Cynthia Winton-Henry: INTERPLAY - ART - BODY - SOUL

Over the past four decades, this episode's guest, Cynthia Winton-Henry, and the worldwide community, she and her collaborator, Phil Porter, have helped to grow, have sparked a reconvening of the pre-historic circle of dance and song, and story that animated and nurtured the nascent human community.

For more inspiring change maker stories also check out the Change the Story Collection

Cynthia Winton-Henry, M.Div, co-founded InterPlay (www.interplay.org) with Phil Porter in 1989. They mentor teachers around the world in best practices to build community and unlock the wisdom of the body using movement, story, stillness, and voice. Cynthia hosts weekly Online Dance Chapels at the Hidden Monastery at www.cynthiawinton-henry.com and teaches the initiations needed by gifted and sensitive bodies using her Self-Care Playbook in the Art of Ensoulment. She’s taught at Holy Names University’s Sophia Center and the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, and at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where she received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Her books include Move: What the Body Wants by Woodlake Press, Chasing the Dance of Life published by Apocryphile Press and Dance: A Sacred Art by Skylight Press, and wrote the concluding essay "Grace Operatives: How Body Wisdom Changed the World" in Phenomonlogies of Grace edited by Marcus Bussey and Camilla Mozzini.

Interplay: InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body

Phil Porter: Phil is one of the founders of InterPlay. He is a teacher, performer, writer, and organizer. With Cynthia Winton-Henry he is the co-founder of WING IT! Performance Ensemble, and has written several books, some in collaboration with Cynthia, including Having It All: Body, Mind, Heart & Spirit Together Again at Last and The Slightly Mad Rantings of a Body Intellectual Part One. Phil is particularly interested in the use of InterPlay in organizational life and believes that InterPlay can be a powerful tool to create communities of diversity and peace.

African Art in Motion: The exhibition was based on a concept of Robert Farris Thompson, associate professor of art history at Yale University, that African art can only be understood through a grasp of African dance and ritual and in the special language of body motion: implied, arrested, or expressed. T

Ruth St. Dennis: was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Genevieve Stebbins. St. Denis was the co-founder in 1915 of the American Denishawn...

Over the past four decades, this episode's guest, Cynthia Winton-Henry, and the worldwide community, she and her collaborator, Phil Porter, have helped to grow, have sparked a reconvening of the pre-historic circle of dance and song, and story that animated and nurtured the nascent human community.

For more inspiring change maker stories also check out the Change the Story Collection

Cynthia Winton-Henry, M.Div, co-founded InterPlay (www.interplay.org) with Phil Porter in 1989. They mentor teachers around the world in best practices to build community and unlock the wisdom of the body using movement, story, stillness, and voice. Cynthia hosts weekly Online Dance Chapels at the Hidden Monastery at www.cynthiawinton-henry.com and teaches the initiations needed by gifted and sensitive bodies using her Self-Care Playbook in the Art of Ensoulment. She’s taught at Holy Names University’s Sophia Center and the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, and at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where she received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Her books include Move: What the Body Wants by Woodlake Press, Chasing the Dance of Life published by Apocryphile Press and Dance: A Sacred Art by Skylight Press, and wrote the concluding essay "Grace Operatives: How Body Wisdom Changed the World" in Phenomonlogies of Grace edited by Marcus Bussey and Camilla Mozzini.

Interplay: InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body

Phil Porter: Phil is one of the founders of InterPlay. He is a teacher, performer, writer, and organizer. With Cynthia Winton-Henry he is the co-founder of WING IT! Performance Ensemble, and has written several books, some in collaboration with Cynthia, including Having It All: Body, Mind, Heart & Spirit Together Again at Last and The Slightly Mad Rantings of a Body Intellectual Part One. Phil is particularly interested in the use of InterPlay in organizational life and believes that InterPlay can be a powerful tool to create communities of diversity and peace.

