{The Dance to R-DMT}

Heard of Dance/Movement Therapy? Pass it on!

2011-02-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

I have a few Dance/Movement Therapists that I hold up on a major pedestal. One of them is Lora Wilson Mau. Her energy, passion, and focus in the field of D/MT is contagious. As past president of the California chapter of the ADTA, she was revolutionary in organizing, motivating, and networking D/MTs to get together throughout the state. Knitting together once fragmented pieces of the chapter, Lora continues to inspire others to be better human beings, to share, give, or offer what they can. Her brilliance is not just with people, though. She also is a tremendously passionate writer.

I am re-posting from Lora Wilson Mau's blog, Moving Towards Understanding, which beautifully articulates the need for the world to know about Dance/Movement Therapy. So pass it on!

Dance/Movement Therapy Goes Viral (Please?)
February 21, 2011 by Lora Wilson Mau, MA, R-DMT
Let me put my cards on the table.

I started this blog two years ago out of a deeply felt frustration that I know is shared by many of my fellow dance/movement therapists. I know they share this frustration in some form or another because the topic and the discussion of ways to address it has been repeated – for years – in professional discussions, online forums and local and national dialogues. It is an ongoing issue for our professional community.

The frustration is this:

In the 21st century, how can it be that the profession of dance/movement therapy is not better known? Better understood? At the very least, heard of? Granted, if one is not working in the mental health or rehabilitation or wellness professions, then it is perhaps logical that the profession be an unfamiliar concept. Certainly, I have never heard of countless occupations. But, how can it be in the 21st century, over ten years since the “Decade of the Brain” concluded, that dance/movement therapy is not better understood by our colleagues whose professions involve psychology or neuroscience?

How is it that when one googles “dance therapy” on the internet, one gets more references to Brittany Spears and pole dancing or random dance classes than one gets legitimate information on the nearly 50 year old profession of dance/movement therapy?

This latest spike in frustration was inspired by the recent feature on Anderson Cooper 360 that took a close look at a day in the life of Gabrielle Gifford’s rehabilitation at the TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Texas.

How is it that when Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited the hospital to get a hands on experience of a day in the life of Congresswoman Giffords’ recovery, dance/movement therapy was not included in the diverse list of therapies? Yes, music therapy was on the day’s agenda and, to Dr. Gupta’s credit, he really appreciated the power of music therapy to work “on developing … attention, memory and overall executive function.” This acknowledgement on a show as respected and widely viewed as CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 is a real boost for our colleagues in the music therapy profession.

But dance/movement therapy was NOT on the schedule and it was not addressed by Dr. Gupta – by name. However, a quick glimpse at the video of the music therapist, Maegan Morrow, reveals that she was incorporating movement with the music to help her patients improve cognitively and learn to walk again. “Lean 2, 3, 4, Push up, 2, 3, 4…” The diverse therapies at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital work together to rehabilitate patients from traumatic injury… and yet the experts on using movement psychotherapeutically, who are specifically trained in connecting through movement and facilitating movement and rhythm – for whatever end goal – are not on that team?

“The brain learns best when it processes cognitive, affective and psychomotor information simultaneously.” (emphasis mine.)
Dr. Michael Merzenich
Neuroscientist

This is fundamental knowledge to neuroscientists and to anyone familiar with “brain-based learning.”

Movement is not only integral to healing psychologically, it is integral to effective rehabilitation of the brain, to learning and to brain plasticity.

Though my peers and I ask these questions – how, how, how can the world not know? – we do so, of course, acknowledging the onus is on us, the dance/movement therapists. This is precisely why I blog on DMT, why I encourage my colleagues to do the same and why I am writing a book on the topics of this blog.

To read the rest of this post from the Moving Towards Understanding blog, click here.

It's been a while...

2010-08-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

And after writing my thesis and graduating last spring, I have had a challenging time getting back to writing - whether it's on paper or at the computer.

I am busily engaged in my alternate route DMT courses, and came across this video on the ADTA website. It is lovely to see so many applications of dance therapy. Thought I'd share.

Watch the full episode. See more Experience.

Augusta Moore talks about Dance with Teens

2010-05-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Augusta Moore talks about how dance can help during the teen years. Watch her discuss release, expression, and direction dance can lend here.

