Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist

Health Matters: Music and the Mind

Hear this wonderful interview of music therapist Barbara Reuer and neuroscientist Aniruddh Patel by David Granet.

What can music teach us about the mind and in turn what can brain science reveal about music? Though interest in music and the mind dates as far back as Plato, it's only the past decade that the field of music neuroscience has really begun in earnest. Not only does music gives us a window into how our brain functions, but it also has therapeutic benefits to our health. To help us understand these connections, our host David Granet, MD, is joined by experts Aniruddh Patel, PhD, with The Neurosciences Institute, and Barbara Reuer, PhD, with Resounding Joy⌐ for this fascinating look at music and the mind.

I met Barbara Reuer at the AMTA (American Music Therapy Association) conference in St. Louis in 2008 when she bought Octabands for her staff of music therapists. I think it's interesting that people generally think of rhythm and music as going hand in hand ~ and of course, they do. However, people don't seem to realize that rhythm is body centered, whether or not there is music or sound. In fact, there is no music if a person doesn't express their rhythm through movement, even if it's the movement of just  the mouth. 

I so look forward to the day that neuroscientists research how movement affects the mind, and the mind affects movement in dance. In fact, I am totally bummed out that I can't make the international conference, 'Kinesthetic Empathy: Concepts and Contexts' on 22 and 23 April 2010 in the UK which will bring together researchers and practitioners in neuroscience, dance, film, music, and contemporary embodied practices, to explore the nature and role of kinesthetic empathy.

The aim of the conference is to open up dialogues between different practices and theoretical approaches. It will celebrate the growing interest in kinesthesia, empathy and kinesthetic empathy as pivotal concepts across different disciplines and media, reflecting current concern with ‘affect’ as an object of enquiry, interrogation of notions of presence, embodiment and the senses, re-examination of phenomenology, and widespread interest in neuroscientific investigation (notably in the 'mirror neuron' system).

RUDOLF LABAN: NEW FACETS OF HIS LIFE AND WORK

Motus Humanus and Columbia College Chicago will be co-sponsoring an advanced seminar

May 22-23, 2010

Columbia College Chicago

This event will include presentations by four international scholars, Evelyn Doerr, Vera Maletic, Carol-Lynne Moore and Jeffrey Longstaff.  Lectures, practical sessions, and discussions, will provide participants the opportunity to explore new Laban-based scholarship and possibilities for application.

These images are thanks to Grace Ho, exploring Laban concepts with the Octaband.
 
 

New Ways to Use the Octaband for Varied Populations

Rena Kornblum's dance/movement therapy class in fall 2009 at University of Wisconsin, Madison had an assignment to explore the use of props, coming up with ways to use them, goals and potential populations they would be good for. They came up with many wonderful ideas for how to use the Octaband, including some I never thought of. Download OCTABAND ideas from rena k

Photo is courtesy of Suzy Rossol Matheson

Movement Expressions

Carrollton, TX

Rachel Morales Is Working on a New Collaborative Dance Project

Rachel Morales is hoping to document the making of a dance piece to be performed this April, 2010. She has begun working on this wonderful collaboration with the Drexel dance ensemble,12 abled-bodied dancers and 12 disabled dancers. I am so looking forward to getting to see this work, because Rachel is an extraordinarily beautiful dancer and choreographer who has done similar collaboration and choreography with children at the HMS school and a group of semi professional high school students.

Circle of Care, The Arts in Medicine supports Rachel's dance movement therapy work with children with cerebral palsy. Here you can see a brief WHYY original documentary showing Rachel's work with these children. 

Dance and Disability
Watch the Video
At the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy, dance therapist Rachel Morales helps students use dance and movement to communicate. Children come alive and vibrant in dance class, working muscles, relieving stress and doing things that other children might do. Through dance performance, doctors find that they can better understand their patients both physically and emotionally, and see the whole person rather than just the disability.

Yesterday, Rachel wrote me to say, "Yesterday in group we had a lot of fun with the small octaband - exploring light and strong.  Your prop is Fantastic!"

Enjoy Closeness Again

Friends Village at Woodstown, NJ is offering free training in nonverbal communication to caregivers of people with dementia in Salem, NJ.

I will be training care partners in nonverbal communication to recognize and understand the meaning of body language and facial expressions in themselves as well as others. People with advanced dementia rely heavily on nonverbal communication because the meeting of their needs and their emotional safety depend on it. People with dementia are sensitive to approval and disapproval, support, nurturance, rejection and abandonment through tone of voice, facial expression, gesture, posture, etc.. Because our movement patterns are outside our awareness and so deeply ingrained, it takes repeated exposure to become aware and to adapt these habitual patterns. This training will help care partners focus more on relationship and less on tasks.

Training will be provided through engaging in experiential structures, role play, discussion and lecture. Trainees will be participant observers in a dance movement therapy group with people with dementia once each month.

There will be 4 classes. Groups of 8 participants each will meet for a total of 20 hours over a 6 month period. Classes will begin in February, March and April.

