Since 2009, JABADAO has taught more than 2,000 early years practitioners about the many benefits that physical play brings to a child’s development, learning and capacity for happiness, and how to support these through our Developmental Movement Play (DMP) approach. But still we wanted to make more impact.
We wanted to show how small children really inhabit their bodies when they have the opportunity; to show what child-led movement play really looks like, and what happens when adults who are also very physical – dancers and acrobats – meet children as genuine equals. So, in 2012 we commissioned The Tig.
The Tig is a space made for exuberant movement play; a space where the adults are also challenging themselves to find the physical skills that are just out of reach, as young children are; a space where words are replaced by our first and most direct language – movement. The Tig has its own culture – the culture of physicality. In here, we can fast-track to a different way of being and demonstrate, quickly, the way things could be.
DANCERS AND ACROBATS
Every year we take The Tig to children’s centres, set it up for five days and invite children and families to join us in this light-filled dome – peopled by six dancers and acrobats who are just itching to play.
Ten children come in at a time, accompanied by two early years practitioners. Sometimes there are more adults, but we tend to limit the number, as adults can really affect what children do – especially if they are not interested in movement – and most of all because adults find it so hard not to talk! Sometimes children come with their families, and the ratios of adults and children are different. Parents and carers can watch or play as they choose.
Everything, to the surprise of the adults but not the children, happens in movement. Lasting a full-on, flat-out 40 minutes, by which time we are all red in the face and exhausted, the content is guided by two ‘rules’. First, the play comes from the children – it is their movement ideas that the dancers pick up on and develop. Secondly, the dancers must also play for themselves – not just because there are children involved. The adults are playing because it is a powerful part of the human condition – we love, and need, it.
The result is an experience that crackles with energy. Jaws literally drop as adults watch the exhilaration that comes from dancers and children alike. ‘This is a portal into another way of being,’ said one collaborating promoter, while an early years advisor remarked, ‘I learnt more about how children play in that 40 minutes than in 30 years of work in the sector. It’s stunning.’
FALLING, SLIDING, BOUNCING
When the children come in, without any idea what this experience might be, we watch their individual bodies to see what they might want. We ask, ‘What does this body want?’ and, ‘What does my body want?’, and the play emerges from here. It is simply a big version of the indoor movement play area that we recommend as part of the DMP approach in early years settings.
Some children show us immediately what they want. They fly into the space and find the opportunities that they crave – running and falling, running and sliding, jumping and sliding down the curved walls, bouncing belly-down on the soft body balls, climbing up the dancers and acrobats, diving into the squashy balls in one of the small pods around the central space.
Some children need to watch for a while, to take it all in before they know what they feel. Some seek slow and gentle movement, some love to be slid on fleecy blankets. Some burrow under blankets. Some wind themselves in the long lengths of Lycra lengths and twizzle out.
The dancers and acrobats play with these resources as well, and together – big adult bodies balancing on each other, climbing up each other, hiding each other, sitting on each other, pushing and shoving each other. And the fascinating thing is that the children seldom stop to watch the dancers, although the adults often can’t resist nudging them and pointing to ‘the performance’. Children are much too busy doing it for themselves.
At the end, there are still no words. We signal the end slowly – over about five minutes the dancers and acrobats, one by one, simply lie down together on a rug in the centre. And by this time, everyone is happy to rest. The children notice and change their play. Without a word, at the signal from the last remaining dancer, they all leave and ‘real life’ resumes.
The Tig has a ‘magic’ quality. ‘It’s Baby Circus,’ said one dad who had brought a one- and a three-year-old, and delighted in learning to do a headstand for himself. ‘Wow! Wow! That’s what I call wow,’ said a six-year-old. And the parent of an autistic child said, ‘Six years of physio and he has never achieved the range of movement he had in that 40 minutes.’
We have taken The Tig to Chester, Lancaster, Gloucester, Fareham, Lincoln, North Yorkshire, Leeds, Bradford, Hull – and we hope to take it to many more children’s centres. In each place, practitioners have had an eye-opening experience and children spend time following their drive to move as their brain and body need.
The challenging thing, of course, is the cost. We are uncompromising on quality and safety, and we prioritise working with hard-to-reach families, which requires a different approach to ‘marketing’ to make sure they are well enough supported to attend. None of this comes cheap. But we work on fundraising alongside partners, and we always work with local networks to spread the cost.
Ultimately, the ‘magic’ that so many people comment on isn’t complicated – it is simply the power of play at work.
JABADAO
JABADAO was set up in 1985 to create more opportunities for people of all ages and energy levels to be physically playful, given the potential of movement to make life so much better.
In 1998, the charity embarked on what was to become 11 years of research into the impact of movement play on a child’s development, learning, well-being and social interaction, and how adults can support young children’s physicality better. What emerged was Developmental Movement Play (DMP), with settings across the UK now incorporating aspects of the approach into their everyday practice.
Penny Greenland MBE is founder and director of national centre for physical play JABADAO.
MORE INFORMATION
For information about courses and projects, email: penny@jabadao.org
