inter play at santa clara

Prashant Olalekar, S.J., JAI Guest Artist and Bannan Visitor

Embodied & Active Prayer,

InterPlay Improvisational Methods

and Ignatian Spirituality

Justice & the Arts Initiative (JAI) Guest Artist Series

Santa Clara University Fall 2011

Final Report on Prashant Olalekar, S.J.’s Residency

Sept 28-Oct 12, 2011

Compiled by Kristin Kusanovich and Nicholas Santos, S.J.

December 31, 2011

Final Report on Prashant Olalekar, S.J.’s Residency JAI Fall 2011 SCU

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Table of Contents:

Foreword and Project Description

by Kristin Kusanovich 3-7

Biographical Background 8

Sample of Campus Publicity 9

Reflections by Faculty & Staff 10-14

Michael Zampelli, S.J.

Carolyn Silberman

Jack Treacy, S.J.

Fr. George Aranha

Philip Boo Riley

Aldo Billingslea

Maeve Louise Heaney

Matthew Smith

Penelope Duckworth

Student Perspectives 15-18

Conclusion 19

By Kristin Kusanovich

photos by Chuck Barry


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Foreword and Project Description by Kristin Kusanovich, Co-Director, JAI, Senior Lecturer, Department

of Theatre and Dance and Liberal Studies Program at SCU

Prashant Olalekar, S.J., works at the intersection of Ignatian spirituality,

justice, the arts and embodied cognition. He draws upon the techniques of InterPlay, which

originated with Cynthia Winton Henry and Phil Porter’s groundbreaking work in dynamic

improvisational ensembles in the Bay Area of California. InterPlay helps people develop very

basic communication skills and be comfortable in interactive silences, sounds, stillness and

movement with others in a trusting, communal environment. Fr. Olalekar’s work takes

InterPlay into an even more prayerful direction, and follows in the tradition of the Jesuits

using the arts to help teach and build the faith. His work opens people to the possibility of

spiritual grounding, helps integrate a fragmented and disassociated self, and for some, offers

unsought after profoundly religious experiences among supportive witnesses.

Body wisdom, obvious to advanced practitioners of sport, dance, yoga, theatre, walking

meditation, martial arts, etc., is regularly dismissed for a variety of complex reasons; often it

can be difficult to describe or share experiences in embodied spirituality with words.

Interestingly enough, as a Catholic priest who represents a faith tradition that minimizes our

inherent ability to learn while moving, Fr. Olalekar’s approach to a deepening of our faith

relies on our ability, no matter what our limitations are, to mobilize our bodies in space in

order to accomplish this goal. Thus, to some, his work might be seen as revolutionary, or

even threatening. Afterall, it is based on his applications of a technique that originated in the

U.S. Though already applied in India successfully, through his ministry alongside of

marginalized groups and global peace exchanges, it might be seen as yet another shallow

cultural export that is dumped on the unsuspecting global market of ideas. In fact, being

highly interactive, his work could sound so threatening that a person might never venture

over to the sunny dance studio to see what is going on with those fifty people who have taken

off their shoes to listen, learn and move on a breezy October day at “the Jesuit University in

Silicon Valley” as Santa Clara University is marketed.

Fr. Olalekar did not work with wholly marginalized, disabled, impoverished or sex-

trafficking populations during his residency at SCU. But the 300 people that he interacted

with during his 2.5 week residency in the Fall of 2011 learned about life in India, his


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ministry, his work for peace and the organized efforts to effect change by bringing hope

through strengthened relationship and identity-building that InterPlay as he has fashioned it

creates. They saw images and heard stories, listened to music and watched videos of people

in Mumbai India living with remarkable challenges and experiencing transformations both

subtle and bold of nothing less than the human spirit.