This program is free for residents of Salem County, NJ. Funding is provided in part by a grant from the Salem Health and Wellness Foundation.

For information, contact Patience Oakes at (856) 823-0242 or email her at poakes@fhaw.org.

Kids at Mary Cariola Children's Center Love the Octaband.

Kimberley Smith Daly wrote me to say that she has just begun using the Octaband with kids at Mary Cariola Children's Center and they love it. She has already been using it with physically and developmentally disabled adults who also love using the Octaband. You can see her previous testimonial here.

The images in this YouTube video are from photographs that dance movement therapist Priscilla Harmel took of elders at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale and excerpts from a video of a celebration of Dance Therapy week in Massachusetts in May 2006. Thanks to Sherry Moore for putting this video clip together. Most of the adults in the video were students or graduates of Lesley University's dance movement therapy specialization. Sherry was Production Manager of the film Twisted.

Play Is Forever

Generations United, a wonderful resource for intergenerational programming, has a fact sheet about play highlighting the importance of play for children and older adults. Thankfully, there are people who recognize the value of play. 

The Octaband is being used for intergenerational play with great success. People of all ages love the colors, the yummy soft material, and the stretchiness. But I think most of all, people love feeling themselves both an individual and an integral part of a group. That is what led me to create the Octaband. I was looking for a way to engage people with profound dementia in play ~ and it works.

 

Octaband ~ A Way to Make Music Together Classes More Fun

Looking for ways to make preschool music classes more fun? On the Music Together listserve, one teacher recommended the Octaband.

Julia Priest is using the Octaband in her Music Together classes in Newton, MA.

Check out the Octaband Forum on the left sidebar for ways people are using the Octaband. Also check out the Octaband website where you can see how I came to design the Octaband.

Testimonial from Mother of Child on Autism Spectrum re Octaband

I had the opportunity to observe a dear friend and colleague leading movement groups with preschoolers this past week. The children and the teachers had a great time with the Octaband.

After the class one of the mothers contacted me by email. The classroom teacher had told the mom how enthusiastic her son was about participating with the Octaband!  The mother told me that her son has had a lot of trouble adjusting to preschool and complains about going to school each day and does not like to take part in activities.

She expressed appreciation that her son was able to have the experience with the Octaband that he did, saying that when he came home from school, he couldn't stop talking about how much fun it was!

Dance movement therapy with children with autism:

The mother also asked me for insights about her son's participation in the group. I told the mom that as a dance movement therapist, I was intrigued by her son's movement, which I saw as both expressive and communicative. When he first entered the room and the children were invited to join the circle, her child turned his back to the others and did a repetitive, idiosyncratic movement with his hands near his mouth. When the teacher called him by name and invited him to join the others in the circle, he was able to do so. At one point early in the group, the teacher asked each child to lead the others in the movement. This young boy began hopping from one foot to the other, rotating in a circle. When the teacher and the other children followed his lead, he seemed to become more energetic, excited and happy, with a big smile. When the leadership passed to the next person, his attention was immediately distracted by objects on a shelf nearby.

 

My interpretation of this child's movement and behavior was that he was: (1)  clearly expressing himself through movement, although the meaning of his movement was not necessarily readily apparent. (2)  highly responsive to the medium of movement and dance. (3)  highly responsive to the individual attention, and mirroring in particular. (4) He seemed to be expressing his difficulty with transitions about being an individual and being in relationship to others.

 

I designed the Octaband as a prop to encourage individuality and group cohesion at the same time. Other movement props are good for individuality or cooperation. I would guess that her son enjoyed it specifically because it allowed him to be an individual and connected to others at the same time. Children also love the Octaband because it is very colorful, stretchy and feels good to the touch.

 

 

I recommended that the pediatrician refer her son to a dance movement therapist and that she encourage the preschool to continue to provide the creative movement classes for the children. Movement is so vital for young children whose primary mode of communication is movement - which is all of them, even though some are also verbal.

 

For more about dance movement therapy with children with autism, here is a resource provided by the ADTA (American Dance Therapy Association).

Order from Amazon through the ADTA website, and a percentage of the proceeds goes to the ADTA, whose purpose is to

"establish, maintain, and support the highest standards of professional identity and competence among dance/movement therapists by promoting education, training, practice, and research.  The Association provides avenues of communication among dance/movement therapists and those working in related fields, and increases public awareness of dance/movement therapy."

For more about dance movement therapy with children, I highly recommend Suzi Tortora's book the Dancing Dialogue: Using the Communicative Power of Movement with Young Children.

Octaband Provides Respite for Dementia Caregivers

"John and Sallie voice their approval of the Octaband." ~ the caption under the photo for The Gathering Place news this month.

The Gathering Place at First United Methodist Church, Conroe, Texas seeks to help both the caregiver and the care partner, providing respite for caregivers of those with Alzheimer's.  Twice monthly The Gathering Place provides the care partner a time of fun and fellowship through music, games, exercises, performances, and a luncheon.