An Introduction to Dance Therapy

Dance Therapy is a form of Creative Arts Therapy, such as Art, Psychodrama and Music Therapy. According to the American Dance Therapy Association (A.D.T.A.), Dance/Movement Therapy is "the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional, social, cognitive and physical integration of the individual."[1]

Dance/Movement Therapy emerged as a distinct profession in the 1940s with the work of pioneers such as: Marian Chance, Mary Whitehouse, Franziska Boas and Liljan Espenaki. Today there are over twenty universities and institutions in the United States and abroad offering post-graduate academic programs in Dance Therapy. Presently, the A.D.T.A. is represented in forty-eight states of the U.S. and in twenty-four countries. In the academic, psychological and medical research fields, Dance Therapy is currently accepted and valued as an effective treatment for people with developmental, medical, social, physical and psychological impairments. Dance/Movement Therapy (D.M.T.) is practiced in educational, medical and mental health rehabilitation settings, nursing homes, day cares and in health promotion programs, as well as in private D.M.T. clinics and studios, with patients raging from normal, to neurotic, to psychotic. D.M.T. is implemented in individual, couple, family and group therapy formats.

The practice of Dance Therapy delves into the use of somatic psychology by applying the body-mind interface to find alternative means for therapy. The body-mind interface refers to the in-depth understanding of how the body and mind interact in health and illness, whether physiological or psychological. Dance Therapy utilizes Laban Movement Analysis as a means of patient-therapist communication, and as an assessment, treatment and diagnostic tool. Dance Therapy is rooted on the premise that the body, spirit and mind form an integral human being in contrast to the dualistic concept of body and mind as opposite independent parts of a being. Quite the opposite, Dance Therapists work is based on the fact that body movement reflects inner emotional states, and that alterations and adjustments in movement behavior can lead to transformation in the psyche.

The use of dance as a cathartic and therapeutic tool or medium is an ancient concept, universal to many cultures, times and societies. So is the use of body movement as a means of expression and an instrument to communicate feelings. D.M.T. does not always exclude therapeutic techniques based on verbal communication, but adds and builds on to the meaning and usefulness of words with the realm of actions. This allows individuals to express, and therapists to notice, that which words sometimes cannot convey fully or vividly enough, if at all.

Dance/Movement Therapy can be, and is specifically used at this point in time with depressed, anxious and even schizophrenic clients or in-patients; in recovery from illnesses such as cancer in hospitals; with children who are hyperactive, suffer from attention deficit disorder, autism or have motor development difficulties; with the mentally retarded and the physically handicapped; to guide the process of psychosocial rehabilitation and reintegration; to treat post-partum depression, and assess and cultivate the mother-child attachment, as well as in family relations therapy; with the elderly; with women who suffer from eating disorders or were sexually abused; for body image building, rising over substance abuse and addictions, for personality development, dealing with stress or overcoming trauma, etc. Such are some of the many current common uses of D.M.T. and contemporary focuses of research.

The concept that movement can be an acceptable healing force, an effective way to take care of our physical and emotional well-being, and an adequate treatment for illness, might seem revolutionary in our present Western society. Nevertheless, they are universal truths alive since ancient times and overheard in the theoretical words and practical movement of our present times dance masters:

• Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease. (Hippocrates)
• To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak. (Hopi Indian Saying)
• We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams. (Albert Einstein)
• In my dance (..) the profundities of consciousness are given a channel to the light of our social day. (Isadora Duncan)
• I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it is too deep to find for words. (Ruth St. Denis)
• Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain. Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather. (Martha Graham)

[1]American Dance Therapy Association.General Information about Dance Therapy http://www.adta.org September, 2005.