Asking an Interplay artist to describe his or her work is similar to asking a Buddhist to describe the great complexities of his or her religion - it is not an easily articulated concept.

Cynthia Winton-Henry is an Interplay artist, performer and co-founder of the Interplay philosophy. She describes it as an "arts-based movement and story-telling practice that is a community-based practice that is being used around the world."

Tonight, June 4, Interplay will be hosting the sixth annual DOBO - Dance On Behalf Of performance. DOBO is the notion that we can create immediate, artful media that can speak on behalf of social concerns.

Interplay is a practice that seeks the mediate the splits people experience in their lives. An example would be the dichotomy between our selves as intellectual beings and the goals to be embodied people. By addressing these divides through dance and movement, Interplay seeks to help people reconnect to their full selves through life and practice.

"It's like some kind of crazy combination of prayer and play, and not taking things seriously and taking them incredibly seriously," Winston-Henry said.

This month, DOBO focuses on the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the split between "our addiction to oil" and our complete reliance on water for sustaining life.

"We need to be more mobilized on a creative level and create energy for this," Winston-Henry said. "The arts are a huge part of social change and consciousness raising."

Interplay is an open environment where people are welcome to come and observe the dance or participate in the movement. Friday's brief, one-hour adventure is one that is guaranteed to enlighten and engage conversation around the issue of oil and water.

Engage both body and soul in this literal movement for social change at 8 p.m. every first Friday night at InterPlayce, 2273 Telegraph Ave. (at 23rd St.) in Oakland (map it here). 

"Go beyond the bar scene," Henry said. "Take dancing and music and movement to a level of conscious practice."