[Adta] Don't forget to Dance!

[Cara Arcuri]

Great discussion. I just wanted to reinforce that while it is  
important to know the words to use to bring our work to other  
professions, it is also important to bring them the power of dance. I  
once did an inservice for a local mental health facility. Upon  
entering the room the director of education informed me that she told  
people they wouldn't have to move, that I would just be telling them  
about dance/movement therapy. I did not contradict her or validate  
her. I redirected the conversation to something else. As the room  
filled with mental health professionals everyone picked up the  
folders I had made and started reading their handouts as I gave my  
presentation. I talked a lot about the power of dance and how we are  
wired to communicate with each other on a non-verbal level. How  
important movement is to learning and how implicit knowledge endures  
even when explicit knowledge is lost (i.e. in dementia). I talked  
about how the discovery of mirror neurons supports the importance of  
movement as communication. And then, closing with a comment about how  
we are basically neurologically wired to join in the chicken dance at  
weddings. I looked at their glazed over eyes and asked them to stand  
up. Everyone moved. Everyone got joy and a positive association from  
the experience. Everyone understood through the movement experience  
what the difference between spoken words and movement dialog was. I  
gave them explicit knowledge and implicit, and it was the implicit  
that had the biggest impact. When we educate others about dance/ 
movement therapy I think it is crucial that we don't forget to dance.  
If you can't dance with the person call to mind a dance experience  
for them (ring around the rosie as a child, traditional dances at  
weddings, etc) so that they can understand what you are talking about  
on a body level. Words and theory are important, but so is the  
experience of the dance that the words are attempting to describe and  
validate.

Cara
Dance/movement therapy - a creative approach to health and wellness.
http://www.nysadta.org/

On Oct 6, 2007, at 1:29 PM, Jenn Frank wrote:

> Dani,
>
> Thank you for this important fact, and the beautiful way that you  
> expressed it in words!
>
> "Just as our clients have to learn that healing ultimately rests  
> within
> themselves, dance/movement therapists must remember that it is the
> healing inherent in dance that makes our profession unique.  This is
> especially  true now that body psychotherapies have become so popular.
> While they may understand the importance of mirror neurons and the
> relationship between the plasticity of the brain and attachment  
> issues,
> body psychotherapies do not address the creative and aesthetic
> processes that characterize dance/movement therapy. Nor do they  
> look at the
> elements of dance movement, the relationship between dance and music,
> or the powerhouse of skills that dancers as performers, teachers, and
> choreographers bring to the facilitative process."
>
> Like I said, we are already ahead of them.  But I think we have to  
> bring the Explicit (verbal conscious and logical) aspects of our  
> inherently Implicit (unconscious sensorial, non-verbal) work to  
> other professions, so that they can understand.  We need to use our  
> creativity to speak their languge, withough losing the non-verbal  
> quality of what we do.
>
> Donna,
>
> Thank you for the suggestion to the editor.  I was trying to figure  
> out who to contact about this.  I'll keep my eyes open.
>
> Warmly,
> Jenn
>
>
> Jennifer Frank Tantia, MS, ADTR, LCAT
>
>
> Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.
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