Anna Halprin Breaks Barriers

2010-05-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a post from Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist blog about postmodern dancer and pioneer, Anna Halprin and the documentary about her, titled "Breath Made Visible." Halprin, turning 90 years old this year, lives in Marin, CA, and continues to teach and inspire others through movement and drawing.

The documentary plays in Santa Cruz on May 15th, 2010. Check here for more information on the film.

Music Heals.

2010-03-24T08:48:00.001-07:00

The Dana Foundation newsletter recently released this article on How Music Helps to Heal the Injured Brain. Happy reading!

Become a Dance/Movement Therapist! Trainings in Northern California Start June 4th!

2010-03-15T15:47:00.001-07:00

Here ye, Here ye!

FINALLY, Northern California gets some gold! The Center for Movement Education and Research offers certification courses for aspiring dance/movement therapists at Sonoma State University starting this June, 2010.

Sign up TODAY!

INFO:

You MUST enroll in both DMT I & II if you want want to fulfill the DMT Alternate Route Training. Go online for an application and send in your 50% Deposit by April 1, 2010. Classes will be cancelled without sufficient enrollment.

Theoretical Origins of Dance/Movement Therapy: Foundations Level I
June 4,5,6 & July 9, 10, 11, 12 2010

This is an introductory level course reviewing the theoretical origins of dance/movement therapy as a therapeutic modality. The foundational tenets defining dance/movement therapy as a creative, healing and integrating process will be presented in relation to self and other awareness and insight oriented symbolic functioning. The course will review the history and conceptual development of the major pioneers in the field and the application of their work within various settings. Additionally the cultural, ritual, modern dance and nonverbal communication historical elements will be reviewed.

Course Hours: 45 Contact Hours
Course Instructor and Credentials: Janet Lester, Psy.D., ADTR
Dates: June 4,5,6 & July 9,10,11 2010
Location: Sonoma State University
Times: 9-5:30 Friday-Sunday
Fee: $1200.00/ 45 Hour CE Credit for MFT/LCSW (Provider #3888)

Theoretical Developments in Dance/Movement Therapy: Elaborations Level II
Aug 6, 7, 8 & Oct 8, 9, 10 2010

This course has been approved by the American Dance Therapy Association as meeting requirements for the Alternate Route D.T.R. credential and satisfies 45 hours of DMT Theory & Practice Training. This is a Theory Course in Dance/Movement Therapy elaborating on the concepts of the creative process, the creative process in dance/ movement therapy and the role of the “moving imagination” in promoting psychological transformation. The importance of fostering creative processes in therapeutic dance experience will be reviewed from a depth oriented perspective. The course will also investigate the creative process involved in developing an empathic therapeutic relationship in dance/movement therapy. Each day movement experientials will be offered to explore the presented concepts as well as the creative aspects of improvisational and choreographic processes as they pertain to dance/movement therapy.(A prerequisite for alternate route training course enrollment is the satisfactory completion of a Foundations Theory Course in Dance/Movement Therapy – Level I.).
Course Hours: 45 Contact Hours
Course Instructor and Credentials: Paula Perlman LMFT, ADTR, CLMA
Dates: Aug 6, 7, 8 & Oct 8, 9, 10 2010
Location: Sonoma State University
Times: 9-5:30 Friday-Sunday
Fee: $1200.00/ 45 Hour CE Credit for MFT/LCSW (Provider #3888)

For Information and Application Contact:
Judy Gantz-CMER Director
POB 2001
Sebastopol, CA 95473
judy@movement-education.org
(310) 477-9535
www.movement-education.org

The Labor of Love

2010-02-14T15:33:00.001-08:00

I am somewhat obsessed (in a healthy way) with two contemporary choreographers. Here is a video link to one of them, KT Nelson (of ODC Dance), discussing her new work: Labor of Love. I thought it timely due to Valentines' Day, and I'm relieved to see that her work is not just about the beauty and wonderful times loving another, but also dives into the messy and not so glamorous moments, when love is work. I find Nelson's choreography intoxicating. Her work with ODC Dance is unbelievable and not to be missed.

Here is Labor of Love.

My sweetie is in Mexico, but I'm smelling sweet roses while I prepare to cook my family a gorgeous feast of delectable tasty treats - shrimp scampi, antipasti, and artichokes. This is how I'm focusing on love today - with labor and gratitude for my family.

