Yesterday morning Obuchi and I set out on a mission to get to know different spaces and places in Grinnell. Walking on sidewalks and through neighborhoods, we looked for a place that would welcome us and our dancing, moving, researching work. Because our town is quite small, it didn’t take long for us to reach its outskirts, and as we did, we realized that private properties would soon take over the landscape. Looking around, we saw a small park, and reconciling that it was only public land in eye-sight, we decided it would have to do.

Not feeling completely comfortable with the idea of freely moving, dancing, and exploring this environment but knowing that our work is at least in part overcoming precisely this, we set one-minute timers and began our first movement check-ins to arrive and develop our research questions for the day. Centering our uncertainties in this new environment, my question became how do public and private spaces influence the actions I take? Obuchi asked what role do different parts of the environment play in my life and in my dance?

We chose to spend fifteen minutes researching each question. The person who posed the question would lead the fifteen-minutes. Beginning with Obuchi’s question, we started with five minutes to explore the park using movement. Each of us completely immersed in our explorations, without noticing five minutes turned into ten. As Obuchi researched all the objects that moved in the environment, I walked and danced, exploring perimeters, boundaries, and senses. Talking about our experiences and discoveries, we realized that we had both become interested in thinking about social choreography and what it means to play as an adult.

Continuing on to my question concerning public and private space, we held onto our discoveries and let them inform our next fifteen minutes of research. Moving towards an isolated circular grove of trees, we began again with five minutes to explore the area. This time we limited our explorations to thinking about private and public spaces, childhood and adulthood, and play. Once again when the timer went off, there was much to say and talk about. I realized that I was able to move more freely when I closed my eyes or faced towards a tree. Obuchi found that sheltering herself under overhanging branches created a sense of comfort. We talked about that feeling a sense of privacy was somehow important to us, as adults, feeling comfortable playing.

At the end of the day on our walk home, we began talking about whether what we had experienced is just-the-way-things-are or if there was something more going there. Talking about playing as an adult, Obuchi brought up that for adults there are often costs associated with play. Going to national parks, state parks, water parks, dance or movement classes, or bars or clubs, one must pay. There are public parks, trails, and nature reserves, but because of social norms most adults are not really free to play in those spaces; their movement is quite choreographed. On trails you walk, run, and bike; in parks, you sit, talk, read, exercise, and play music. There are exceptional adults that do play, but it seems that it is their own gumption and whimsy that allows them to do this, not public spaces or places.

By the time we arrived back to campus, we were in agreement that it is wrong that there are not more spaces and places for adults to routinely play. Not only does this lack of adulthood play hinder happiness and joy, but thinking about it in terms of our research, not being able to play limits adults’ ability to connect to their environment. Obuchi and I decided that this summer we will re-learn how to play so that in the curriculum we develop we can share this with other play-seeking adults.

Suggested Reading

Gonzales, Teresa I. “Play and Public Space.” Everyday Sociology Blog. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 19 April 2016, http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2016/04/play-and-public-space.html. Accessed 12 June 2018.

Shepard, Benjamin. “Play, Creativity, and the New Community Organizing.” Journal of Progressive Human Services, vol. 16, no. 2, 2005, https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/group-documents/733/1349281953-Shepard2005PlayCreativityandtheNewCommunityOrganizing.pdf . Accessed 12 June 2018.

“The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life — A Summary.” Revise Sociology, 12 Jan 2016,