The Art and Science of Dance/Movement Therapy

Life Is Dance

Sharon Chaiklin, Hilda Wengrower, Sharon Chaiklin, Hilda Wengrower

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317436416
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Clinical Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The Art and Science of Dance/Movement Therapy offers both a broad understanding and an in-depth view of how and where dance therapy can be used to produce change. The chapters go beyond the basics that characterize much of the literature on dance/movement therapy, and each of the topics covered offers a theoretical perspective followed by case studies that emphasize the techniques used in the varied settings. Several different theoretical points of view are presented in the chapters, illuminating the different paths through which dance can be approached in therapy.

Section 1 Basic Concepts of Dance/ Movement Therapy

1 We Dance from the Moment Our Feet Touch the Earth

Sharon Chaiklin

DOI: 10.4324/9781315693477-2

Contents

• Introduction
• Cultural and Religious Influences
• Roots of Dance as Therapy
• The Pioneers
• Brief Case Study
• Professional Structures
• What Distinguishes Dance/Movement Therapy?
• Conclusion
• References
• Videos

Introduction

This chapter shows the development of dance/movement therapy from its origins in primitive societies to the present day. Dance/movement therapy is a profession based upon the art of dance and augmented by psychological and physiological theories involving core human processes.

Movement and breath signifies the start of life. It precedes language and thought. Gesture immediately emerges as the means for expressing the human need for communication. This has been true over the span of human history. Havelock Ellis writes “if we are indifferent to the art of dancing, we have failed to understand, not merely the supreme manifestation of physical life, but also the supreme symbol of spiritual life” (Ellis, 1923, p. 36). Within the earliest tribal communities, dance was seen as a link to understanding and directing the rhythms of the universe whether in the many manifestations of nature or as a statement of self and one’s place within that world. Dances to plead for rain, for success in the hunt or appreciation of a plentiful harvest are all examples of how dance was seen as a way to influence the gods. It took different forms in different cultures. Often the movement structures led to trance states that enabled the individual to feel powerful and perform extraordinary feats of endurance and strength (de Mille, 1963). The rhythms of work, the rhythms used to shape nature for man’s benefit, the rhythms of life’s events were the rhythms that formed the cooperative community, the fundamental structure among all early people and folk societies today. The dance enabled each to feel a part of his own tribe and provided a structure for performing essential rituals related to birth, puberty, marriage, and death.

Cultural and Religious Influences

We recognize different cultural groups through the distinctive movement and dances that each have evolved relevant to their geography and way of life (Lomax et al., 1972). These take many forms such as the English Maypole dance, Haitian voodoo dances, or Hawaiian hula. In what we call the Far East, dance has always been part of the religious and spiritual life of the people. Dancers are trained to learn the specific movements, stories, myths, and symbols of their culture. People come to watch not for mere entertainment, but for enlightenment and a religious experience. The western world had a similar belief that art was a necessary part of life and that there is magic power in the dance. In ancient Greece, all forms of art were to please the gods. They named the Muse of dance Terpsichore (de Mille, 1963) which is still in use today. In the later years of the Middle Ages, dance was separated into two components: the earthy folk dances and that by trained dancers meant as entertainment before an audience. It was no longer thought of as a religious experience and even was eventually banned by the Catholic Church after the dance manias of the late Middle Ages. During the plague that swept through Europe, an epidemic of St. Vitus dance or tarantism (Highwater, 1978) occurred in which people obsessionally danced without stopping. Whole crowds would follow each other succumbing to the hysteria. It was likely a reaction to the death surrounding them that caused this group behavior. The Church deemed that such souls were possessed.

Those who first made use of dance for healing, likely shamans or witch doctors, clearly made use of the interrelationship of the body–mind–spirit (Hanna, 1979). The western world lost some of that ability by dissociating the body from the spirit. The emergence of Christian religious belief during the Middle Ages and the later rational philosophy of Descartes in the seventeenth century tended to see the body as impure or of secondary importance (Descartes, 1993). Descartes discounted the relationship of mind to the body and saw them as distinct substances with the mind being the real self.

Roots of Dance as Therapy

Dance/movement therapy has a different philosophical stance. It sees dance as naturally therapeutic due to its physical, emotional, and spiritual components. People share a sense of community while dancing which is why they go to public areas to share the rhythmic action of the dance through the music.