Sunday Salon : This Sunday, Feb 7th

2010-02-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

Who needs the super bowl when you can spend time with other dance/movement therapists?!

DANCE/MOVEMENT THERAPISTS!
PLEASE JOIN US

FOR A NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
WINTER SALON
(sponsored by the Southern California Chapter of the ADTA)

SUNDAY, FEB 7 2-5pm
WESTERN SKY STUDIO, 2525 8TH Street
Berkeley, CA 94710

· MEET AND RE-CONNECT WITH FELLOW NORTHERN CALIFORNIA DANCE/MOVEMENT THERAPISTS!

· GET UP TO DATE INFORMATION ON LPCC LISCENSURE REQUIREMENTS, and CREATE STUDY GROUPS

· VISION PLAN FOR OUR CALIFORNIA CHAPTER’S FUTURE

· CELEBRATE AND MOVE TOGETHER---IT’S FREE!

We invite all of you to join us at this important time in California DMT history. With the opportunity for dance therapists to obtain LPCC State Licensure, and a renewal of Northern California member participation in what may soon officially merge as a Northern and Southern California Chapter, now is a great time for you to get involved.
Come to our Salon, and be a part of the revitalization of Dance/movement Therapy in Northern California!

DMT course in March: DMT in HEALTHCARE

2010-01-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

CMER is offering Dance/Movement Therapy In Healthcare: PREVENTION, TREATMENT
& AFTERCARE on March 19, 20, 21 2010 at Pomona College --Claremont CA 9:00am
6:30pm.

Dance/Movement Therapy In Healthcare:
PREVENTION, TREATMENT & AFTERCARE

This course has been approved by the American Dance Therapy Association as meeting requirements
for the Alternate Route R-DMT credential and satisfies 25 hours of DMT Theory & Practice Training.
This course is approved for CE by the ADTA.

This course meets the qualifications for 25 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs
and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (Provider #3888).

Course Content/Description:

This dance/movement therapy theory and practice course covers the role of
dance/movement therapy in the prevention and treatment of illness, and in the
maintenance of health and well being. This course will be divided into three sections to
cover the dance/movement therapy principles and applications specific to prevention,
to treatment, and to aftercare.

In the section on prevention, this course focuses on dance/movement therapy
contributions to health and well being in response to the somatic, emotional and
cognitive consequences of stress and trauma. The section on treatment addresses
dance/movement therapy in a medical context and as an adjunctive treatment for illness.

The section on aftercare focuses on the role of dance/movement therapy in coming
to terms with treatment outcomes, creating new choices, and finding new meaning.
All sections will focus on self regulation, self expression, and self in relationship, all
fundamental to health and well being. The specific attention throughout to body awareness,
creativity, and attunement, will amplify aspects of dance/movement therapy theory and
practice, as well as provide a foundation for a somatically oriented psychotherapy practice.

Course Objectives:

1) Students will become familiar with the concepts of prevention and wellness in dance/movement
therapy practice.

2) Students will gain understanding of the cognitive, somatic and emotional impact of stress and
trauma on health and well being.

3) Students will develop an understanding of the application of dance/movement therapy theory
and practice in the treatment of illness in a medical context.

4) Students will learn interventions, applicable both to the student as therapist and to work with
patients, that are grounded in the principles of dance/movement therapy and based in the
concept of preventive care and maintenance of health.

To sign up, contact Judy@movement-education.org

CMER DMT with Seniors CANCELLED

2010-01-08T15:54:00.000-08:00

Dance/Movement Therapy with Seniors Course for January and February is CANCELLED.

Yes. Another course has been cancelled due to low enrollment. Sigh.

Without attending (or hence, graduating) from these classes, I will not be able to become a dance/movement therapist. I feel held back while I'm rarin' to go!

My efforts and energies are currently focused on my thesis, but when it's done, it's on. Nobody will be able to hide! I plan on recruiting everyone I know and everyone I don't know to become dance therapists in California. This profession will thrive with a new generation of DMTs in this wonderful state!

Good Things are Happening

2009-12-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

I'm still working away on my thesis during the holidays, but wanted to make sure to pass along these goodies.

