InterPlay with Ruth Schowalter

Connecting, Inspiring & Supporting Women from Around the World through Play & Meal Sharing A woman from Egypt, head covered in a hijab, bursts into a big smile as she enters the Little Five Points (L5P) Community Center Café in Atlanta, Georgia, for a morning of InterPlay and meal sharing. She sees a roomful of women, many wearing hijabs – and until this moment – she has felt isolated in this metropolitan city of five million from women like her. Although these other women in hijabs are Turkish, there is a visible commonality signaled by the scarves covering their heads. Likewise, a woman from Mexico, softens as she steps into the room filled with international women – she is not the “different one” as the only “foreigner” present.  Sharing Stories Across Turkish & Egyptian Cultures Over the next 30 minutes, close to thirty women arrive. They are asylum seekers, American citizens, internationals working or studying abroad. They differ in age, nationality

InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body, and I am fortunate to the have the opportunity of offering InterPlay to my community in many venues - science  and  business communication, English language fluency, empowering women who have resettled here in the United States, and  creativity! Recently, I had the pleasure of bringing the gift of InterPlay to my community YMCA. On a Friday night in the middle of September, as a way of giving to my YMCA community in Atlanta, Georgia, I led participants in making marks, telling stories, and “leaping” from these “storied lines” in movement - knowing that through play we can “dance” with our creative spirits.  By making taking incremental steps - one mark, one move, one story, one partner at a time - we find the way back to the juiciness of our imaginations and into the flow of infinity. And we do it in the company on the “playground” with others! Wheee!  I'm so thankful to Tara Hardy at

Using InterPlay in the English Language Classroom A license to play in the classroom! Imagine these teaching objectives for an elementary English as a Second Language class called “Talk More”: 1) Help students find more comfort and ease when speaking in English. 2) Increase students’ sense of English language efficacy and communication confidence. This past May, being given the permission to use “pure”  InterPlay  in a 3-week intensive English “Talk More 1” course consisting of 18 hours of instruction, thrilled me! I would engage the “whole student body” – body, mind, and heart! This kind of “whole body” engagement was going to be especially important in this unique class comprised of students from two distinctly different cultures – six Panamanians and six Japanese! I expected the students from Panama to have more expressive ease than students from Japan, but I didn’t know how this 50/50 combination would blend the differences, allowing the students a give-and-take of cultur