Creativity in the arts and in this instance, dance, is a search for structures to express what is difficult to state. Dance/movement therapy is based on the fundamental realization that through the dance, individuals both relate to the community they are part of on a large or smaller scale, and are simultaneously able to express their own impulses and needs within that group. There is shared energy and strength when being with others. It enables us to go beyond our personal limitations or concerns. Within the joy of moving together, we also experience the validation of our own worth and recognition of our personal struggles.

During the early part of the twentieth century, innovators such as Isadora Duncan rejected the formality of ballet and danced barefoot as herself and not someone else’s character (Kurth, 2001). As modern dance took hold, the individual was free to create new forms and allow the unrestrained use of the body. These dancers explored movement in ways unfamiliar until then . . . the personal dance. Mary Wigman in Germany was another influential artist (Newhall, 2009). Her improvisational and ritual use of movement, her reliance on rhythmic instruments rather than musical scores, guided the many who studied with her. Her students and those that followed have been a major precursor and influence on present day dance/movement therapy. These different methods of learning did not diminish the discipline and preparation needed to become performing artists and create artistic meaning in the dance.

The mind–body concept has come full circle. All elements and components of a human are a set of related systems. Mind is indeed part of the body and the body affects the mind. Much research is now being done by neurophysiologists and other scientists to examine those inter relationships. When speaking of the body, we are not only describing the functional aspects of movement, but how our psyche and emotions are affected by our thinking and how movement itself effects change within each of them and is affected in return.

Scientific research supports what has been known on an intuitive level by those involved in dance/movement therapy over the years. To connect dance and therapy, dancers begin with a deep understanding of their art. They then explore the personal meaning of dance for themselves. When one is involved in the creative aspects of any art form, it is not possible to dismiss the personal and one’s individual perspectives. It is the root of the creation of the product. Dancing is not merely an exercise to be accomplished but rather a statement of one’s feelings and energy and desire to externalize something from within. When one creates a dance, it is based upon an idea or concept, realistic or abstract that needs to be communicated to others. As one dances, the body expresses both emotional content and a movement aesthetic. Most people have a range of emotional experience and therefore are able to experience kinesthetically what is being expressed, as well as relating to the movement itself. Our bodies, with the myriad of muscular, neurological, and autonomic systems, respond to the dance being seen through kinesthetic recall of one’s body memories.

The Pioneers

After many years of performing, choreographing, and teaching, several dancers began to observe more closely those who came to study with them. Some of these, mainly women, had gone through psychoanalysis which was the main psychotherapeutic form of treatment at that time. All were familiar with the psychiatric theorists emerging during and after Freud and understood the varied interpretations of how the psyche and emotions were intertwined. Due to the influences around them and their own inclinations, some learned more about psychoanalytic thinking, and others went on to study the work of H. S. Sullivan, Jung, and Adler among others. This psychological background provided them with an understanding of human development and behavior that they then began to use to observe the movement behaviors of others. Each of the women who first pioneered the use of dance in therapy understood the power of the movement for themselves and its significance in their own lives. They had the curiosity to wonder how it affected others and what could be learned through the personal dances each individual might explore for themselves.

Marian Chace, who performed with the company of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn (Denishawn) in the 1930s, choreographed and later taught in her own studio in Washington, D.C. She questioned why pupils came to take dance classes who had no intention of being professional. She observed how each moved and gradually shifted her teaching to focus on the needs of the individual. She organized classes for her students that led to an integration of the body and its movement, thus enabling personal self-harmony. As her work became known by mental health professionals, she was invited to work at St. Elizabeths Hospital in 1942, a large federal psychiatric institution where many soldiers were returning from World War II. Group therapy had its beginnings at this time in response to the needs of so many. Dance/movement therapy fitted closely into this new form of therapeutic intervention. Chace developed her concepts of treatment working with schizophrenic and psychotic patients before the advent of psychotropic medications (Sandel et al., 1993). She trained many others and later served as the first president of the American Dance Therapy Association from 1966 until 1968. As one of those who interned with Marian Chace at St. Elizabeths Hospital (1964–1965), I was fortunate in being able to observe her work with very regressed patients and began my own practice under her tutelage.