1) Ivuka (means "rebirth") Arts Center in Rwanda is a small cooperative arts center establishing a new community of artists, dancers, and musicians to aid the country towards reconciliation. Read the short article in Utne, including the RwaMakondera project, a dance troupe for poor children that teaches them to tell centuries-old stories using Rwandan traditional dances. "If you look into these kids' eyes, you can see they have a lot to say, they just have no means of expressing it. Now they have music and dance."

2. Saltwater therapy for kids with cystic fibrosis with pro surfers Jamie O'Brien, Kelly Slater, and others in this article.

PLEASE SIGN UP FOR THIS COURSE!

2009-12-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

The Center for Movement Education and Research

January 9,10, 2010 – Scripps College -- Claremont CA
February 13,14, 2010 – Pomona College --Claremont CA
9:00am – 5:30pm

http://www.movement-education.org/courses_alternateroute_socal.html

Course Title: Dance/Movement Therapy with Seniors —30 hrs
This dance/movement therapy theory, practice and application course will cover the specific developmental needs of seniors and the dance/movement therapy skills pertinent to working with this population age group. The course content will focus on physical, psychodynamic, psychopathological, and enculturating factors impinging on the later years of human development. Students will be exposed to various clinical concepts of dance/movement therapy viewed within a developmental framework that are pertinent to selected late adulthood populations, including clinical disorders of late adulthood and, the types of somatic transference/countertransference issues that might be encountered.

This course has been approved by the American Dance Therapy Association as meeting the Alternate Route Requirements for the R-DMT credential" and satisfies 30 hours of DMT Theory and Practice Training.

This course meets the qualifications for 30 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (Provider #3888). Students taking the class for continuing education are excused from the required assignments other than attendance and participation.

Course Objectives:
1) Students will develop an understanding of the developmental needs, tasks and challenges presented when working with various senior populations.
2) Students will develop a basic understanding of dance/movement therapy assessment and application of dance/movement therapy interventions as they apply to various senior populations.
3) Students will learn interventions through which to facilitate an individual or group dance/movement session for various senior populations.
4) Students will be able to design and facilitate a dance/movement therapy session for seniors that is developmentally sound and takes into account the unique developmental, physical, emotional, psychological and cognitive needs of seniors.
5) Students will conclude the class with a beginning level awareness of dance/movement therapy processes and techniques utilized in working with seniors.

Locations:
Scripps College
Richardson Dance Studio
1030 Columbia Ave
Claremont, CA 91711
Pomona College
Pendleton Dance Center, Studio 16
210 East 2nd Street
Claremont, CA 91711

Course Fee: $750.00

Course Instructor: Gabrielle Kaufman MA, BC-DMT, NCC
is a CMER faculty member, dance/movement therapist and counselor with close to twenty years experience in the helping profession. She has taught creative movement to preschoolers and elementary school students, has used DMT with the elderly, Holocaust survivors, adults with mental illness, individuals with eating disorders and body image issues, with teens at high risk and other individuals suffering from anxiety and depression.
Currently, she is the coordinator of the New Moms Connect Program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. She has run several programs for high risk children and teens in both English and Spanish languages, taught classes to parents of newborns and toddlers, and runs support groups for single parents, women with eating disorders and women with perinatal mood disorders and with seniors. She is a coordinator with Postpartum Support International and has a private practice in Los Angeles.

For Information and Application Contact:
Judy Gantz-CMER Director
POB 2001
Sebastopol, CA 95473

(310) 477-9535

High Probability of Survival with Children who have Cancer

2009-12-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

Since I've been thesis-thesis-thesising lately, I apologize for not updating my blog as much as usual.

Today, I'd like to offer a post I read on the Art Therapy blog regarding a study in Germany on children with cancer and their high probability of survivial. Here's the original article, too.

This research is exciting for the fields of creative and expressive arts therapies, since it highlights aspects of the role of music therapy, positive effects of parent accompaniment, and the importance of quality of life in the hospital.

Neuroscience 2009 Highlights New Research on Exercise, Music, and the Brain

2009-11-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO — Research presented today at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health, provides a better understanding of the brain, nervous system, and related disorders.

