[Adta] Lora, Jenn, Dani, etal

[Elissa White]

Dear All,

I've been thinking so much about the recent emails around the lack of 
acceptance of
  dmt.   I am entering this discussion in the hope that my experience 
over these years
  (from 1967 - 1993 in clinical settings (see  "Zeitgeist at Bronx State 
Hospital" in Fran Levy's
  book, DMT:  A Healing Art) will give you some perspective re people's 
understanding
  of dmt.

  I have to admit that in l967 I was extremely fortunate and in a place 
where the director
  of the hospital (Dr. Zwerling) was extremely supportive of dance 
therapy.   I was in the
  right place at the right time. I went to Bronx State as an assistant 
to Irmgard Bartenieff
  and Martha Davis. They  were conducting the movement aspects of family 
therapy research with
  Dr. Zwerling.  I eventually became  a half-time dance therapist and 
half-time researcher.  Zwerling
  was interested in having dance therapy throughout the hospital.   At 
his suggestion, I, together
  with Claire Schmais (who had  joined our "movement team"),  met with 
the director of
  nursing, who in turn, suggested we do an orientation with the charge 
nurses (40) of
  the wards.   Claire and I,  naive, but enthusiastic (especially 
knowing we
  had the support of the director of the hospital),  eagerly walked into 
this room with
  these 40 women.    They were definitely in charge and we were there to 
"sell" them this "therapy."
  Little therapy, as we know it, was being done at this hospital.   
Zwerling was new to
  the hospital and change was in the air and we know people are 
threatened by change.  Who
  were we to come into their "space" and try to do "therapy."  It is a 
scene I will never forget.

  Claire and I instinctively knew a "verbal" orientation would be out of 
the question.   So,
  we did what we did best.   We did a quasi-type dance therapy session, 
making the
  charge nurses feel good about themselves, their bodies, their psyches 
and each other.
  We talked about our plan for the patients.   We respectfully asked 
them to go back to their wards, speak
  to their staff, and if the staff  were interested,, we went to the 
wards and again, did an
  orientation to dance therapy -- not with words but with the dance.

  This was an invaluable lesson for me.    During the ensuing years
   I did orientations and training with the psychiatric residents (Bronx 
was a teaching hospital),
  hoping that when they finished their residencies and they would be in 
a position to hire staff, that
  they would remember their dance therapy experiences and hire a dance 
therapist.   I also did grand
   rounds several times at the Bronx and other institutions.

  What I basically learned is that words -- no matter what theories are 
used to back up what we
  do -- do not do the trick.   It is always the dance that matters 
because that is the soul of what
  we do and what makes the difference.    Unfortunately, dance has such 
different meanings
  and connotations for people that it is difficult to assess what an 
audience's  (one or many people)
  understanding is of what you're trying to convey - but in the dance 
you can see the audience's understanding.

  It is definitely a challenge to be able to do a "dance" orientation, 
but there are ways of doing
  it where you can have people think about how their bodies feel when 
they are sick, joyful,
  depressed, excited, etc.  One can do this while just talking to 
people  --"can you recall how
  it feels when you are really happy?"   It's not exactly dance, but the 
aim is to have people
  understand that we in dance therapy deal with feelings and thus, we 
have to make them
  aware of how they are feeling during certain states of being.  Once 
experienced, it is so much
  easier to use words that explain what we do.

  Over the years, I also began to realize that I was dividing the world 
up into "movers" and
  "non-movers."   The movers go along with you -- but the non-movers are 
threatened,
  resistant, etc.   We need to put ourselves, no matter how difficult, 
to understand what that
  may feel like.

  Even though dmt is much more accepted and more dmts are hired, than in 
l967, I still
  believe that newcomers to the field are pioneers.   There are probably 
a lot more
  non-movers in the world than are movers.

  One of the useful pieces of advice that I received when I first 
started out was:  "stick to the
  dance, don't try to talk in other disciplines' languages, they know 
more than you in their
  language and know or understand little of  what you do."    I do 
believe, as Dani stated
  (and Sharon - and Heather), that the dance is what separates us from 
other disciplines.    I also believe
  that even if we begin to speak of mirror neurons, etc., that this is 
again, a cognitive process
  and  words are words -- whereas the experience of the dance is 
something viscerally
  understood and felt.

  Whether this long email is of any help or not, I wish you all well in 
your passion and
  commitment to dmt.    As you can see I am committed to  the dance in 
dmt and often
refer to myself as a "dancing dance therapist."

  Sincere best wishes,

  Elissa White



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