Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist

Dance Therapy with Older Adults from Different Cultures~ a Poignant Moment

Yesterday I ran a group with older adults in low income housing. It was my first time meeting this group of 14, all of whom were Chinese or Russian except for 2 African American women. Only the latter 2 women, 1 Russian woman, and 1 Chinese couple spoke English. I figured out pretty quickly that I was going to need to lead this group mostly nonverbally.

At the end of the group, a Russian man who spoke no English came over to me and extended his hand. When I placed my hand in his, he bent down and kissed it. As he stood again releasing my hand, he looked into my eyes. I saw tears in his. Several other people came up to me and thanked me, verbally or nonverbally. Those who could speak English asked when I was coming back, hoping it was next week. While I often get lots of positive feedback after a group, it felt as though people were much more touched by this group. Later in the evening I had a chance to reflect on the group, thinking about what made it so poignant. Here are some of my thoughts.

I always begin group by shaking hands and getting each person's name. Some of the names were difficult to say and remember, but I persisted until I got each one. One of the songs we sang is a Tommy Dorsey song called "You". I use this in most of my groups, asking people to sing lalala except to sing "You, wonderful you", as they point to others in the circle. As I did this, I asked them for the Chinese word for you, which I was told was "nee" and the Russian word which was something like "tee". We all pointed to one another and sang you, nee and tee.

Photo of me leading this activity in a workshop at ArtZ and Dementia

Without words, I gave directives to stand in 2 lines facing each other, each of us with a partner in the other line. I had one person initate a movement which we all did as we took 4 steps toward our partner and 4 steps back. If I were to do this again, I would have one of the lines move over 1 person so that we could get to partner with different people.

I imagine that these folks very much appreciated my attempts to learn their names even though it was difficult, and to learn even one word of their language. I also realized that they probably don't have many opportunities to interact with one another without speaking a common language. I brought the common language ~ the language of movement and dance. E. filling out my evaluation, wrote "We hope we have more chance to have such wonderful program." May it be so.

How to Use Octaband to Bring Children Connection and Fun

Margy Grosswendt is beginning her fourth week at the Boys and Girls Club as a volunteer and reports that it's going well. She says,

"The Octaband continues to amaze me:  the kids like it, the director likes it, and I know when I go to it, we will have a good 15 minutes of an activity that brings movement, connection, creativity and fun."

Here are more specifics.

"Movement:  We start sitting or standing, bouncing in unison to the song playing.  I quickly go to each child making up a movement which we repeat.  As I have a wide variety of ages and abilities together, the movements mirror that age/ability difference, but it doesn't matter!!  Movement is movement. Each kid is contributing something of themselves and the look in their eyes when they come up with something that we all learn is just precious.  (Kind of like:  "Gee...I can do this?  Really?") 

The movements so far involve hands crossing, up and downs, moving in the center and out, turning within one's personal space,  skipping in a circle and reverse, and even a kickboxing move alternating hands with opposition in the feet. 

Connection:  Last Wednesday, I had 3 kids + me on the smaller one.  I had a 6th grade girl, maybe a bit slow, a bright eyed 7-year old boy, and a 10-year old boy.  I said to them at the beginning: Now look across.  That person is your partner!  You help each other by moving together.  I noticed that when they established that eye contact when I said "Now look across" they smiled at each other.  Just that smile, at the beginning, felt like a home run.  There has been an occasional time when kids sit on the sideline and say they just want to watch, and having the larger Octaband available is good to include these children on the sidelines.  (same experience in Bosnia)

Creativity:  As I'm moving up into the early teen years with this age group, I think there is an embarrassment factor that comes with going to a movement or a dance class.  I like the equalizing that the Octaband offers: everyone is on an equal playing field from the get go.   

Fun:  Tossing that stuffed animal up in the air never fails to bring shrieks of laughter."

Photo is of Margy's group in Sarajevo

An Experience of Wholeness for the Person Affected by Dementia

"Chaotic brain activity diminishes as a song holds their attention. It pulls everything together so the person is fully whole, centered in the moment, enabling the person to be more themselves" according to music therapist Dr. Connie Tomaino. (From Advancing Care, Vol. 1, No. 4, Oct/Nov. 2011 put out by NY City Chapter ofAlzherimer's Association.)