Specific research released shows:

The benefits of exercise on both the brain and body, and, more specifically, underscores the positive influence of regular physical activity on Parkinson's disease, depression, premenstrual syndrome, and memory.
New tools are enabling researchers to identify neural similarities and differences between species. The findings may help to explain faculties, like language, and diseases, like Parkinson's, that are unique to humans.
New insights into male behavior support the idea that many gender differences lie in the brain and are influenced by both genes and environment.
Scientists are developing novel ways to bypass the blood-brain barrier, a network of blood vessels that prevents more than 95 percent of all chemicals from entering the brain from the bloodstream. Researchers describe new methods for transporting drugs across the BBB as well as ways to enhance the brain's own immune response, which is separated from the body's immune system by the BBB.

More information on the studies released today is available at www.sfn.org.

Neuroscience 2009 is a multifaceted exchange of important science research across biological, behavioral, psychological, and chemical disciplines. Hundreds of the world's foremost researchers, clinicians, and experts on all matters concerning the brain will present research findings and be available for interviews.

A Body Transformed Through Dance

2009-11-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

Gregg Mozgala, a 31-year-old actor with cerebral palsy, had 12 years of physical therapy while he was growing up. But in the last eight months, a determined choreographer with an unconventional résumé has done what all those therapists could not: She has dramatically changed the way Mr. Mozgala walks.

In the process, she has changed his view of himself and of his possibilities.

Read the full NY Times story here. (Make sure to watch the video, too.)

Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious

2009-11-21T13:03:00.001-08:00

This NY Times article was posted on Donna Luder's Somatic Mechanic blog recently.

Why Exercise Makes you Less Anxious:

Researchers at Princeton University recently made a remarkable discovery about the brains of rats that exercise. Some of their neurons respond differently to stress than the neurons of slothful rats. Scientists have known for some time that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells (neurons) but not how, precisely, these neurons might be functionally different from other brain cells.

In the experiment, preliminary results of which were presented last month at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, scientists allowed one group of rats to run. Another set of rodents was not allowed to exercise. Then all of the rats swam in cold water, which they don’t like to do. Afterward, the scientists examined the animals’ brains. They found that the stress of the swimming activated neurons in all of the brains. (The researchers could tell which neurons were activated because the cells expressed specific genes in response to the stress.) But the youngest brain cells in the running rats, the cells that the scientists assumed were created by running, were less likely to express the genes. They generally remained quiet. The “cells born from running,” the researchers concluded, appeared to have been “specifically buffered from exposure to a stressful experience.” The rats had created, through running, a brain that seemed biochemically, molecularly, calm.

For years, both in popular imagination and in scientific circles, it has been a given that exercise enhances mood. But how exercise, a physiological activity, might directly affect mood and anxiety — psychological states — was unclear. Now, thanks in no small part to improved research techniques and a growing understanding of the biochemistry and the genetics of thought itself, scientists are beginning to tease out how exercise remodels the brain, making it more resistant to stress. In work undertaken at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for instance, scientists have examined the role of serotonin, a neurotransmitter often considered to be the “happy” brain chemical. That simplistic view of serotonin has been undermined by other researchers, and the University of Colorado work further dilutes the idea. In those experiments, rats taught to feel helpless and anxious, by being exposed to a laboratory stressor, showed increased serotonin activity in their brains. But rats that had run for several weeks before being stressed showed less serotonin activity and were less anxious and helpless despite the stress.

Other researchers have looked at how exercise alters the activity of dopamine, another neurotransmitter in the brain, while still others have concentrated on the antioxidant powers of moderate exercise. Anxiety in rodents and people has been linked with excessive oxidative stress, which can lead to cell death, including in the brain. Moderate exercise, though, appears to dampen the effects of oxidative stress. In an experiment led by researchers at the University of Houston and reported at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, rats whose oxidative-stress levels had been artificially increased with injections of certain chemicals were extremely anxious when faced with unfamiliar terrain during laboratory testing. But rats that had exercised, even if they had received the oxidizing chemical, were relatively nonchalant under stress. When placed in the unfamiliar space, they didn’t run for dark corners and hide, like the unexercised rats. They insouciantly explored.

“It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms,” says Michael Hopkins, a graduate student affiliated with the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory at Dartmouth, who has been studying how exercise differently affects thinking and emotion. “It’s pretty amazing, really, that you can get this translation from the realm of purely physical stresses to the realm of psychological stressors.”

