Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Thick with references to Zen Buddhism, Taoism, mysticism and Christianity - Free Play shows us that the creative process is a spiritual path. There were moments I thought Nachmanovitch overelaborated with metaphors, but many more times when he took my breath away with deep insight.

Very, very cool. So many rich things in this book, and I know I'll have to read it again some day. What was really fun was taking creative notes on it as I went, jotting down whatever struck my fancy or sketching little pictures. It's definitely a good source of inspiration for artists of all kinds: dancers, musicians, writers, painters, whatever your poison is.

Some of the advice though, I think must be taken with a grain of salt. There's lots of weird free-spirited stuff in there, which I understand as an artist but am also skeptical of. I feel like it takes a certain amount of experience and understanding to really get what this book is talking about at times, otherwise it might all be taken the wrong way and you won't create art, show more you'll just create a mess. That's actually mentioned in the latter half of the book, when a friend of the author warns that the book might cause a flurry of chaotic artwork, stories, and songs to explode all around the world.

Nevertheless, it's a very good resource. show less

I generally don't care for books in the general self-help genre, even though I wrote one under another name. I make an exception for this, because it doesn't give you a path as much as it gives you permission to play.

Good book to read to remind yourself how 'serious' the sense of play truly is in nurturing creativity. Allowing ourselves the freedom to fail, we can become unencumbered by expectation and recreate a sense of childish abandon (and bliss). Vital reading in a world as out of touch as our's.

Nachmanovitch is a improvisational concert violinist, but this is not a book about playing the violin. It is about finding you rcreative source and improvisation in whatever it is you do, through channeling a sense of play.
It really is a very well written, inspirational treatment of the subject.

An inspiring exploration of the power of music, writing, drawing, dance and personification to transform life and human experience.

On the Improv class reading list.