I have found the same to be true for the hour of the dance movement therapy services I provide in Assisted Livings, long term care facilities and Senior Centers where I go in as an entertainer. In my experience, the music begins the process which I then expand and extend through consciously focusing and mediating the energy within the group. It may appear easy to the onlooker; there are some who think it is my great choice and selection of music alone which creates the cohesion.

While the music is indeed transformative, the 100's of interactions that I consciously engage in with each individual during the course of a single hour reinforce the cohesion, based on my imagery of wholeness. The words heal and health come from a Germanic/old English word for whole. Similarly, integrate comes from a Latin source meaning intact, whole.

According to the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) "Dance/movement therapy (DMT) uses movement to 'further the emotional, cognitive, physical and social integration of the individual.'"

My 35 years of working as a dance/movement therapist have focused me personally as well as professionally on continued integration. It is for that reason that I continue to dance and perform with Back Pocket Dancers, teach at Lesley University, practice as a dance/movement therapist. You can subscribe to my monthly newsletter here.

For those who are looking for additional resources, there are always several interesting posts here. This month's include:

• Foundation for Community Dance, People Dancing, Dancing People, International Event 2014
• Shape helps arts organisations better understand disabled people as audiences the barriers they may face and how they access the sector.
• Arts and Older People: effective partnerships and collaborations,  one-day conference in UK in November 2013
• Would love to be able to attend this one: Beyond the body: Psychological tools for performance enhancement and well-being in dance, November 29, 2013, organised by the Royal Society of Medicine and Dance UK.

Image ~ the Shortest Distance between Intention and Fruition

For the past several years, I have been fascinated by the role that imagery plays for me as dance/ movement therapy group leader. As leader, my image has transformed from captain of the ship in my first years in short-term acute psychiatric settings, to being the guide, the glue that holds a group together, and subsequently a wheel when working with people living with dementia.

"The image we hold of ourselves as therapists and of our work with clients is, I believe, the most cohesive element. These images continually change, sometimes within a session, and over time as a result of integrating experience. The clarity of these images profoundly affects the outcome of our work. The image becomes not only the bridge, but also the mode of transportation for new responses." Newman-Bluestein, The Gift of Self presented at the 2007 ADTA conference.

Working as a dance/movement therapist on the geropsych unit at Quincy Hospital, I remember noticing that, as I'd been taught, there were some groups where the therapist needed to be more active. It was as though the leader were the hub of a wheel, and the interactions between her and participants were the spokes. Without the therapist providing those interactions or spokes, there was no cohesion. It was this image that ultimately provided the inspiration to create the Octaband. That and my motivation to connect a collection of individuals with dementia whom I was unsuccessfully trying to transform into a group. The Octaband proved successful in getting the individuals to connect as a group.

Recently, in networking with others around the globe in the fields of dance, dance/movement and expressive therapies, and dementia care, an image of myself as a gear in a fantastical mechanical clock has emerged. I'm calling this image The Wheels of Change.

There are many who feel, as I do, that the care we provide our older adults and people with dementia is not good enough. It does not come close to honoring our mothers and fathers. These older adults have paved the way for us, and our treatment of them is less than honoring. How can we honor them?

We know, based on the evidence that we dance/movement, expressive, music, arts, drama therapists and storytellers see and hear that the arts improve the quality of life for the people with dementia with whom we work. This is unquestionable to us and to all who see us in action. My question is why are we not providing such care. Why do we spend millions on prevention and almost nothing on non-pharmacological interventions that truly honor the dignity of these individuals?

In October, I will be presenting at the 48th Annual American Dance Therapy Association Conference in Brooklyn, NY on the importance of connection for people with dementia: connection for person with dementia to self, between them and  therapist, and between therapist and immediate community so the community can provide the cohesive containment the person can no longer provide for him/herself. Beyond the immediate community, 21st century technology and social media provide the means to create national, global and cross-cultural communities where we can access and contribute to the latest conversations, nonpharmacalogical interventions, thinking, research, advocacy and legislation to truly affect the lives of PWD.

