Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist

Motivating Large Groups of Elders to Move

On occasion, I have the opportunity to lead hour long groups for elders in low income housing as a "DJ". Last night I had just such an opportunity for 66 elders at a Hallowe'en celebration. My challenge was, and always seems to be, if people are sitting around tables, how do I get them to move.

I brought in music from their era, a few "Halloween" songs which they might recognize, and some props. Included in the music was Monster Mash, Ghostbusters, Witchy Woman, and That Ole Black Magic. I was dressed in "wizardess" garb, with a witch's hat, and streaked my hair with orange. For props, I had orange and black streamers stapled together to "extend" the movement, and a large gauzy white cobweb.

While I was able to get people to interact some, and move some from their sitting positions, many looked half-hearted in their efforts, and some merely looked on. There were about a dozen who periodically would get up on their feet and actually dance. They were ready to have fun. The rest, I think, were concerned about looking ridiculous.

Whereas, if I have people sitting in a single large circle, or concentric circles, the culture seems to allow for a greater level of participation. Maybe people sitting around tables just don't have the necessary culture to move. I wonder if that is because they are looking at each other, and then feel foolish, as opposed to looking at me and the several who are willing to "make fools" of ourselves and getting the requisite permission that they need.

The streamers did help, and people used them throughout the group. They were especially inventive in using the streamers in a sit down tango. I liked one group member's suggestion that people dramatically turn their heads to one side, and then the other. With the cobweb, people got up to help spread the cobweb out. We stretched and poked arms and heads through the cobweb, getting people who were sitting engaged in holding on as well. Then, switching metaphors, I put on the limbo, and had us move beneath the cobweb. That was a big hit.

One thing that boggles my mind is that people are more than willing to make fools of themselves to the Chicken Dance. I don't get it.

Technically, it would have helped had my speakers been louder for such a big room. And having a wireless microphone would also help with such a big crowd. I always try to get the facilities to set folks up in a circle, but sometimes it isn't possible.

I wonder how other group leaders trying to get elders to move deal with the situation of people sitting around tables.

Creative Arts Therapy in Keene NH in the News

Susan Loman, director of the Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling program at Antioch in Keene, NH is quoted in this article in the October 27, 2009 Keene Sentinel.

Dance, dance revolution

The dance/movement therapy class at Antioch University New England in Keene practices movements that are observed and noted in the psychomotor assessment of children.

Proponents say creative arts can help teens look inward positively By Anika Clark

Supporting the Growth of Babies through Movement

I've just discovered Ellynne Skove's website, GoGo Babies.

"GoGo Babies was created to support and nurture the healthy growth of all babies. GoGo Babies focuses on the whole person through the body/mind connections that occur through physical action.

GoGo Babies offers classes for expectant mothers, adoptive families, babies and children ages 6 weeks to 10 years old, as well as individual consultations and appointments. The work incorportates movement, yoga, and holistic healing techniques. For a description of current classes see the Classes and Schedules pages."

Her classes are in Brooklyn, NY.

The photograph is of dance movement therapist Suzy Matheson's Mother and Babies group in Texas. See Movement Expressions for more.

Autumn Immersion in Myth, Movement and Metaphor, NY, Nov. 19-22

ISADORA’S EGYPT:
From Column of Gold to Body of Light
with Jeanne Bresciani, Ph.D.

Thursday, Nov. 19^th - Sunday, Nov. 22^nd, 2009

Autumn Immersion in Myth,
Movement and Metaphor
at Tempio di danza, High Falls, New York

Annica Davis reports that this should be a terrifc workshop, given by a master teacher.  Isadora Duncan had a huge impact on the field of dance movement therapy.  Educational Director of the Isadora Duncan International Institute, Dr. Jeanne Bresciani is highly accomplished and outstanding in her work with myth, archeypes and metaphor in interpreting the Duncan oeuvre.

ISADORA'S EGYPT: FROM COLUMN OF GOLD TO BODY OF LIGHT will be an "in-depth exploration of the myth, movement and metaphor underlying the Duncan legacy."  You can get all the information at www.IDII.org or all 212/753-0846. Annica has found her workshops to be great.

Conscious Dancer, "Movement for a Better World".

