play with the fluid edge between self and other. We’ll also draw on scores from Sara Shelton Mann’s Solo/Neutral/Follow.

Day 3 — Group Work, Group Expression, Group Transformation | Thursday, June 17 We’ll continue to scale outwards — from the individual, the relational dyad, to the group as a whole. On Day 3 we will dive into the here & now practice of Circling to notice together what is happening between us as it occurring. And then we will try out an adjacent practice called “Parts Circling” where we embody inner parts while we Circle. Then we’ll move into Psychodrama (and related practices) in efforts to dramatically map our inner and collective turmoils and joys with the group.

Day 4 — Composition | Friday, June 18 With the material, explorations and sediment built from the first three days we will now play with styles of composition. We’ll move through contact improv scores that explore emergent composition, and then explore two practices that play with composition through the role of a director. Conductor is a vocal game in which one person shapes the group’s sound in real time. Clearing is a psychodramatic form in which relational and emotional material gets staged as live composition. Both ask what becomes possible when one of us tries to hold the tension between the playful and the serious.

Day 5 — Scoring | Saturday, June 19 On our final day together we will lean into the process of co-creating scores. We’ll begin by looking at some examples of scores related to our workshop’s exploration — fluxus scores, Pauline Oliveros, Tino Sehgal, John Zorn, Alexandra Bosetti, Brian O’Doherty’s Structural Plays, and some past conversation scores developed by the facilitator. Then we will create short performance pieces using the entire group as material, drawing on everything we’ve discovered and accumulated throughout the week.

Practical details

Costs: 250€ early bird before June 1st. 300-400€ sliding scale after June 1st. A limited number of reduced price tickets are available for those in extreme financial precarity. Partial attendance options are also possible depending on which days you are able to attend, so please reach out with your specific request.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 20 days before the event – minus a 20€ processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for the event.

Registration & questions? Please email: thedeepplayinstitute@gmail.com for registration and any questions.