The stress-reducing changes wrought by exercise on the brain don’t happen overnight, however, as virtually every researcher agrees. In the University of Colorado experiments, for instance, rats that ran for only three weeks did not show much reduction in stress-induced anxiety, but those that ran for at least six weeks did. “Something happened between three and six weeks,” says Benjamin Greenwood, a research associate in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado, who helped conduct the experiments. Dr. Greenwood added that it was “not clear how that translates” into an exercise prescription for humans. We may require more weeks of working out, or maybe less. And no one has yet studied how intense the exercise needs to be. But the lesson, Dr. Greenwood says, is “don’t quit.” Keep running or cycling or swimming. (Animal experiments have focused exclusively on aerobic, endurance-type activities.) You may not feel a magical reduction of stress after your first jog, if you haven’t been exercising. But the molecular biochemical changes will begin, Dr. Greenwood says. And eventually, he says, they become “profound.”

Interested in Becoming a Dance/Movement Therapist?

2009-11-19T06:55:00.001-08:00

The Center for Movement Education and Research, CMER, is offering a Dance/Movement Therapy with the Elderly course in Southern California in January and February, 2010.

Please sign up! The course is in danger of being canceled due to low enrollment, and selfishly, I NEED THIS COURSE! :)Tell all your friends!

Info below:

January 9,10, 2010 – Scripps College -- Claremont CA
February 13,14, 2010 – Pomona College --Claremont CA
9:00am – 5:30pm

Course Title: Dance/Movement Therapy with Seniors —30 hrs
This dance/movement therapy theory, practice and application course will cover the specific developmental needs of seniors and the dance/movement therapy skills pertinent to working with this population age group. The course content will focus on physical, psychodynamic, psychopathological, and enculturating factors impinging on the later years of human development. Students will be exposed to various clinical concepts of dance/movement therapy viewed within a developmental framework that are pertinent to selected late adulthood populations, including clinical disorders of late adulthood and, the types of somatic transference/countertransference issues that might be encountered.

This course has been approved by the American Dance Therapy Association as meeting the Alternate Route Requirements for the R-DMT credential" and satisfies 30 hours of DMT Theory and Practice Training.

This course meets the qualifications for 30 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (Provider #3888). Students taking the class for continuing education are excused from the required assignments other than attendance and participation.

Course Objectives:
1) Students will develop an understanding of the developmental needs, tasks and challenges presented when working with various senior populations.
2) Students will develop a basic understanding of dance/movement therapy assessment and application of dance/movement therapy interventions as they apply to various senior populations.
3) Students will learn interventions through which to facilitate an individual or group dance/movement session for various senior populations.
4) Students will be able to design and facilitate a dance/movement therapy session for seniors that is developmentally sound and takes into account the unique developmental, physical, emotional, psychological and cognitive needs of seniors.
5) Students will conclude the class with a beginning level awareness of dance/movement therapy processes and techniques utilized in working with seniors.

Locations:
Scripps College
Richardson Dance Studio
1030 Columbia Ave
Claremont, CA 91711

Pomona College
Pendleton Dance Center, Studio 16
210 East 2nd Street
Claremont, CA 91711

Course Fee: $750.00

Course Instructor: Gabrielle Kaufman MA, BC-DMT, NCC
is a CMER faculty member, dance/movement therapist and counselor with close to twenty years experience in the helping profession. She has taught creative movement to preschoolers and elementary school students, has used DMT with the elderly, Holocaust survivors, adults with mental illness, individuals with eating disorders and body image issues, with teens at high risk and other individuals suffering from anxiety and depression.
Currently, she is the coordinator of the New Moms Connect Program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. She has run several programs for high risk children and teens in both English and Spanish languages, taught classes to parents of newborns and toddlers, and runs support groups for single parents, women with eating disorders and women with perinatal mood disorders and with seniors. She is a coordinator with Postpartum Support International and has a private practice in Los Angeles.

For Information and Application Contact:
Judy Gantz-CMER Director
POB 2001
Sebastopol, CA 95473

(310) 477-9535

Arts in Healthcare

2009-11-17T13:24:00.001-08:00

From Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist blog:

Arts in Healthcare Seen Yielding Benefits
According to a new study by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare, Americans for the Arts, The Joint Commission and the University of Florida Center for the Arts in Healthcare documents that incorporating the arts into health-care settings has multiple benefits for patients and may reduce health-care expenses. Up to half of health-care institutions in the U.S. incorporate arts programming into their care. Benefits from arts programming include shorter hospital stays, less need for medication, and a boost for job satisfaction and employee retention. Philanthropy Journal, Oct 19, 2009

One of the Most Amazing Videos I've Seen All Year

2009-11-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

I've been working with the elderly at a skilled living facility as part of my thesis research leading dance movement groups. After my group yesterday, the activities director showed me this video of a 92 year-old woman dancing with her 29 year-old great grandson. I had goosebumps the whole time. It's incredible.