In his homily at the Mission Santa Clara he challenged the congregation to see the beauty in

dis-ability, starting with our own areas of dis-ability. At SCU, in his interactions with

students, staff and faculty, he may have worked with people with non-visible disabilities,

people who have been abused, raped, had addiction issues and witnessed violence in their

family or community. He certainly engaged many students who would rather interact

through technology than face to face, let alone touch the shoulder or hand of a stranger and

meditate on a prayerful intention. And he definitely interacted with people who have

suffered family break-ups, depression, stress disorders from hard-pushing parents,

discrimination, bullying and isolation. The people he worked with were not the worst off in

society by any means. They were for the most part the 1% of the world’s population that will

have a college education soon. But there was obvious and articulated healing going on in

each of the sensitively facilitated workshops he led throughout his residency. Primarily, he

did work with people who may be in positions of leadership to help solve some of the world’s

greatest social and spiritual problems in the future. SCU is educating students to be leaders

with highly developed competence, compassion and conscience, and Fr. Olalekar’s residency

was a clear indication that the university is providing its community with a means for

meeting its mission to educate men and women for others.

Throughout Fr. Olalekar’s residency, participants were challenged to expand their

understanding of how we interact with God and each other, and how we listen to and notice

the ways we are being led to grow closer to God. Participants from young adults to senior

citizens came to understand the sophisticated notion of experiencing a specific calling with

regard to the shape of one’s ministry; in the case of Fr. Olalekar, this has involved becoming

an expert facilitator in InterPlay processes as a pathway to peace. By working to bring to

light the ways this technique can serve the Ignatian spirit of finding God in all things, Fr.

Olalekar has become truly effective and responsive to the real needs of the populations he

serves. This vocational discernment of his, so openly shared, really seemed to be appreciated

by participants who are also attempting to do that quiet activation and listening in their own

lives.

Many participants were probably not aware of the potentially threatening role that any

embodied practices, whether InterPlay, dance, mimesis, choreodrama, have played to


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greater or lesser degrees depending on the century, in the Catholic Church. They were

probably unaware that from many protectors of the Catholic faith there is the fearful sense

that since pagans, protestants and numerologists have at times included movement in their

practices of yore or even at present, we should avoid any exploration of the possibilities of an

embodied way of knowing our spiritual reality as Catholics because we could not possibly

find something fitting or appropriate in that.

Movement, like any technique or technology, can be used for good or ill. But it is not

inherently problematic or immoral. Dismissing the possibility of exploring this most

altruistic, artistic and sacred mode of learning that Fr. Olalekar and others understand to be

a new creative way of ministering to their deeply diverse societies, is akin to suggesting that

since pagans ate potatoes, priests who are called to serve soup shouldn’t allow potatoes in

the soup.

It was lovely to witness the openness of the participants, unsullied by such discourse, who

simply and generously allowed for the essentially phenomenological experience to be taken

for what it was and will remain: multiple and enduring tactics for spiritual encounter and

peace-building. Nor did the Catholics among the participants feel their rites threatened. No

one was naïve enough to misinterpret what was happening, walking away with the idea that

“this must be the new Catholic Church.” But plenty of participants surely said, to themselves,

“This is a potentially new facet of my experience of being a Catholic” and “this allows me to

see a new way in which I as a future leader, citizen or teacher could potentially serve the

most marginalized among us.”

Many participants were active Catholics who experienced immediately the uniqueness of this

approach but who also were able to consider this experience as framed by their

understanding of a faith life that does not stagnate. Certainly our faith relationship needs to

grow through time and that openness to a deeper relationship comes from our actively

seeking it. Fr. Olalekar’s work is a way of not letting our image of God be tied to too small a

set of rules, and yet it does not contradict the structure that brings Catholic practice into a

universally sharable rite.

Some participants raised Catholic or other Christian traditions, but not currently active in

their faith life, after experiencing one workshop had what might be termed a “faith

recollection”: a return of sorts to the sensitivities they may have had at a younger age to

prayerful intentions; the yearnings for that simple connectedness to God; the ability to

“play” in a clearly structured environment; and the permission to greet, interact with and get

to know strangers in an artistic and honest way. Fr. Olalekar’s work generously allows a


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space for and facilitates all of this.

Students not comfortable with any language regarding God or self-defined as atheists found

ways to express their appreciation for the experience and showed a graciousness toward Fr.

Olalekar and respect for the faith tradition he obviously represents and embodies as an

engaged Jesuit. They also benefited greatly from the experience.