I have just picked up my first copy of Conscious Dancer Magazine. From Mark Metz, Editor-in-Chief, I appreciated these quotations. First, their tagline is "movement for a better world." I like that. Metz says that Conscious Dancer is about the transformation of consciousness that happens when you move. About how our minds change when we connect with our bodies." Dance movement therapists certainly find that to be true. But my favorite quotation is

"For me, dance is a shortcut to gratitude for life itself."

Is dance too pleasurable to be taken seriously?

My dance movement therapy students at Lesley University are currently reading Trudi Schoop's Won't You Join the Dance?: A Dancer's Essay into the Treatment of Psychosis. This book is one of the classics in dance therapy, and certainly one of my favorites, one I return to repeatedly because of Schoop's succinct offerings about the mind body connection and what a good therapist needs to be. One of the students pulled the following quotation out of Schoop's 1974 book, unfortunately now out of print.

"Does the word 'dance' still connote exhibitionism, narcissism, depravity? Is dancing just too pleasurable to be taken seriously, too unscientific to be considered therapeutic?"

I think that dance has been considered just that within our culture. But I also think that this is just beginning to change as more and more young people discover the healing, integrative powers of dance. As neuroscientists continue to study the brain and the connections between mind and body within the brain, it is providing more of the scientific basis for why dance movement therapy does indeed work. Cynthia Berrol's "Neuroscience Meets Dance/Movement Therapy: Mirror neurons, the therapeutic process and empathy", The Arts in Psychotherapy 33 (2006) 302–315 offers a deeper look into this connection.

As well, Dr. David Stuart Sobel and Robert Ornstein wrote a wonderful book called Healthy Pleasures.

"Patient: I'm not feeling any better.
Doctor: Are you sure you have given up everything you enjoy?

Imagine the world without pleasure. Life would appear colorless and humorless. A baby's smile would go unappreciated. Foods would be tasteless. The beauty of a Bach concerto would fall on deaf ears. Feelings like joy, thrills, delights, ecstasy, elation and happiness would disappear. The company of others would not bring comfort and joy. The touch of a mother would not soothe, and a lover could not arouse. Interest in sex and procreation would dry up. The next generation would wait unborn.

Human beings evolved to seek enjoyment to enhance survival. What better way to assure that healthy, life-saving behaviors occur than to make them pleasurable? From eating to reproduction, from attending to the environment to caring for others, pleasure guides us to better health. Doing what feels right and feeling good are usually beneficial for health and the survival of the species.

Yet, at nearly every turn pleasure has gotten a bad name. People are almost phobic about having fun, increasingly viewing themselves as fragile, vulnerable, ready to develop cancer or heart disease at the slightest provocation. In the name of health people give up many of their life enjoyments. Compulsion, disruption, and disease lurk if we lapse. Research and thinking in medicine and psychology reflect this pathological focus on the causes and treatment of disease, while virtually ignoring acts that build health. There is a strong anti-pleasure bias in medical research with a great amount of information about health hazards of pleasure and a scarcity of details about its health-promoting effects."

Thankfully, I chose to follow the path to become a dance movement therapist many years ago, listening to my body's pleasure and pain to inform my decisions. Science is beginning to catch up.

Cross-Currents of Dance Research and Performance ~ New Zealand June 2010

Cross-Currents of Dance Research and Performance throughout the Global Compass

A three-day international Dance Studies symposium at the University of Otago, Aotearoa/New Zealand
28-30 June 2010

 
Keynote speakers: Susan Leigh Foster, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal

CALL FOR PAPERS

 
The field of dance studies emerged from an interdisciplinary web of theory and practice. Recently, discussions have focused on the ways in which dance scholarship and practices cross disciplinary borders: the special edition on interdisciplinarity of Dance Research Journal (Summer 2009), for instance, addressed this theme. The central issue this symposium will explore is how dance creates fluid and confronting intersections and interactions that (re)define and transform theoretical, methodological and performance frameworks. The critical questions in focus are:

 
1) How are boundaries crossed between dance studies and other academic disciplines, such as architecture, religion, politics, literature, anthropology, etc.?

2) What are the possibilities and challenges for interdisciplinary performance, and for shared, collaborative artistic research?

3) How is interdisciplinarity defined by geographical and cultural perspectives?

4) What are the effects of interdisciplinarity on the structures of tertiary (university) dance education?

