Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist

Dance Charter School for Kids with Kinesthetic Learning Styles

I awoke from a dream earlier this morning in which I was being interviewed about dance movement therapy pioneer Norma Canner's influence on me. In the dream I was talking about feeling validated within the dance therapy training program for expressing myself gesturally with my hands. In the dream, while I began expressing myself with my hands, I moved easily to expressing myself with my whole body.

I awoke thinking about how the monoculture I grew up and was educated within did not validate my values as expressed through movement. I was so relieved to find the profession of dance movement therapy and to find like-hearted-minded-embodied-ensouled people who also value the importance of self-expression. As long as our educational system continues neglecting education about the value of our whole selves and our emotional connection to one another, we will continue to have shootings because some child is bullied and made to feel marginal. In fact, I would imagine that the majority of the people within the U.S. are marginalized due to the undervaluing of movement, dance, emotional expression and cultural richness.

So, imagine my surprise when I just received the link to this program. I was moved to tears watching this video of children getting to learn through the strength of their learning styles, rather than having to adapt from a young age to more singular and restrictive methods of teaching.

 

"A unique approach grounded in academic rigor and high expectations infused with dance has shown incredible results for Gabriella Charter School, which was honored with the Hart Vision Award for Charter School of the Year. Gabriella Charter School is located in Los Angeles, California."

Karyn Edison, Director of Dancing Arts Center and the Massachusetts Dance Festival is calling for a similar academic program in Massachusetts for K-8 kids with kinesthetic learning styles. What a phenomenal idea.

Norma Canner's early dance teacher was Barbara Mettler, who encouraged Norma to go out and teach dance when she moved to Ohio, I think. Mettler's curriculum for Creative Dance is accessible to people of all ages and abilities and builds upon our natural movement language.

Veteran teachers Mary Ann Brehm and Nancy Lob will be teaching in Newton, Massachusetts this summer.

Mettler Studios' Summer Dance Improvisation
and
Teacher Training Workshop
August 6-10, 2012

This is a course for anyone who:
- loves to move freely, paying attention to the sensations of their movement
- enjoys dancing with in groups
- wants to be able to share/teach improvisation or creative dance
 
No previous experience necessary
Course content:
- Movement exploration based on Mettler's core principles of dance
- Progressions for developing craftsmanship in individual and group dance improvisation
- Discussions on how to present Mettler-based material to any group

For more information contact Mary Ann Brehm mabdance@aol.com, 814-670-9214.

The more ways that we can bring dance to children, and to people of all ages for that matter, the healthier our society will be.

 

More Resources on Dance and Dementia plus

This is actually about music and dementia, but as you can see in the video, the group leader has folks moving and speaks of the importance of movement to job the memory. This is posted on the Alzheimer's Society UK website. Another example of the UK being far ahead of us regarding their promotion of non-pharmaceutical interventions for people with dementia.

 

Here is a draft of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease.  We are invited to share our feedback on the plan.

Eden Alternative News offers the following 5 "love languages" as tools for Culture Chage:

Words of Affirmation:
Encouraging words and loving reassurance lift this person up.

Quality Time:
Your choice to be fully present means everything to this individual.

Physical Touch:
Touch is deeply important to this person.

Receiving Gifts:
Thoughtful gestures inspire this individual.

Acts of Service:
Easing the burdens of daily life or making the day somehow easier for them really speaks to this person.

The National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners (NCCDP) has a free Tool Kit and Free in-services for which you have only to register.

Glen Campbell: Alzheimer's can't silence the music - Washington Times

Glen Campbell walked onstage at the Grammys earlier this month looking confident, but not exactly like the Glen Campbell I had seen performing before. Something about his stance — the way he held his shoulders — seemed familiar to me. And then the camera panned toward his eyes: That was it. A sparkle was gone. Something was flatter, more far away. Distant.

via www.washingtontimes.com

Beautiful article about music therapy. As a dance therapist who uses music, I am able to connect, and then expand the connection. All the arts help people with dementia connect to their deepest selves and to others.

