Books on Play
The Art of Play
Recess and the Practice of Invention
REVIEW
"Beresin and her team observe and analyze the children's play, and their responses to the opportunities to play.... The results are both inspiring and disturbing.... The Art of Play makes a strong case for the power of play, in the most fundamental, simple ways, in the lives of children, for the children, for schools, and for society."
—Shifra Teitelbaum, author of "If Everyone Kept Quiet,
There Would Never Be Any Justice"
Recess Battles
Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling
Winner of the 2012 Iona and Peter Opie Prize from the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society.
REVIEW
"Anna Beresin—'recess lady'—has brought her long-term study of the folklore of children in an elementary school on the 'wrong side of the tracks' to a welcome conclusion. The book is that rare offering that provides pleasure and enlightenment in the minute---gem-like scenes of children playing—and more globally. The global issues could not be more timely or pressing."
—David Lancy, "Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings"
"Recess Battles is a splendid book and an extremely sophisticated treatment of a set of issues that are usually treated only partially or superficially. A close descriptive account of recess play at an inner-city elementary school, the writing is magisterial—there is an ease in it that conceals the subtlety of what tis being said. . . This book documents aspects of contemporary urban children's play, in word and in body, in a way that nothing else I know of does. It's a gem."
—Fredrick Erickson,"Talk and Social Theory: Ecologies of Speaking and Listening in Everyday Life"
Group Motion in Practice
Collective Creation through Dance Movement Improvisation
Group Motion—an improvisational dance performance practice—represents fifty years of co-creation by the authors, with the participation of thousands of dancers, musicians, videographers and others around the globe. Informed by Mary Wigman’s expressionist dance and other contemporary dance and theater traditions, Group Motion has brought dance not only to stages worldwide, but also to public parks, prisons and airports.
Part memoir, part guidebook, part philosophy of art treatise, this book provides step-by-step guidance to dozens of improvisational structures or games for dance professionals, theater artists, musicians and other performers who use movement for creative expression.