Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Universality of Play: The Greatest Form of Human Play is Art and its Signification to Movement Education

Given that playful movement can be long-lasting and lead to health and well-being, the purpose of this concept-based paper was to showcase Gadamer’s hermeneutic universality of play, including the reasons the highest form of human play is art. Specifically, Gadamer’s universal elements of play are discussed, including its seriousness, non-purposeful nature, unique spirit, self-representation, and ideality via arts. The highest form of human play takes precedence in the arts because it represents the true before a participating audience. Subsequently, artistic play is timeless like the celebration of the festival whereby its playful nature sustains over time regardless of the way it is represented and experienced. In this paper, we also showcase how performing arts like dancing, aerial dancing, and physical theater encompass the universal qualities of play which assist with understanding the links among performing arts, the love of movement, health, and well-being. Therefore, key implications in movement education are proposed, including the need to incorporate corporeally expressed artistic, creative pieces (highest form of human play) within different settings like schools, sports clubs, recreational venues, and rehabilitation centers. Keywords: Universality of play; art as the ideality of play; Gadamer; performing arts; movement education