African Art in Motion: The exhibition was based on a concept of Robert Farris Thompson, associate professor of art history at Yale University, that African art can only be understood through a grasp of African dance and ritual and in the special language of body motion: implied, arrested, or expressed. T

Ruth St. Dennis: was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Genevieve Stebbins. St. Denis was the co-founder in 1915 of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. She taught notable performers including Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. In 1938, she founded the pioneering dance program at Adelphi University. She published several articles on spiritual dance and the mysticism of the body.

Doug Adams: (1945 April 12 - 2007 July 24) was professor of Christianity and the Arts at Pacific School of Religion for 31 years and member of the core Graduate Theological Union faculty. Adams was an international scholar in religion and the arts, worship, dance and humor. He authored hundreds of articles and a dozen books, inspired and mentored thousands of students, and lectured and conducted workshops throughout the US.

God Sex and Power A 1992 completely improvised performance directed by Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry, cofounders of InterPlay, with Beth Hoch Scott Galuteria, Amar Khalsa, David McCauley, and Debra Weir. This performance, part of San Francisco's Edge Festival, happened in the Mission District.

Masankho Banda is an accomplished dancer, drummer and choreographer from Malawi. Using performing arts, Masankho motivates and inspires people of all ages to work together for peace, social justice and cultural understanding. He has personal experience of living under a totalitarian government where his father was imprisoned in 1980 for his efforts to maintain democracy and economic stability in Malawi.  

Coke Tani is a movement and literary artist, spiritual companion, and teacher/facilitator. In addition to having co-led the Secrets of InterPlay & Life Practice Program, Coke served as InterPlay's first Liaison to Leaders of Color, where she introduced the expansion of InterPlay forms for embodied anti-racism education, and co-created InterPlay's first BIPOC Daylong Retreat. She holds an MSW, MFA and MDiv.

Kira Allen: This Certified InterPlay leader is an author, collage artist, activist, advocate, and facilitator who specializes in working with Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Queer communities. She holds an M.A. in Transformative Arts from John F. Kennedy University, and a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from Mills College. Bearing witness to her own traumas and triumphs through a wide variety of modalities inspires her work with participants of all ages in: classrooms, homeless shelters, churches, non-profits and intimate circles inside people’s homes. 

Soyinka Rahim (GSP) is a grassroots spiritual practitioner who is the founder and artistic director of BIBOLOVE.US which stands for "breathe in breathe out love." She was also the founder of OurThing Performing arts company, where she created the modern-day folk dance play An Altar Piece to Alter Peace, a multimedia, intergenerational performance piece for peace. 

Bibolove.US practice is to “breathe in, breathe out love.us” using meditation, affirmation, visualization and movement we allow our bodies to overflow with peace, love, joy, health, happiness, grace, and ease, knowing Love has the power to conjure up our light, aligning our seven chakras, connecting hearts and souls in all our relations.

Kelsey Blackwell Decolonizing the Body: Healing, Body-Centered Practices for Women of Color to Reclaim Confidence, Dignity, and Self-Worth: Kelsey Blackwell Decolonizing the Body: Healing, Body-Centered Practices for Women of Color to Reclaim Confidence, Dignity, and Self-Worth.

Mairi Campbell: Mairi Campbell is a Scottish folk singer and musician. Campbell's songs and music have a rooted and powerful quality that range from the everyday to the universal, both in sound and subject matter. Campbell has been much praised for her singing voice and musical skills

The Lea Rig: A much loved song by the Scotish poet Robert Burns, that has manifested as many versions and interpretations.

Hazel Lobo: Hazel is an artist, activist whose passion is to create safe and nourishing spaces. PLAY continues to be an integral part in her work on gender, sexuality and restorative justice. Playing with communities at the margins in India have continued to give her the courage to show up and lead play in different spaces and context with the common desire to belong to community.

Prashant Olalekar together with the InterPlay India team played a pioneering role in actively promoting InterPlay in India and building bridges through Global Peace Exchanges. He is a Jesuit, peace activist, spiritual director, and educator.

Secrets of Interplay: The Secrets of InterPlay for Helping Professionals is a time for self-care, self-reflection and skill-building. As Audre Lorde reminds us - “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”