Residency Organization

Fr. Olalekar was on the campus of Santa Clara University from September 28-October 12,

2011 courtesy of the Justice and the Arts Initiative (JAI) which is directed by Kristin

Kusanovich and Carolyn Silberman and the Bannan Visitor program of the Ignatian Center

for Jesuit Education directed by Mick McCarthy, S.J. His residency was managed by JAI

program council member Nicholas Santos, S.J. and Ms. Kusanovich, who applied for and

were awarded a Bannan Visitor grant to cover Fr. Olalekar’s travel expenses. Lodging and

fellowship were provided by the Jesuit community of SCU under leadership of Rector

Michael Zampelli, S.J.

Faculty and staff from six different departments hosted Prashant and showed an enormous

amount of creativity, flexibility and desire to learn more about India through his residency.

21 faculty and staff members attended lunch discussions to learn more intimately about the

practices and challenges of InterPlay India. In many cases, conversations turned to building

bridges in the future to allow for partnerships on the part of students, staff or faculty

wanting to connect through Fr. Olalekar with the Jesuit mission in India.

Fr. Olalekar’s residency was organized to not only provide in-depth experiences for members

of the campus community of SCU, but also to present him with multiple opportunities to

interact with a number of religious communities in the Bay Area who all work with issues of

diversity, religious education and marginalization. Every event in the residency was

thoughtful and thought-provoking and many people attended more than one time to have

more opportunities to learn from and experience his teachings.

Ms. Kusanovich and Fr. Santos produced, participated in and witnessed each portion of his

multi-faceted residency which included public lectures, workshops, academic lectures and

community events. Fr. Olalekar also met with leaders in the Jesuit community at SCU and

directors of programs. All in all he had 27 key activities in his 2.5 week residency. It is

estimated that he was able to interact with over 300 people during the Santa Clara leg of his

Fall 2011 ministry in the U.S. Carolyn Silberman (JAI and Theatre & Dance), Philip Boo

Riley (Religious Studies), Michael Zampelli (Performance Studies), Patricia Plude (Music),


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and Greg Schultz (Campus Ministry) all interacted extensively with Fr. Olalekar and

collaborated with him to create learning experiences through various lenses of the arts,

theology, spirituality, culture and ideas, improvisation and liturgy.

Off-campus offerings included a workshop for community members at the local St. Clare’s

Parish with 25 parishoners, school staff, students and Fr. George Aranha, and a staff

development afternoon with 74 staff members of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County

staff led by CEO Greg Kepferle. Fr. Olalekar also presided at the INFOCUS mass, a monthly

gathering of Indian families for Catholic mass from from a number of parishes in the Bay

Area hosted by Fr. George Aranha and now in its tenth year.

Following key on-campus workshops, JAI arranged for written reflections and evaluations to

be collected as evidence of the effect of Fr. Olalekar’s teachings and workshops. This report

contains only a sampling of faculty, staff and student perspectives culled from the responses.

It also contains photos taken by SCU university photographer Chuck Barry. It is hoped that

this report will be useful for Fr. Olalekar’s fellow Jesuits in India, the staff at the Ignatian

Center at SCU, and those interested in the way JAI is providing intellectually, spiritually and

vocationally rich experiences for the entire campus community and important non-profit

partners to SCU in the Silicon Valley through its globally-minded Guest Artist Series.

The Justice & the Arts Initiative (JAI) at Santa Clara University is in its fifth year

as a model university program that aligns the Catholic and Jesuit Mission of SCU with rich

experiences in arts-based philosophy, practices and engagement. Student artists come to Santa Clara University to grow in their own artistic disciplines and

obtain a well-rounded, liberal arts education. In the process of attending SCU, students are

exposed to the Jesuit tradition of intellectual inquiry, ethics and spirituality. The programs

of JAI are one possible entry point for them as they seek to integrate their artistry with the

greatest needs of the world and work in creative solidarity with people from marginalized

populations. JAI creates an intellectual frame of reference for examining and fostering

artistic processes that are critically bound to issues of justice.

j a i

Mission & Purpose


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Biographical Information of

Fr. Prashant Olalekar, S.J.