Festival of the Moving Body ~ Stony Brook University

A day of movement and discovery, Stony Brook University presents The Festival of the Moving Body.

Saturday, March 17, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

7 PM performance

Experts from around the globe will share their ideas, research, creative work, and interdisciplinary thinking through film, dance, media, interactive art installations, somatic education and therapy, visual art, panel discussions, music, classes, and performance.

Looks like a great take-in. Stony Brook, NY

 

 

Dance Therapy & Dementia ~ Resources

I am finding a lot of wonderful information, resources and articles lately. I will share a few here. First, I will be leading a workshop at the Pioneer Network Conference in Jacksonville, FL Aug. 7 or 8. Check back for more info as I learn more.

It looks like there is a great conference coming up next September in the UK ~  Health, Ageing and the Creative Arts conference: The 7th International Conference on Creative Expression, Communication and Dementia is being held at the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Worcester, UK. It looks so exciting that I am thinking about going to it!

You can also find links to news, events and research here. Included in this fabulous resource are:

1. Dance and Dementia Project: Findings from the pilot study, University of Brighton
2. Arts 4 Dementia London Arts Challenge in 2012
3. Moving Memories evaluation available to download 
4. Going by way of the body in Dementia care, Dr Richard Coaten talks about the contribution of dance to the wellbeing of sufferers of dementia, posted 8/15/11
5. Our dancing days are (not) done... (excerpt), Rachel Rogers, Project Development Manager, Merseyside Dance Initiative, reports on their health and wellbeing work with older people in Liverpool

and even more resources.

I can! I will! also out of the UK, has "a library of ideas to help people around the world stand up and speak out about Alzheimer's disease and related disorders." They just posted about the Octaband, although they misspelled it. Lots of great ideas on this site.

Also some interesting discussions and some useful ideas on the LinkedIn group, Alzheimer's & Dementia Professionals.

Enjoy!

Creative Arts Therapies: Promoting Wellness Across the Life Span

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Creative Arts Therapies: Promoting Wellness Across the Lifespan

NJCATA/Healing Arts @ Atlantic Health Spring 2012 Conference

Location: Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, NJ

Register by March 3 to save.

Hands-on workshops will be led by 15 creative arts therapists, and organized into interest tracks; including Creative Aging, End of Life Care, Specialized Populations and Professional Development. Learn from professionals how the field has been used in clinical settings for the advancement and efficacy of treatment.   Register now to select morning & afternoon workshops which best fit your interest.

I'll be presenting on "Enlivening Older Adults through Dance/ Movement Therapy", a topic about which I am greatly inspired.

 

Dancing Through Dementia: What is Dance/Movement Therapy?

Erica has posted on February 17th, 2012 by Erica Hornthal in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias, Working in the Field of Aging the first of what she tells us is a 6 part series. I look forward to hearing more.

"How can dance/movement therapy benefit someone living with a dementia diagnosis?

In regard to individuals with dementia, dance/movement therapy has been effective in stimulating social interaction, enhancing mood, reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms, increasing self-awareness and self-expression. Dance/movement therapy can even maintain and at times improve memory and cognitive functioning. The focus of communication is on non-verbal attunement and mindfulness, both of which become increasingly important as many dementias affect language and cognitive awareness."

There apparently was just a one-day conference in Bonn on The Arts for Dementia. Apparently, many of the arts were represented, but it seems not dance. That's unfortunately, because there is no lively engagement without the body, and while people with dementia often do not move much, it is not because they can't.

I led a group for an Assisted Living a couple of weeks ago for the first time. The Program Director was very pleased when she came in and saw that not one of the 16 people present was sleeping at the end of a 1 hour group. That's because as dance/movement therapists, we are trained to observe movement. We learn how to "read the crowd", and provide interventions to engage them. I figure if they move now, they'll sleep better later. There was one woman in my group who expressed confusion early in the group. That was not surprising, since my groups are seldom like anything people have experienced elsewhere. They are playful and encourage spontaneity - I don't see much of that happening in the culture-at-large. Despite her confusion and initial reserve, she finally couldn't bear sitting any longer, and got up to dance with me. While telling me she didn't know how to dance, she remembered perfectly how to hold her arms and led me in a waltz. She was smiling, engaged, interacting, her mood clearly improved.

