Body Playground Framework

27/5/2016 written by BLAŽ BRANC

​

If you wish that we design a BODY PLAYGROUND EVENT for you, do not hesitate to contact us

Body Playground is a wonderful tool for TEAM BUILDINGS, LARP communities and as EXPERIENTAL LEARNING WORKSHOP !

 

Members of the team are located in 3 different countries!!

Sandra Anais & Goran Bogdanovski (Fičo balet, Ljubljana), sandra.anais.vidim@gmail.com

Blaž Branc (Baltazar marketing, Ljubljana), blaz.branc@gmail.com

Jasper Dzuki-Jelen & Mojra Vogelnik - Škerlj (The100Hands, Amsterdam), dzukidance@gmail.com

Christian Peter (Cirkustanti HR, Zagreb), christian.peter@cirkusanti.hr

​

 

About

A definition: Body Playground is a framework for gamifying physicality and at the same time, a framework for physicalizing games.
The result is a game, played out purely physically, with bodies only.

 

Origins

The original idea was to gather a group of 'physical' teachers and make a compilation of games they use either as energizers or as an exercise to teach a concept.
​When I say 'physical' I mean various methods of movement: contemporary dance, contact improvisation, embodied archetypes, circus pedagogy, martial arts.

 

Assembling a team

I managed to assemble a team, all first choices: Goran Bogdanovski (Fico Balet, SI), Sandra Anais (Dance Ecology, SI), Christian Peter (Triko Teatar/HR), Jasper Dzuki Jelen (The100Hands, NL) and Mojra Vogelnik Skerlj (The100Hands, NL). With five movement professionals and one game designer, the journey began.

​

Design - constant beta

After the first run of Body Playground: Isabelle, a playful journey, the team concluded we created something quite extraordinary. But, being from three different countries, we agreed that each team member is allowed to freely exploit the materials in his/her's own work, since it was not likely we would continue to work together on a day-to-day basis.


A year has passed since. I have being using some vignettes in my training courses and workshops, as ice-breakers and energizers, albeit stripping them of context.
What I learned generally in game design is: if a mechanic can be redesigned into a physical mechanic, do it. Physicality connects and speaks to body and mind, is free of language barriers; it's a high way to the solar plexus and the heart.

In April 2016 I was contacted by Robert Hönn, a yoga teacher. He explained he is finishing teaching a class of teacher candidates, a master class. He was planning a weekend retreat that would be spent in silence. Having seen my work with LARP, he was interested to run a LARP for his students. Body Playground: Isabelle seemed like a perfect match.

But I was self-conscious: how do I run the journey without my team? Surely I was not competent to run all those vignettes. I'm no dancing teacher.
Robert promised his support and suggested we run it together.
I re-examined the vignettes. I excluded the ones that I felt were the most difficult to facilitate and added some new ones.
Robert took over Energetica, the warm-up vignette.

And so, in May 2016, 20 more souls have taken a part in the Playful journey. According to player's feedback, the journey was beautiful, something that no one has experienced before.

For me, working with Robert and running the project for the 2nd time, speaks volumes:

- Body Playground: Isabelle is re-runable

- It could potentially be run by anyone experienced in facilitating physical exercises and role-playing games

- it is flexible in its modular design: vignettes can easily be added, removed, modified.

Hopefully, the future would bring a challenge to thank Isabelle for doing business with us, and design a different LARP for the climax, thus creating a new embracing story that would give rise to new vignettes and a whole different journey.
​Most of all, I hope to see Body Playground framework used by other dance/movement and LARP professionals.

​

Spreading the experience

To my knowledge, Body Playground: Isabelle, first run publicly in May 2015, is a double innovation. It has achieved two things:

- gamification of physical methods, exercises and routines

- physicalization of 'classical' pen and paper and alike games

Considering my professional involvement, I hope for 2 futures to happen:

- I hope the Nordic LARP community would benefit from Body Playground's work on physicalising play

- I hope facilitators and teachers in general will come to learn the benefits of gamification (contextualization at least)

​

TO READ MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE PROCESS CLICK HERE

​

If you wish that we design a BODY PLAYGROUND event for you, do not hesitate to contact us!