Fr. Olalekar, a Jesuit priest of the Mumbai province in India, is a peace activist, spiritual

director and presently, director of Jivanvikas Sadan Retreat House, Bandra, Mumbai. He

has served as former Novice director and Coordinator of Formation of the Mumbai Jesuit

Province. He completed doctoral studies (D.Min.) at the San Francisco Theological

Seminary, California in May 2006. He is the founder of InterPlay, India. His current

research interests include integrating Ignatian Spirituality with Body Wisdom.

Introducing InterPlay InterPlay is a form of moving meditation that helps integrate body, mind, heart and spirit.

It uses forms associated with the arts—movement, storytelling, voice and stillness—to

actively and creatively unlock the wisdom of the body. InterPlay India is a global social

movement dedicated to connection, human sustainability, and play. Fr. Prashant integrates

the Ignatian spiritual exercises and InterPlay techniques through Global Peace Exchanges —

opportunities to interact through structured play and improvised interrelatedness with the

poor, the differently-abled and other marginalized groups.

.

www.interplay.org


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Sample of campus-wide publicity:

JAI creates a 20-week project plan in anticipation of each of its globally-situated guest artist-

activist’s visits to reach out to the university community. Local Justice & the Arts Initiative

enthusiasts, community partners, non-profits, arts educators and religious organizations

stay apprised of JAI’s activities through print, email and personal correspondence.

September 4, 2011

We are pleased to announce the residency of Prashant Olalekar, S.J., who will be on campus from Sept 28 to October 12 as a Justice and the Arts Initiative (JAI) Guest Artist and Bannan Visitor. Fr. Olalekar, is the founder of InterPlay India, which organizes Global Peace Exchanges with opportunities to interact through structured play and improvised interrelatedness with the poor, the differently-abled and other marginalized groups.

"The unique joy of interacting as playful equals is beyond words." -Fr. Prashant Olalekar, S.J

Please join us at either of these public, free events, to learn more and experience some examples of how InterPlay is done. RSVPs for groups are appreciated.

TUES, OCT. 4 at NOON

A lecture & demonstration of Prashant's work in the areas of embodied spirituality. It will be held in Studio A of the Music and Dance Facility, on the corner of Franklin and Lafayette Streets. Your students are welcome to join us too. [12:00-1:15 pm]

THURS, OCT. 6 at 7 pm Prashant will offer a workshop for the community in conjunction with St. Clare's Parish just footsteps away from campus on the corner of Lafayette and Lexington. [7:00-9:00 pm]

If you would like to meet Fr. Olalekar or have him visit any of your classes during his upcoming residency, please contact us at [email protected]

Best regards,

Kristin Kusanovich and Carolyn Silberman, Co-Directors

JAI - Justice and the Arts Initiative, Santa Clara University

Email jai at scu.edu

Web www.scu.edu/cas/jai Supported in part by the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education


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Faculty & Staff Reflections on Fr. Olalekar’s Visit

1. Michael Zampelli, S.J. Course: Culture & Ideas

Just a little feedback on Prashant Olalekar's visit and the advantages that it afforded my class. First, Prashant was a very warm and inviting presence. Not exuding any sort of "expert" air, he provided a very accessible route for my students to engage the InterPlay activities. They, in turn, participated fully in the exercises--getting more and more "into them" as they spent more time together.

Second, the course (essentially on "performance studies") begins by broadening the notion of performance beyond purely aesthetic performances (like dance concerts, plays or piano recitals) to include all of those actions and behaviors that are somehow highlighted and then presented for an audience (even if the audience is only oneself). This takes us into the arena of "play" quite often. Before Prashant's visit, we had been discussing the ways in which the range of performances we are familiar with (performances in daily life, play, ritual, formal aesthetic pieces) function in a variety of ways--to teach, to heal, to make or foster community, to deal with the sacred, etc. etc.

Prashant's InterPlay demonstration--AND his explanation of the work he does--proved to be a great illustration of the range of performances available to us AND the range of effect such performances have on real people, particularly those who are marginalized and are IN NEED of healing, community, etc. Prashant took the conversation to a new level--from abstraction to concreteness. The students had to put this IN THEIR BODIES. AND--the students EXPERIENCED a fostering of community, a healing, etc. This was invaluable to me in the class. Third, and this is quite important to me as someone committed to performing arts--the EMBODIED nature of this experience was terrific. Knowledge, spirituality, desire, etc. find a home not only in the head, but in the BODY. Engaging the body means engaging the mind, the heart, the spirit. I'm not a Platonist--so this stuff was just awesome!