Where is the money to research the benefits of dance/movement therapy on people with dementia? It is clear to anyone who sees.

Being with People with Dementia - 5 Suggestions

1. The social emotional environment of the pwd is the most important element of their care. More important than the color of the painted walls, the time of their meals, it is their social emotional environment which most greatly affects them. The money spent on their care within institutions (i.e. memory care units, assisted living households, etc.) should reflect that value, i.e. in hiring and educating staff who will provide that social emotional care, rather than spending money on furniture and paint to impress family members.
2. Motivate pwd to move. While their cognitive skills may be diminishing, their physical skills need not be. Help them maintain their physical strength, flexibility and enjoyment. Rather than trying to get them to stop “wandering”, walk with them. Dance with them. Give them opportunities to express their feelings of frustration, joy, love physically through hitting a ballon, a punching bag, and providing hugs.
3. Allow the relationship to be mutual. While a pwd may need caregiver support, they also have many gifts to offer. It is incumbent upon the caregiver to discover and appreciate those gifts. 
4. If a person is unable to communicate with words, and you are having difficulty figuring out what they need, empathically mirror them. Observe their bodies and movement and try them on. Imagine what it might feel like to be in that person’s skin - in their posture, their facial expression, their gesture or in their immobility. 
5. Be in the present moment, the only moment any of us truly have.

Dance Movement Therapist Norma Canner, 1918 - 2012

It is with deep sadness that I acknowledge the passing of my beloved teacher, mentor, and friend, Norma Canner yesterday, February 9, 2012. And yet, in another of life's paradoxes, it is another opportunity to celebrate her life and the huge contributions she has made to humanity.

Norma was a charismatic individual. She was present-centered, spontaneous, both fun to be with and at the same time, she could be quite exacting. As a teacher, she didn't make it easy; she didn't tell us what dance/movement therapy was nor how to do it. Rather, she provided us with experiences, and asked us what they meant to us. She wanted to know how we would incorporate the dance we knew into our work with others. And she prodded us to explore the meanings of dance and dance therapy ever more deeply. As recently as this past year, in speaking with a group of Lesley's DMT students, Norma was still asking the students what dance therapy meant to them. As a result, I believe, of the depths of her understanding, her reach has been expansive.

As I think about Norma's qualities, skills and values, those which come most immediately to mind are first, her genuine curiosity and interest in others. Norma was highly relational and interactional- with people, art materials, the environment. (Not crazy about cats though.) A story which I have told many times which captures this skill of Norma's to draw others out is about Norma and my daughter. We met while on vacation, by chance, at a restaurant in Puerto Rico, my family and Norma's. My daughter was about 5 y.o. at the time. When Norma encouraged my daughter to tell her about herself, my daughter, who at the time was extremely shy and quiet, within 5 minutes was blabbing away, sharing her deepest, darkest secrets - things she'd revealed only to me, and that with great patience and time on my part. I tell this story because of the perspective it gave me into how skilled Norma really was.

Norma had excellent observational skills, probably honed while working in the theatre. She built her interventions on the movement each person was doing. In our training as with clients, Norma used the breath, rhythm, sound, often encouraging us to express more, and then, to explore the opposites. She gave us the tools to experience range, resilience, and rhythm of opening and closing, for example.

Norma's curiosity led her to explore through reading and experiences in related fields as well. She was a wonderful model of someone who continued to engage in lifelong learning.

I am sure I will be writing more about our beloved Norma. We will sorely miss you, Norma.

 

Octaband at Warwick H.S. Day Care Center

Jean Basiner sent this photo of her DMT with severely disabled teens at Warwick H.S. Day Care Center.

Jean says, "We all love your Octaband. It is now at St Joe's Hospital for Children w/cancer-special needs in Tampa for two weeks.  This wonderful healing tool has so many miles on it, Donna!"

Jean is a consultant with the Andrea Rizzo Foundation.