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As far back as our collective memory reaches, dance has accompanied daily life among so-called primitive peoples, has been integral to social events such as births, harvests, death, and fertility rituals, celebrating the bounty of games, honoring deities, paying homage to the deceased, and more. Long before it became a profession, cultures recognized the beneficial effects of dance (and art) on the human being. We recall the catharsis of the Greek theatrical games, the bacchic ecstasy of voodoo rites, shamanic healing dances, or the spiritual whirling of the dervishes… Dance is beneficial, it can even heal, and the so-called modern era is increasingly rediscovering the benefits of this art through dance therapy.
Definition
“The body replaces words, starting with those we whisper to ourselves.” (Catherine Maillard, I Dance Therefore I Exist, Albin Michel 2015)
Dance therapy, or movement therapy, also known as Dance and Movement Therapy (DMT), is a new relationship with the body: a psychocorporeal practice where the body is an instrument, it uses movement as a clinical tool to overcome physical and psychological discomfort. An activity where body and mind are inseparable, dance therapy mobilizes the physical, emotional, cognitive, and relational to access each person’s inner self, in order to achieve self-awareness and release tensions and blockages ingrained in the body’s memory. Indeed, discoveries in neuroscience today allow us to assert that body and psyche are interdependent: an emotional shock (bereavement, separation, malaise, trauma) will manifest in the body in the form of tensions, ailments, or even psychic confusion. Dance therapy offers to transform and transcend our negative emotions and injuries by disidentifying from the suffering within us while connecting us to our many other facets. It combines non-verbal communication, rhythmicity, and improvisation to provide the patient with the space to express their emotions through movement, creativity, and symbolization, but also through the strength of the group. Indeed, sessions can be individual, but they are especially efficient when collective, as group work produces resonance and consequently accelerates self-awareness.
Dance therapy differs from dance itself on several levels: far from performance, spectacles, and technique, dance therapy allows a return of our vital energy through self-experimentation and feeling, outside the values of aesthetics and representation inherent to stage dance. It is not so much the dance that heals, but rather the dancing person who heals through the movement they allow, becoming the initiator of their own change.
History
Dance therapy is part of the larger family of art therapy along with music therapy, drawing therapy, and psychodrama. It is part of the psychocorporeal therapies movement of the 1950’s, intersecting the values of free, modern, and primitive dance with the theoretical foundations of psychotherapy in a holistic approach to interaction and reconciliation between body and spirit. This trend is notably influenced by the dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) and her desire for individual, spontaneous, and natural expression, and Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), dance theorist, pedagogue, and dancer with his work on movement. The prominent figures who participated in establishing the practice of dance therapy include Marian Chance (1896-1970), dancer and dance teacher who centered her practice around basic dance and integrative movements; Mary Whitehouse (1910-2001), influenced by the theories of Carl Gustav Jung, developed a practice of authentic movements (dancing following her deep impulses), and we can also cite Trudi Schoop (1904-1999) who worked around the symbolic body.
Tools and Benefits
The progression of a movement therapy session varies according to approaches, individuals, participants, and the therapist. However, the main goal is to encourage the person to express themselves. The tools for this are diverse:
• Inducing relaxation through breathing exercises.
• Encouraging authentic and free movement, that is, away from stylized, technical, or aesthetic movements.
• Working with improvisation to foster creativity.
• Utilizing imagination when dancing (with images, ideas) to help release problematic unconscious emotions.
• Explaining somatic approaches to understand the psychological place of physical pain.
• Encouraging speaking at certain moments for greater self-awareness and understanding of what happens to us, the movement, and our sensitivity.
If there is one benefit to highlight thanks to dance therapy, it is the improvement of self-esteem. Because beyond the benefits due to dancing (endorphin release, muscle awakening, etc.), dance therapy has numerous positive consequences, thanks to the caring and safe framework that needs to be established in the environment in which it occurs:
• Boosting our vital energy through physical work.
• Releasing tensions both physical and psychological.
• Promoting emotion management (releasing, transforming, and freeing them).
• Developing creativity and imagination by improvising.
• Enriching through belonging to a group and sharing with others.
• Acquiring a better knowledge of oneself.
• Allowing for a wider emotional range.
• Being more attentive to the body’s messages.
• Regaining body/mind unity.
France Schott-Billmann, psychoanalyst and dance therapist, affirms: “In primitive societies, it is notably through dance that the laws of individual identity construction are transmitted. Dance constitutes both a structuring practice and effective therapy.” So, let’s allow our own movement to emerge, express ourselves beyond words… let’s dance!
1-France Schott-Billmann, interviews in I Dance Therefore I Exist, Albin Michel 2015