Thanks so much for the chance to experience Prashant and his work! I'm grateful to JAI and to the Ignatian Center for making all of this possible.

Cheers, Michael

Michael A. Zampelli, S.J.

Rector, Santa Clara Jesuit Community Locatelli University Professor Department of Theatre and Dance 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95053 (408) 554-2175 FAX: (408) 554-4795

[email protected]


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2. Carolyn Silberman Co-Director JAI

Time with Prashant Olalekar, S.J.

It is challenging to summarize the Prashant Olalekar, S.J. experience but I'd like to contextualize the overall experience as deeply holy in the realm of what I know as "sacred dance." It was Martha Graham, one of the legendary modern dance artists of America who wrote that "the instrument through which the dance speaks is also the instrument through which life is lived: the human body."

When experiencing Fr. Prashant in action, it is truth which speaks to the reality of the experience. Let there be no doubt that this man has discovered how movement, artfully directed by him and responded to by those present, frees the spirit into prayerful praise. Reverence pervades the space. A quiet calming reminds us of the Psalm, "Be still and know that I am God."

In the classroom studio with my Charisma team a small group of musicians, dancers, actors who are exploring the intersection of arts and spirituality, gather and stop to listen and start to move. The session unfolds. Time, space and energy are explored thought the body, mind and spirit. Integration. Reflection. Prayer. All are purposefully directed as imaginations join in community to create a time of praise through a different way of knowing.

For me, personally it was a time of discovery. Safely, in the quiet meditative moment of the movement experience, there was mystery. It was mystical. I experienced a very deep connection to the person of Christ, a deep connection to His suffering. It was as real as my experience of poverty in El Salvador combined in bittersweet contrast with the deep joy of community. Difficult to describe. Transcendent in nature.

I am deeply grateful for both my students and for myself, for having experienced Prashant Olalekar, S.J.

As the year of 2011 winds down, I review this experience as one of grace made manifest.

Carolyn Silberman

Faculty Theater and Dance Department

Co-Director of the Justice and the Arts Initiative


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3. Jack Treacy, S.J. Director of Campus Ministry

Thank you for inviting me to join you and Prashant for the session in the dance studio. As one who was initially hesitant when I heard the word "interactive," I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the experience.

The benefits for me came from two sources. I quickly became at ease with the suggested movements, and found that by the end of the session I felt refreshed, lighter, less concerned about my mental "to do" list. It was a helpful reminder of the need to move my body! I also appreciated Prashant's talk about his work with those most in need of healing and a realization of their dignity. I suspect it offered many of our students a new way to view spirituality.

I am grateful to you for your continued exploration of this theme of justice in the arts. And I look forward to more interactive sessions with you!

Warmly Jack Treacy, S.J.

Director of Campus Ministry

Santa Clara University 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95053

4. Fr. George Aranha. Pastor, St. Clare Parish, Santa Clara CA

It was a unique experience to have Fr Prashant lead us in Interplay both at the monthly Indian Family Mass (also known as INFOCUS) and at St Clare Parish in Santa Clara. I received very positive feedback from several young and not so young participants. There was a sense of playfulness, joy and the expansion of spirit. I was happy to participate in both the events and I am personally grateful for this unique, playful experience. Fr George Aranha Pastor St. Clare Parish, Santa Clara, CA


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5. Philip Boo Riley Religious Studies Per the request of JAI I am sharing the observations and discussion points from my Religious Studies class that had as its guest, Prashant Olalekar, S.J. One of my interests was that the workshop, readings and post-workshop reflection would offer the students a perspective on what solidarity means in the context of InterPlay. My interest was met, and then some! Key points:

• An embodied solidarity that we can ‘feel’ instead of just ‘talk’ about - the energy of the body, “the body never lies.”