Chris Voelz's, director of women’s athletics at U. Minn/ Twin Cities, words have been in front of me at my computer for the past several years:

"Vision - effort = fantasy;
Effort - vision = drudgery;
Vision & effort = the hope of the world."

On September 18, today, I will be attending a Public Hearing in Boston regarding care standards and training for caregivers working with people with dementia in nursing homes and Alzheimer's facilities. I will be advocating not only for the arts therapies but also for the importance of an embodied approach; speaking the language that people with dementia speak. Dance/movement therapist Bethany Kranz will also be advocating.

I hope that others will join me in this endeavor, to bring honor and dignity to our older adults and people with dementia. You can subscribe to my newsletter, join the many conversations on LinkedIn Including the American Dance Therapy Association's LinkedIn discussions, attend my presentation at the ADTA conference or the Expressive Therapies Summit in NY in November.

If the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line, the shortest distance between intention and fruition is the image. Let's see ourselves as gears in The Wheels of Change.

 

 

Doing Good in the World with the Octaband

Eight years ago this week, the week of Labor Day, I could never have imagined how far the Octaband would travel nor how much wonderful good it would bring to the world. From last Labor Day to this, Octabands have traveled from the Netherlands to Singapore, Australia to Japan and back, Hawaii to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Belgrade, Serbia. Octabands have gone to Finland, UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, Greece, New Zealand, Argentina, Hong Kong, and Thailand, and throughout the U.S. and wherever they go, they are bringing people together, helping people who may be disenfranchised feel a sense of belonging.

Margy Grosswendt's is one particularly inspiring story I would like to share.

 

Margy has been volunteering in Bosnia since October 2012 where she spent a month teaching dance/movement to kids and staff in an orphanage in Sarajevo. She returned for a month in June 2013 and is going back for a month this October. In a self-funded Peace Corps type project set up with the help of forensic anthropologist Eva Klonowski, Margy is helping children and adults recover from PTSD as the result of the 1992 – 1995 war. Conditions in Bosnia are quite terrible with high unemployment, the fractured government and bureaucracy, and underfunding of orphanages.

Building on training in creative movement in college, a lifelong love and practice of dance, Pilates, Gyrotonics, and her life experience, she improvised her curriculum. Margie

"was told by the director that I was the best volunteer he'd had in 17 years, the psychologist concurred, and said I'd broken all roadmaps of holding attention for the 3-5 year olds in my 50-60 minute lessons; these kids had not been able to sustain attention longer than 15 minutes.  I was floored" (from Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Blog).

Margy found that saying goodbye was especially difficult. She promised them she would return in 6 months. In May 2013, Margy returned to Sarajevo with more research and ideas, playlists, and the Octaband.

Many of the children have special needs including developmental disabilities and attention deficit disorder and Margie tells me that the women, not surprisingly, are depressed and prior to her arrival did no exercise at all. The teens felt discouraged, with little hope for a better life. Initially, again no surprise, the teens were reluctant to join in. The Octaband was what first drew them in as well as Margy having them help her with the younger children.

In her groups with young children, teens and widowed mothers, Margy is providing some tools to deal with life in Bosnia 18 years after war. Margy was concerned especially with the lack of creativity in the younger children.

"In this digital age, much of what children come up with is reproduction from the TV or their computers. Creative movement using your own body moving to music in improvised creative dance is an opportunity for children to use their imaginations and both express feelings and create images that are completely originals. This is a gift; it is difficult to find a venue that inspires true originality."

At 58 y.o., Margy is giving back to women and children who don’t have a fraction of the privilege and opportunity we have in America. She has begun what I would call an Encore career but even more importantly, she is changing the world one child at a time. In a Youtube interview of Margy by Red Magazine (with translation to Bosnian?), Margy was speaking about her success in the real estate business (her first career). She attributes her success to caring about people first, and I know from my interactions with her, that attention to detail is another of her attributes. I am proud of the role that the Octaband has played in her important work.

About to begin leading groups with a Boys and Girls Club in Oahu, Margy recently offered,"The Octaband is sooo good I can't imagine starting working without it".