Throughout the ages, cultures have relied on dance to convey
emotion, tell stories, communicate with each other and the supernatural —
and to treat illness. Individuals embraced its rhythms as a
therapeutic experience, and healers employed its movements as an
intrinsic accompaniment to the ritual of healing. The power of dance to
communicate, express, and restore underlies the ability of dance therapy
to heal to this day.
Modern dance therapy, also called dance/movement therapy, finds its
origins with modern dance pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham
and Doris Humphrey. They transformed dance from stylized forms like
ballet into a self-expressive, spontaneous form, where individuality was
encouraged. In the 1940s, after turning to a career as a dance
instructor, Marian Chace noticed that for some of her students dance was
an emotional outlet for feelings they needed to express, not just a
series of movements. She encouraged her students to concentrate on
experiencing these emotions through movement, rather than focusing on
the actual technique of the dance routine.
Chace said of her work, “this
rhythmic action in unison with others results in a feeling of
well-being, relaxation, and good fellowship.”
Chace went on to study at the Washington School of Psychiatry and to
teach her theory of dance therapy. She believed that the communication
of the dance fulfilled a basic human need, and her work provided
insights into the relationship of movements and their therapeutic
effect, how speech or narrative can assist in both group and individual
settings, how rhythmic movement helps with organizing and clarifying
processes, and how dance serves to unify a group.
The field of dance therapy was expanding. Around WWII, the work of
psychoanalytic pioneers like Freud and Jung made their mark on the Dance
Therapy movement. One of them was Mary Starks Whitehouse, who would
become a Jungian analyst. She developed a process called
“movement-in-depth” based on her knowledge of dance, movement and depth psychology. This form of dance therapy is known today as
“authentic movement,” a process where patients dance their feelings
about an internal image that provides insight into issues in their past
or current life.
Chase assisted in the formation of the American Dance Therapy
Association (ADTA) in 1966 and served as its first president. The ADTA
gave formal recognition to the field of dance therapy. According to the ADTA dance therapy is “the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a
process which furthers the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical
integration of the individual.”
Dance therapists believe that the body, mind, and emotions, are
interrelated and that the state of the body has a positive or negative
affect on our attitude and feelings. Illness, injury, emotional and
physical trauma can cause us to become out of balance and our way of
expression and functioning in the world changes as well. Dance therapy
seeks to open up these restrictions by allowing the patient to uncover
and express them in movement, integrating and accepting them as part of
the whole. It also provides a means of communication beyond the self,
enabling the individual to go beyond any isolation to connect, share and
express common ground with others.
Dance therapy provides can be helpful for a wide range of patients
and problems. It is useful for those with restricted movement of
movement, whether from arthritis, aging, degenerative disease, or other
causes. For the chronically ill or dying, it can aid in dealing with
issues of death, pain and changes in body image.
Children, who don’t
have the patience or attention span for other forms of therapy, can
benefit from the openness that comes with expressive dance. Adults whose
emotions have been buried or who are not in touch with their feelings,
as well as victims of abuse who are otherwise unable to articulate their
problem, may find insight and release through dance. Even those
confined to wheelchairs can move their upper body in response to musical
rhythms.
Dance therapy can assist in interpersonal relationship within the
family and can serve as communicator for those with speech and learning
disabilities and autism. It is also a means of relaxation and stress
reduction. Dance’s expressive element may also add an aesthetic and
spiritual dimension to the experience. An evolving area of dance therapy
is its in disease prevention and health promotion programs for the
chronically ill.
In her article “Healing in motion: dance therapy meets diverse
needs,” Horowitz identifies the following as goals of dance therapy:
1. to foster a physically and emotionally safe, non-judgmental
environment that is respectful of individual limitations and
achievements
2. to facilitate individual expression and communication with other people
3. to increase body awareness, spontaneity, creativity and a healthy self-image
4. to promote and integrate emotional stability (including anger management and stress reduction)
5. to support personal growth through insight, energy, and an expanded movement repertoire
Watching a patient’s movements during therapy provides tremendous
insight into the dynamics of the individual or the group. According to
Dr. Fran Levy, author of Dance and Other Expressive Art Therapies: When Words Are Not Enough,
“body movement reflects inner emotional states and …changes in movement
behavior can lead to changes in the psyche, thus promoting health and
growth.”
In 1993, the Office of Alternative Medicine, now the National Center
for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of
Health, awarded the American Dance Therapy Association one of the first
grants to explore dance movement therapy in patients with medical
illnesses.
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