-Spirituality and Body: Embodied…has roots in both the Indian Hindu tradition and the Western Christian tradition, particularly in terms of the Incarnation. -“God who shits” equivalence with Jesuit maxim, “finding God in all things.”

• Stand with marginal populations as equals -Fr. Olalekar gave plenty of wonderful examples, sharing with us how his initial misfgivings fell away as he interacted with individuals through InterPlay.

• Silicon Valley “epiphany”: Hafiz “Come Dance with me.”

• Jesuit Superior/Congregations and the UN Millenium Goals regarding poverty -Not possible to rely on merely sharing wealth- rather, through establishing global partnerships we bring about equality, justice and peace through addressing issues of poverty. So in addition to the physical experience that made up most of the workshop, students were also given in a short period of time a very rich framework within which to reflect on their experience. Thanks so much to JAI for making this rich opportunity available to my students and me. Sincerely, Philip Boo Riley Religious Studies 6. Aldo Billingslea Dept. of Theatre & Dance, Acting I really appreciated the time I spent with Fr. Prashant. It was curricular and spiritual development. Refreshing to hear of his journey into this study and recognize the points where the practice parallels what I’m teaching and where it offers additional clarity. Aldo Billingslea Dept. of Theatre & Dance


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7. Maeve Heaney Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education 2011-2012 Bannan Fellow JSTU / SCU I participated in two sessions with Fr. Prashant, and found it very significant that as Banaan presences in Santa Clara, there is so much overlap in our approach Although my area is music, the underlying theology is very much about an integrated anthropology and epistemology which allow us to 'understand' and welcome the particular way in which music (and God though music) works in us. In Western culture, we have an alienated relationship with our bodies, which have their wisdom, and through which life and God have something to say to us (Ignatian spirituality's "finding god in all things" also applies to our embodied existence!!!). I found the workshops profound, creative, inspiring. I found Fr. Prashant's presence humble, charitable, fun, intelligent and spiritual. Meeting him and participating in the workshops was profoundly edifying for me, so I thank both of you for enabling it to happen! Blessings, Maeve Louise Heaney , Bannan Fellow in Theology, Spirituality and Music 8. Matt Smith JAI Program Council and Director of Outreach / Engagement, Campus Ministry I came to Prashant's workshop stressed by the workload that was facing me upon returning to my office. As we began I felt insecure in my body, but that quickly dissipated as our group transformed into an adult playground. My heart rate rose and I began to sweat. We all took risks. The exercises gave me access to joyful childhood memories and put me in touch with my heart, and not just because it was working hard! I left feeling connected. I observed that throughout the rest of the week I was much more positive than I had been in previous weeks. In fact, there was a bubbliness about me that I had not felt in quite some time. This experience was both deeply consoling and profoundly transformative. Thank you for the opportunity! Peace, Matt Smith , Director of Outreach / Engagement, Campus Ministry 9. Penelope Duckworth Religious Studies Thank you for the lovely lunch and workshop with Prashant. I hope to attend on Monday at 1 as well. I urged my class to go to the workshop at St. Clare's. I thought it was wonderful to experience Prashant's teaching and try to imagine how it feels for the poor and handicapped. I thought of the sex workers perhaps experiencing the freedom of their bodies for the first time. He has a gentle way of releasing inhibitions and bringing about a quiet healing. He is a bridge person in many senses; the one that I noticed was his ease in what is often seen as the 'feminine' world of body and nurture to which he brings his Jesuit training and theological expertise. Thanks again, Penelope Duckworth, Religious Studies


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Student REFLECTIONS!

Eight Santa Clara University undergraduate courses encountered Fr. Olalekar’s work through lectures and workshops in the dance studio or in other performance spaces and classrooms. The following courses participated as groups ranging in number from 14 to 33 students:

Ways of Understanding Religion Cultures and Ideas I

Charisma: Intersections of Art & Spirituality Writing and Sustainability Beginning Modern Dance

Dance Composition Improvisation

Acting

Participants were then given the opportunity to reflect in writing on their experience of learning through movement, play, improvisation and prayerfulness. Included in this section of the report are a sampling of the key concepts and ideas that were found in the post-workshop reflections. In some cases responses were

edited for brevity, clarity and spelling, aggregated if overlapping and all were made anonymous by removing any identifying details.


