Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist

2011 Year in Review ~ Dance for Connection

2011 has been an extraordinary year for me and my newly reorganized business, Dance for Connection. Hopefully we will have our new website, Dance for Connection, up and running in 2012. Dance for Connection has a number of aspects, which include:

Dancing with Elders and People with Dementia

Continues to be my favorite part of the work. Playing and bringing joy to elders which continues to bring great joy to me. You can hear about what motivated me to do this work and some of my early experiences at 60 minutes 

Listen to internet radio with Alzheimers Speaks Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio

 

 

 Octaband

See the 4 minute video of the Octaband being used with children and elders. Thanks once again to videographer Sherry Moore and Expressive Therapist Adam Riccio and the children and adults who participated in the video.

Check out our Facebook page and "Like" us. Maybe it will make it easier for you to communicate with us.

You can also see the Octaband video that Music Together created.

We met lots of wonderful folks at the American Therapeutic Recreation Association conference where I led a 2.5 hour workshop. We also exhibited at the New England Region American Music Therapy Association on Cape Cod, Map through the Maze Massachusetts/NH Alzheimer's Association conference, Society for the Arts in Healthcare (SAH) conference in San Francisco in June, Pioneer Network conference in St. Charles, MO in August, American Dance Therapy Association conference in Minneapolis in October.

In 2012 we look forward to seeing the protocol for using the Octaband with the elderly and people with dementia which will be published in Karen Grote's next edition of Behavioral Health Protocols for Recreational Therapy.

Relationship-Centered Nonverbal Communication Training for Caregivers of People with Dementia: An Embodied Approach

Dr. Meg Chang and I have self-published the manual to accompany the train-the-trainers for this course.

I led a 20 hour training for a wonderful group of dance movement therapists and others at Kinections in Rochester, NY this past June.

Meg Chang and I and a panel of 3 of our original trainees at Friends Village, NJ ~ Patience Oakes, Tabitha Gifford and Linda Price ~ presented on the trainings at the Pioneer Network conference. Our work was well received and we had a lot of fun.

Meg and I also delivered our evaluation research findings in poster presentations at the ADTA and SAH conferences.

Back Pocket Dancers

Back Pocket Dancers, an intergenerational dance company of which I am a member, performed for the West Medford Community Center and the Somerville Council on Aging. We're available for bookings in the greater Boston area as of Spring 2012. Check out our video by going to joangreendance.com on YouTube. Click on Back Pocket Dancers to see excerpts of DANCE ME A STORY.

Module II of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement and Somatic Studies was an amazingly wonderful experience at Lesley University. It has helped me as a dancer, dance therapist, dance therapy educator, and trainer in nonverbal communication (to say nothing of myself as a human being). I'll be taking the next Module in January. Lesley will be offering another such certification program in May, 2012.

Woohoo! What a year! What to expect in 2012?  More blogging I'm sure. More dancing, hopefully lots of it with people with dementia. Am looking into setting up some trainings in nonverbal communication on both coasts, presenting at conferences in NJ and Albuquerque I hope. And the Octaband? May it continue to provide people with a sense of belonging. That may be the most important thing of all.

Dance Therapy and Dementia

It was nice to have the opportunity this morning on Alzheimer's Speaks Radio to share some of my experiences about what has motivated me to to do the work that I do with people with dementia, specifically dance therapy, training staff caregivers in nonverbal communication, and creating the Octaband. You can hear the podcast here at 64:24.

Listen to internet radio with Alzheimers Speaks Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio

 One thing I had hoped to do that I didn't have time for was to read a poem written collaboratively with a woman with vascular dementia with whom I worked for a couple of years. I guess I'll have to write that article....

Back Pocket Dancers ~ Book Now

 

Excited to share our promo video. We are looking forward to booking performances for spring in elder venues. If you know of anyone who would like to book us, please let me know.

Autistic Man Inspires through Song

I never tire of hearing, seeing the ways that the arts inspire. Check this one out. May it inspire us to bring the best of ourselves into the world today.

 

Choices

I am perplexed. I don't understand why one would choose to spend more time, energy and money on protecting the life of an unborn fetus, than providing the elderly who cannot care for themselves, with a dignified old age. There are many people who have lived long lives, who have contributed well to provide us with the world we have today, and through no fault of their own, whether because of cognitive or physical limitations, need to be cared for. And how do we thank them?