Marian Chace worked very deliberately and carefully. As her student, I followed her on to large ward areas, most often locked, carrying the large record player. This was before the advent of iPods and CDs. The moment the door was unlocked, attention was paid to those in view, greeting each or merely nodding. As we went into the common room used by all, Chace would notice the moods, tensions, formations of groups or lack of them, and begin to make decisions as to how to begin a session. As patients gathered, she would greet each one and explain who she was and why she was there. She usually chose the waltz to begin as it is rather neutral and, as she noted, not likely attached to many memories. Some would join immediately in the circle she was gradually forming, others waited and she was able to allow them to take the time they needed to stand up to be part of the session. Others never joined the circle but were nevertheless recognized where they sat so that they too were part in their own way. The session would unfold with varying degrees of energy, intensity, intimacy, laughter, and sharing. A range of emotions might be expressed through the movement and perhaps verbally. Each individual left with a different and clearer sense of self and with having related to others when they might have previously been isolated. It all occurred through sensitive awareness of the symbolic movement expressions that were offered and to which there was validation and response (Sandel et al., 1993).

Mary Whitehouse was another major figure. She evolved her own way of working during the 1950s and attributed her approach to both her background in studying dance with Mary Wigman, and her own Jungian analysis. She worked with those who were higher functioning and had more ego strengths than did Chace who worked primarily in institutional settings. She used the Jungian concept of active imagination as the foundation of her work. By making use of spontaneous body movement that arose from inner kinesthetic sensations, individuals gradually realized the symbolic nature of their communications which then opened the door to change. She called her work “Movement in Depth” (Whitehouse, 1970, 1977, 1986). This later became called Authentic Movement by her followers.

Trudi Schoop, who lived in California, as did Mary Whitehouse, had been a well known performer of dance and mime throughout Europe prior to World War II. When she settled in California, she began to work with hospitalized patients and developed her own way of thinking about this work (Wallock, 1983). Making use of creative explorations and natural playfulness, she worked with fantasies and body awareness in order to lead to expressive movement and changing postures. There are others who added to the body of knowledge of dance/movement therapy such as Blanche Evan, Liljan Espenak, Alma Hawkins, and Irmgard Bartenieff. There were some who primarily worked with children such as Norma Canner and Elizabeth Polk. Since the beginning, many have learned and carried on with their work, continuing to contribute new ideas and ways of working in many new and different settings. The work is not only in psychiatric hospitals, agencies, and private practice but in any setting where there is a need for healing. These might include working in multiple settings such as educational (autism, special needs, delayed development), prisons, outpatient settings, and with the elderly including Alzheimer’s patients. Practitioners work with those with physical disabilities such as blindness, deafness, chronic pain, anorexia, closed head injuries, Parkinson’s disease, and where there is acute illness such as in oncology. These all have psychosocial components connected to the physical issues. Therapists work with abusers of drugs and alcohol, where there is domestic violence, and with those who have survived trauma and ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors
• Foreword I by Miriam Roskin Berger
• Foreword II by Vicky Karkou
• Preface by Valentín Barenblit
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• SECTION 1 Basic Concepts of Dance/ Movement Therapy
• 1 We Dance from the Moment Our Feet Touch the Earth
• 2 The Creative–Artistic Process in Dance Movement Therapy
• 3 Therapeutic Relationships and Kinesthetic Empathy
• 4 Dance Therapy Motion and Emotion
• SECTION 2 The Path from Theory to Practice
• 5 Bascics An Intra/Interactional Model of DMT with the Adult Psychiatric Patient
• 6 Body, Style, and Psychotherapy
• 7 Family Dance/Movement Therapy A Systems Model
• 8 Becoming Whole Again Dance/Movement Therapy for Individuals with Eating Disorders
• 9 Dance/Movement Psychotherapy in Early Childhood Treatment and in Pediatric Oncology
• 10 Amazon Journeys Dance Movement Therapy Interventions in Palliative Care
• 11 Dance/Movement Therapy and Acquired Brain Trauma Rehabilitation
• 12 Dancing with Hope Dance Therapy with People with Dementia
• SECTION 3 Aspects Integral to the Practice of Dance/ Movement Therapy
• 13 Laban's Movement Theories A Dance/Movement Therapist's Perspective
• 14 The Kestenberg Movement Profile in Dance/Movement Therapy An Introduction
• 15 Emotorics A Psychomotor Model for the Analysis and Interpretation of Emotive Motor Behavior
• 16 Cultural Consciousness and the Global Context of Dance/Movement Therapy
• 17 Encouraging Research in Dance/Movement Therapy
• Afterword
• Index