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STUDENT TESTIMONIES +

Although improvisation’s qualities as a healing and spiritually enriching art form are well known, I have not experienced these qualities so intensely, genuinely and profoundly until this past class with guest Father Prashant Olalekar, S.J. The class was spiritually enlightening and meditative in terms of bodily and physical awareness. And every activity, regardless of its familiarity, was modified to involve momentary inward evaluation…the experience was a true testament to “living in the moment” and “experiencing the present.” I realized how wonderfully flexible the immense range of our emotions and expressions as human beings is. On a spiritual level, each moment for meditation and reflection made me exceedingly aware of the individual’s interconnectedness with his or her physical surroundings, especially the organic world and other human beings, and called to mind sacramentality - the idea of seeing and rediscovering the divine within all of creation. Prashant’s ‘Sound/Story’ presentation of “looking for Christ in ten thousand places” and “seeing Christ in ten thousand faces” was an inspiring, evocative and powerful application of improvisation as a means for social justice and peace through artistry. …I could not help but feel drawn to the greater purposeful message of a call for social agency. For along with Fr. Prashant’s presentation, learning about the Playing for Peace program with InterPlay India and their all-inclusive message for all people to be ambassadors for peace through art strongly resonated with me. It helped me realize how improvisation can be used as an art form and a tool to inspire communal expression and communication, and change and transform hearts to recover a deeper sense of what it means to be human. As the class came to a close, I found our group dynamic to be more focused, cohesive and sensitive to others’ actions than it was before. We were unified. The experience will help me to connect and understand everyone around me on a more fundamentally empathetic and intrinsically human level. …I am confident that this has allowed me to see the potential for artists, musicians and performers to find social agency, charitable purpose and a possible future in social justice in their work.

+ When I would close my eyes after dancing around I would feel like a weight was lifted. I had a free spirit. The exercises brought out both inner and outer peace,

making it easier to connect with others in the environment.

+ The most engaging moment was when we chose a concern and decided to “hand it’ to God. Somehow I truly felt my problems lifted to God; and then I felt a sense

of pure relaxation and peace.


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+ When we were lying still and having a conversation with God I relaxed and got to reflect on my life in this interesting transition period. I really enjoyed my conversation with God. I felt more comfortable than I have in a long time; I felt momentarily free of stress and burdens. I felt relaxed, and felt a sense of belonging.

+ Growing up without a religious affiliation, the workshop was a different

experience for me. I was invited to connect the events of the week to God, for however brief the moment, to have that faith in Him in order to do that, and I

wasn’t sure I could suddenly do this. But I found a surprising sense of release in it, even if I only succeeded momentarily. I learned that sometimes having faith in

a superior being can be a form of trust and release. Later, in sharing a burden with a person at the workshop I realized there was mutual and immediate trust. This lifted this weight off my back almost instantly. It helped me to experience

this day with happiness, relief, strength and confidence.

+ I thought the most engaging moment was the partner “prayer.” Watching the movement of the two volunteers making such simple shapes in the space and having that moment of introspection was a rare shared moment amidst our individual busy lives. These experiences bring different people together so easily and make interaction in the world seem a lot simpler.

+ The exercise that stood out to me the most was when we offered up our own worries and grievances to God. We watched two individuals in the center translate our emotions into movement and be the vessel through which our thoughts were sent to God. I was completely surprised by how much the movement seemed to relate exactly to what I was feeling. I found myself getting emotional because I felt so connected to the two in the middle; I felt my worries leave my body, run through the individuals’ bodies in the center of the circle, and then rise up to God. This exercise made me aware of my emotions that I have been trying to suppress. I did not expect this experience to reach this sort of deep personal level.

+ Fr. Prashant’s lectures on India and the experience of the workshop itself will

help us realize the importance and benefits of forming partnerships with people in need and nourishing our own solidarity and compassion. The InterPlay

demonstration was a very transporting experience.