If you think that the elderly in long term care facilities are being honored as in the 5th Commandment, "Honor Thy Father and Mother", you have not been to a residential memory impairment unit. Certainly things are a lot better than they were when nursing homes were dreadfully smelly places. Many places try really hard, and some, if you can afford them, do better than others.

But in these lean days, even the best facilities can't afford the dance therapy, music therapy, art therapy that they provided not that long ago. Their services, which significantly improve the quality of life for people with dementia, are being cut back. Not because people no longer need them, but, as I understand it, so that free enterprise can remain unregulated.

Is this the meaning of democracy? Is it solely about the possibility for some to make unlimited profit, regardless of the impact upon others?

By cutting money to the arts and social services, teachers and fire fighters, we are not creating jobs, we are cutting them. We are depriving people of the right to right livelihood, and the people and communities they would have served of quality of life.

And all of this is so that ... do I have this straight? because we want less government? We don't need regulation. Right?

I don't think of myself as cynical, but as I listen to my dance therapy students speak of the frequently and grossly inadequate care our clients receive, be they people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, substance abuse, traumatic brain injury, dementia, autism, adhd, I am appalled at the lack of morality of too many of my fellow Americans.

I quote the Declaration of Independence, "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happines], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

I am not suggesting that we overthrow the government. I am suggesting that we support Congressman Jim McGovern's "constitutional amendment bill to overturn the US Supreme Court’s January 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC and to make clear that corporations are not people with rights under the US Constitution". As long as corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to "protect the free speech" of corporations, the rest of us have no voice.

It is incumbent upon all of us to speak up for the disenfranchised. And, the way that I look at it, that would be most of us.

To Celebrate the Season of Lights ~ "So Here We Are" by Music Together

This is beautiful harmony, and hard to believe it was improvised. Makes me want to take a class with Music Together.

Music Together also created this beautiful video of the Octaband being used. As you can see it's fun for all ages.

Julia Priest was the first Music Together teacher I approached. She took to it immediately. This is her using it in a group several years ago.

I wish peace and light for all, humans and animals, plants, and the planet. We need it.

 

Dance Movement Psychotherapy Students on Working with Older People

In this video, 3 dance movement psychotherapy (as it is called in the UK) students at Queen Margaret University speak about their experience and show excerpts of their learning and application at an elder facility.

 

This video in seeing a small glimpse into how DMT benefits the elderly in long term care and also some of the considerations into choosing the right internship placement.

Dance Therapy & Alzheimer's Talk Radio December 27, 2011

I'm looking forward to being interviewed by Lori LaBey for Alzheimers Speaks Radio Show at 12 A.M. EST. People can call in. I'll get to talk about something I love to do ~ dance therapy with people with dementia. Tune in. If you can't make that time, you can listen to a podcast shortly after it's over.

Free Play is Essential for Healthy Psychological Development

Peter Gray makes a strong case for the importance of free play in helping young people "acquire the social and emotional skills necessary for healthy psychological development." In "The Decline of Play and the Rise of Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents" in the American Journal of Play, Gray argues for the importance of play.

Over the past half century, in the United States and other developed nations,
children’s free play with other children has declined sharply. Over the same period,
anxiety, depression, suicide, feelings of helplessness, and narcissism have increased
sharply in children, adolescents, and young adults. This article documents these
historical changes and contends that the decline in play has contributed to the
rise in the psychopathology of young people. Play functions as the major means
by which children (1) develop intrinsic interests and competencies; (2) learn how
to make decisions, solve problems, exert self-control, and follow rules; (3) learn
to regulate their emotions; (4) make friends and learn to get along with others as
equals; and (5) experience joy.

It certainly makes sense to me. It is clear to me that young people's lives are overly structured by parents and school alike.

Here is a photo of dance therapist Emma Barton using the Octaband with a group of high schoolers who are clearly playing joyfully.

Lest you think only children play:

 

So, here's to play for our health.

Adolescents with Mental Illness Love the Octaband

Jean Basiner wrote to say,

"I use the Octaband every week with severely mentally ill 18 to 21 yr olds. They absolutely love it-- it's not overwhelming for them, easy to hold with their frail hands because of the hand insert; it's colorful, and fun.  They laugh while in movement.  Great to have." 

Jean later wrote, "It's all packed for tomorrow's class at West Warwick H.S. Day Care." Below is a photo of Jean using the Octaband at St. Joseph's Baptist Children’s Hospital in Tampa, Florida from a newspaper article in 2009.