Workshop Details

Why Sound Play? This is an interactive social practice which is meant to include everyone irrespective of culture, language and other identifiers. Being as universal as possible is not just a value but is an essential dimension of this practice for it to touch our deeper core. We humans are very strongly connected to sound and vibrations and since all of us have this primal network it becomes a way to communicate, exchange and restore ourselves. There is some formal research emerging to support this but we prefer to stick to the experiential route. The cognitive process has become over-dominating if not the exclusive preoccupation of many of us today. Sound Play creates spaces where less thinking and more sensing is enabled. Engaging in such spaces together gives us the 'permission' we need to take a break from the strictures we have imposed on ourselves in order to be part of the 'productive' machinery of modern society – a society now threatened by its very inability to sense. In this context, sound play inviteseverybody to let their hair and their guards down to be in the present. The musician and the non-musician equally get to experience the playful but primal power in sound and rhythm. It is a play where old rules can be unlearned so there are no mistakes and every move adds to the game. In people of ancient indigenous cultures people spent more time with dance, song, art, story-telling and stillness. These were woven through every part of whatever else they did in life. It was known that without these elements an individual can become disconnected from life and a person can therefore become sick in mind and body. For this reason, Sound Play is presented as a way of life rather than a therapy. It is therefore held together in a shared way without requiring a therapist. In fact, it it is really important that no one in such a circle tries to ‘fix’ anything or anyone. Leslie Nazareth ● A farmer - environmentalist, singer, song-writer and music teacher. ● Designed and conducted programs for youth on themes of self, community, democracy, environment and meeting the needs of people in a changing world Mayuree Pandit ● A process designer and facilitator, consultant for NGOs, and a server at heart. ● Worked with NGOs, communities and indigenous tribes on environment/ecology, education, participatory processes of governance, and peace. ● Mayuree loves dancing, pottery, gardening, yoga and playing the flute.