[Adta] Amazing conference

[Rena Kornblum]

Hi everyone,
I wanted to take some time to share about my experiences at the 
conference.  First, I have to agree with everyone else that the 
conference was well organized and showed how much thought , work, and 
care went into its functioning.  While at times it felt like there was 
too much to choose from and not enough time to breathe, I think that is 
true of any weekend conference that is full of rich material.  I always 
look forward to the ADTA conference as time to reconnect with colleagues 
and to replenish my soul with new ideas and moving opportunities. I 
wasn't disappointed.   Every workshop I went to was rich and well 
organized.

It was fun to go to the educators meeting for the first time.  It 
usually overlaps intensives that I am participating in.  I think I was 
only one their that teaches at the undergraduate level.  I enjoyed 
hearing about how different schools handled the challenges of training 
therapists and encouraging their student's enthusiasm while allowing 
them to understand that good old pioneer spirit is still an active part 
of our field.  The official part of the conference started the opening 
ceremony.  We were treated by a beautiful dance performance.  I was 
especially moved by the pieces about breast cancer.  It was exciting to 
be together with the national dance education organization.  I got to 
talk to more people than I usually do and to connect more with our dance 
roots.

Friday morning I woke with a pinched nerve in my shoulder and a migraine 
headache.  I was presenting that morning and wasn't sure how I would 
function.  Luckily, some people came to my rescue.  I want to thank 
Elissa and Berti  for their wonderful body work.  It saved the day.  By 
the time my workshop came along I was ready for it.  I was thrilled by 
the number of people attending and by everyone's enthusiasm.  
Appreciation and respect always feels good.
It was wonderful to me to see how many dance therapists are using their 
skills in violence prevention.  For a long time I knew only of Nancy 
Beardall and I, then Lynn Koshland.  I think more and more people are 
seeing the importance of this work and the special impact that we as 
dance therapists can have on this area.  I went to Nancy's workshop.  
She, who has developed prevention material to use with middle and high 
school students based on movement and dance techniques for years, has 
developed her work in absolutely amazing ways.  I wanted her workshop to 
be longer.  She has a book coming out on some of her work in the next 
month called "Making Connections"and I can't wait to see it.  I think 
with all the violence going on in high schools every dance therapist 
should learn about her program and look into getting some one trained in 
their community.  I know I am going to follow up to learn more about her 
work.

Then I went to see Tina Erfer and Diane Duggan talk about ways they 
adapted the first two units of my curriculum for use with severely 
emotionally disturbed children in a special school.  I loved watching 
the tape of Tina working.  She is so skilled at engaging everyone at 
their level.  The video was an wonderful example of the application of 
dance therapy principals with children.  Thanks for sharing that.  One 
thing they learned from their study, which I have already seen over and 
over again, is that the involvement of school staff who are with 
children all day long is necessary in making the transfer of these 
skills consistent. 

That evening I went to see the presentation about our roots.  I have 
been lucky enough to work with Deborah Thomas for the past 20 years.  
She trained with Marion Chace and has a knack for making her come 
alive.  I had never, however, seen Marion, so it was special to see the 
DVD showing Marion actually working with clients that Sharon Chaiklin 
brought to the presentation.  While the quality of the film was pretty 
horrible  when you realized that these selections only came to light 
relatively recently and are the only one of Marion's work that are 
known, makes you realize what a valuable find this was.  Then Bonnie 
Bernstein showed a DVD of work from Blanche Evan.  I remember traveling 
to New York in the late 1970's to seeing a showing of films about her 
work.  A good friend of mine had worked with Blanche and invited me to 
see a different type of dance therapy.  Through my friend I have always 
had special feelings about Blanche's work so when Bonnie brought out 
this newly made DVD with sound enhancement I felt like I was on memory 
lane.  I must admit that after Blanche's work was presented I realized 
that I was falling asleep on the spot.  I had to leave and go to bed.  
But it did remind me that shortly after moving to Wisconsin in the mid 
1980's Deborah Thomas arranged a weekend seminar, comparing the use of 
Jungian, Adlarian and Freudian dance/movement therapy.  Elaine Siegel, 
Liljan Espanak, and Penny Lewis came to Madison.  Each participated in 
panel presentations and discussions on Friday night and on Sunday and 
participants picked which person to do a longer intensive training with 
on Saturday.  This year while cleaning the basement of Hancock Center I 
found a set of videos filmed during that weekend.  They are in a format 
that I don't have access to so I haven't been able to preview them.  
None-the-less I am thinking of paying to have these transfered to VHS or 
DVD and see what they are like.  Again, we have pioneering members who 
are no longer with us and it might be a gift for dance therapy 
achieves.  I had basically taken these videos out of the basement, 
looked into it and then forgotten all about them after my husband's 
heart attack last spring.  Friday evening's presentation rung the memory 
bell and I plan to do something about this soon.

I started out Saturday with Kimberly Dye's pain free pilates.  My 
shoulder was still bothering me and the early morning wake up session 
helped me warm-up.  I stayed for her workshop on Sensory Integration 
which I fully enjoyed.  The afternoon followed with Diana Fishman's 
workshop on the development of Empathy.  I have discussed Diana's work 
with her before but I have never had the pleasure to watch her present.  
It was an excellent balance of experiential and didactic material.  What 
fun for me to get to see her work since last year during the conference 
I was at her Dance Therapy Training Center, Breccha, in Argentina, where 
she was getting to watch me work.
I am sorry if I am going on for too long but I cannot leave out my last 
workshop called Working with "Push" Exploring Boundaries within the 
Therapeutic Relationship.  I had never heard of the presenter, Dee 
Wagner, (although I probably met her during the Atlanta conference) but 
I have a whole pushing component in my violence prevention work and this 
just sounded to good to pass up.  I really enjoyed Dee's humor, energy 
and intelligence.  The presentation, just like every other one I had 
been to was organized and professional.  I enjoyed looking at how 
different ways of pushing related to developmental theory.  I  had never 
thought of pushing that way.  Unfortunately I got into pushing a little 
too much and my shoulder started hurting all over again.  Even when I 
opted to sit out for the last part of the pushing I learned a lot from 
watching.  Thanks Dee.  I have a new dance therapy contact to look at 
with respect and admiration.

I was so sorry to have to leave before the closing ceremony on Sunday 
which sounds like it was delightful but I had to catch an early plane.  
I left exhausted and happy.  Thank you to everyone new and old for all 
the great presentations.  It was torture to decide which ones to go to.  
See you next year in New York.  I hope my ramblings don't bore you but I 
always enjoy hearing details when I've missed something and so I thought 
I would offer this for others as well as giving myself a chance to 
remember my 2006 ADTA conference highlights..
With wishes for peace and good election results next week,
Rena Kornblum