+ During Fr. Prashant’s presentation, my eyes were opened to the despair and


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poverty of people. I always thought of movement as expressive, but I did not realize that it could have such a dramatic effect on the lives of people who were not previously exposed to it, or who had not made some intentional choice to

seek movement out. But when the experience came to them, they so fully embraced and benefited from it! When I learned that his work can be for the

benefit of abused women, the disabled, sex workers and marginalized groups, I began to see how healing this InterPlay could be.

+ It is touching to think that Fr. Prashant has dedicated his time to helping, for

example, the disabled rediscover movement in their bodies. It makes me happy to know that there are wonderful people like him selflessly devoting their time to helping and improving the lives of others around the world. One person can’t

change everything on their own, but Fr. Prashant and others like him are getting off to a good start.

+ Solidarity can be as simple, and as complex, as standing next to someone.

+ The work made us realize how connected we are. When we show compassion

toward others, we are greeted with compassion. You see it and feel it and understand it totally when you are being guided like this.

+ Through understanding one another beyond ‘speech’ we developed an energetic connection that was really awesome. The experience was something of a bonding activity for our group. It is really easy to imagine how people who are in different societal groups do grow closer to each other through this experience. Certainly stripping down all judgement and prejudice allows solidarity to shine through.

+ In this atmosphere free of judgement, you begin to refrain from judging other

people and put all of your attention towards compassion instead.

+ It was an unexpected experience, but I am so very glad to have gotten a chance to participate and experience this JAI program with Fr. Olalekar. It was such a joyous and opening experience.

+ I loved the honesty of it. I cannot explain my gratitude for the activities – they were very helpful for everyone. In the future I plan to travel, and would like to

participate in InterPlay India someday. Prashant’s teachings are priceless, and I will value his lessons for a long time to come.


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Conclusion “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and exposed fields, in the crossroads of ideologies, in the social trenches, there has been or is confrontation between the burning exigencies of humanity and the perennial message of the Gospel, there have been and are the Jesuits.” -Pope Paul VI

While at SCU, Fr. Olalekar impressed us with his generous sharing of self, gracious facilitation of workshops and lectures that were mindful of different disciplinary frameworks, and co-celebration of various Masses and liturgies. All were impressed by his ability to connect disparate communities that others might find difficult to reach in meaningful ways. One could also say he works with communities of people that many find easy to ignore. That the arts might be the medium in which this dialogue and interaction takes root is no surprise to the affiliates of the Justice and the Arts Initiative at Santa Clara University. This report is written from the standpoint of how visionary the work that we witnessed during Fr. Olalekar’s residency at Santa Clara University could be for the creative spirit of the Catholic Church and for Catholic and Jesuit institutions globally in the 21st century. If further research could be conducted in order to shed more light on the benefits of Fr. Olalekar’s approach to making ministry more expansive, inclusive and welcoming through workshops in embodied spirituality developed out of processes like InterPlay, then his work might eventually be iterated in thoughtful and meaningful ways within the context of the Catholic church’s many pastoral concerns. In the case of Fr. Olalekar’s specific ministry which has inspired so many strong collaborations and relies on the entirety of the human spirit to accomplish, we see no limits to the benefits it might have for people of any faith commitment, socio-economic background, ability level or caste. Pope Benedict XVI, in his address to the delegates at the thirty-fifth general congregation of the Society of Jesus, stresses the pressing issues of diversity, globalization, marginalization, and all of the changes that “call us to the frontiers of culture and of religion.” [n. 2] The delegates responded to the Pope’s address by confirming the need to strengthen and support those Jesuits and collaborators actively involved in the fourfold dialogue recommended by the Church, to listen carefully to all, and to build bridges linking individuals and communities of good will. (GC 35, D. 3, 22) It is hoped that this report helps initiate the kind of dialogue envisaged by the general congregation; one that supports the work of Jesuits who make the holiness of the poor and marginalized apparent to all. Through the simple but profound actions of moving, thinking, feeling and praying together as groups of diversely formed individuals, we rediscover something in our connection to God, to the humanity in the other, and to our own propensity for faith, hope and trust, and the imagination in its flourishing state, without which, no social or spiritual gains can be made. Kristin Kusanovich Co-Director Justice & the Arts Initiative Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Theatre & Dance Santa Clara University Dec. 31, 2011

inter play at santa clara

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