 
On 28-30 June 2010, the Dance Studies Programme of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, will host a symposium entitled “Dancing Across the Disciplines: Cross-Currents of Dance Research and Performance throughout the Global Compass”. It seeks to discuss interdisciplinary perspectives on dance that strive to understand historical developments and anticipate the new directions of dance scholarship and performance.

 
Possible topics include:

Retrospective Historical Analysis of the Interdisciplinarity of Dance
Interdisciplinarity and Challenges of Interdisciplinary Dance Research
Dance and the other Academic Disciplines
Interdisciplinary Dance Training and/or Education
Indigenous Perspectives of the Interdisciplinarity in Dance
Creativity, Innovation and Dance
Dance and the other Arts and Sciences
 
Significant interdisciplinary artists from New Zealand/Aotearoa will be featured presenters. This three-day event will include panels, artist forums, film viewings, and roundtable discussions.

Proposals are invited for individual papers (max. 20 minutes), panels (of 3-5 speakers), and performative contributions. We welcome abstracts of no more than 300 words (or 500 words for panels). The deadline for abstract submissions is 15 January 2010.

A separate cover page should be prepared with the title of the paper, the name, affiliation and full contact information of the author. Please send the abstract and cover page as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) to the organizers – Alexandra Kolb, Alison East & Ojeya Cruz Banks – with the subject heading ‘Dance Symposium’ (dancesymposium@otago.ac.nz). Please also indicate which of the four questions/themes listed above you wish to contribute towards.

We are aiming at an informal symposium which fosters intercollegial exchange of perspectives. It is anticipated that selected papers from the conference will be published. Further information about the symposium will be posted on our website at http://www.otago.ac.nz/dancesymposium in due course.

Ojeya Cruz Banks Ph.D
University of Otago
Dance Studies Choreographer and Lecturer
P.O Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand

64-03-479-7684

Using the Octaband with People with Substance Abuse Addictions

At the American Dance Therapy Association conference last week, Mindy Bocko reported on how she's been using the Octaband:

“I used the Octaband 2 ways with adults who have substance abuse addiction issues and one way was based on something that someone was demonstrating when I came to your booth at the expressive arts conference (IEATA) and that was to have them pick an arm and say the different substances they use each time they pick an arm but to pull on one especially hard and to say which one pulls on them the most. I enjoyed that.

But what I almost enjoyed more was a spontaneous way of using this that a client came up with. And that was all of us were standing around holding an arm and he said ‘Just pass it to the person next to you.’ But  thinking of directives, I said ‘as you pass it to the person next to you, please tell them what you’ve enjoyed about them in the group.’ Boy, that went around 6 times, with people hearing positive affirmations about themself in their presence and then we circled it back in the other direction.

I loved that spontaneity. The client thought it up and it was great.”

These images of the Octaband being used are not with people with substance abuse addictions, but rather an international peace education training. Still it can give you an idea of what the Octaband looks like in action.

 

Arts for People shows Susy Matheson using Octaband in Dance Movement Therapy

 The Art of Living Gallery hosted Rebecca Williams, executive director of Arts for People in Dallas Texas. In this brief video, Rebecca Williams explains the use of the arts therapies for special populations.  "working on issues from the inside out". One of the first images shows dance movement therapist Suzy Matheson using the Octaband with a group of children.

Everyone can dance. Not only the tall, beautiful people, but everyone.

Dancing with Down Syndrome

"Madrid dance troop Danza Down enchants audiences with classical ballet, traditional Spanish dance and musical theatre performances. What makes this dance troop special is that all of the dancers in the troop have Down Syndrome.

Under the nurturing and patient tutelage of Director Elias Lafuente, children and adults with Down Syndrome blossom, gain confidence and develop a love of music and dance.

This is a short from a longer documentary we are working on."

People have been using dance with children with Down Syndrome for quite some time. Pioneer dance movement therapist Norma Canner used dance as a means of self expression, communication and pleasure with children with Downs Syndrome beginning in the 1960's. Her book and a time to dance has been read by generations of dance movement therapists and is a wonderful introduction to the field of DMT. Find out more about dance/movement therapy at www.adta.org.

This short showing Elias Lafuente teaching dance to the children with such tenderness and love is not to be missed by those who believe, as he does, and I do, that "Everyone can dance. Not only the tall, beautiful people, but everyone."

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