SotoMotion Performance Lab in San Francisco

2009-11-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

I am definitely going to try to get my booty to Performance Lab this fall. G Hoffman Soto, on faculty at the Tamalpa Institute, is pure genious. In his classes in the past, I have learned so much about myself, not only anatomically and physiologically, but at a deep and embodied level. I hear my heart beat, feel my blood like warm jelly spreading throughout my fingers and toes. I feel powerful, I feel strong. Alive. For anyone interested in expressive arts or creative arts therapies, Soto creates and fosters a safe environment to explore the self, your relationship with others, and the world, its a blending of dance class meets improvisation meets drama therapy. It is truly a mystifying and enlivening experience to attend Performance Lab. Hope to see you there!

IMPROVISATION AND THE PERFORMANCE LAB

Improvisation is a powerful metaphor for life. Studying improvisation provides a vehicle to understanding who we are in the present moment, and to develop ourselves through being awake and present in the moment. To improvise you have to be able to put aside your everyday mind and open up to a state of mind that exists in the now. You have to give over to the bodymind, the movement, and the present moment.

Movement, and a strong embodied physical presence, anchors and centers us in our bodies and in the present. The process is supported with awareness work to assist us in developing a strong kinesthetic base. From the embodied state we can begin to shape and change ourselves and our material both as artists and as human beings. Our personal history lives in the body and through the body we can access this energy and channel it into our creative life.
Improvisation comes very close to mirroring life. It is an art form that has the potential to be a direct reflection and practice of being. When improvising one has to be present and respond in a way that keeps this moment, and what is happening in the moment, alive.
The second part of the Performance Lab process is Movement Exploration. Movement Exploration is a development and refinement of the material that arises from the Improvisation process. M E allows us to recycle and rework our material, to shape and deepen it, and ourselves, in this model.

The Lab provides an environment for participants to develop skills for ones personal creative process through performance. The process moves through awareness, expanded artistic expression, and creativity for personal growth and embodiment that leads to transformation through the Movement Theater model.
The work unfolds in solo, duets, trios and ensemble configurations. The voice and spoken word layer and texture the work to give it a dynamic range of expression and creativity. The spoken word includes improvised text, as well as, developing our personal stories and myths.
The Performance Lab is for performers, actors, dancers, teachers, therapists, coaches, housewives and everybody and anybody who wants to develop themselves as artists, performers and human beings.

While talking about being one with the Tao, Lao Tsu said, “Accept what is in front of you without wanting the situation to be other than it is.” If we add to that “yes, accept what is, and then work with it,” then we have an idea of what Improvisation can be.

The Performance Lab is movement theater model that creates a space to explore, improvise, express and create in movement, voice and spoken word. The class works through both improvisation and developing material. Participants will work in solo, duet, trio and ensemble configurations and is open to all levels of experience. The class has both advanced and more beginning students. Soto believes that we all learn from each other regardless of our experience.

G Hoffman Soto has been teaching, performing and studying movement since 1968. He has been developing this body of work for over 25 years. Soto has taught internationally since 1979 throughout Europe, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong. He has been associated with Anna Halprin, the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop and Tamalpa Institute since 1973 and has a wide background in Post Modern Dance, various movement and awareness studies, Martial Arts and Body Work. Soto subscribes to the theory that creativity goes to the very core of what it means to be human. “When we are involved in the creative process we are anchoring ourselves in our humanness.”

When: Monday evenings 7pm to 9:30pm, beginning November 16 until December 14. The final class will be a student studio performance.

Where: Mary Sano Dance Studio at 245 5th Street #314, San Francisco between Howard and Folsom.

Costs: $125 with a $10 discount if paid in full by evening of the first class. For further information, questions and or to send deposits of $50 and reservations please contact:

GH Soto
Tel # 415 342 4899
e mail: sotomotion@me.com
Visit the web site at www.sotomotion.com

Feel Fine? Then Blog Already! And Buy this Book...

2009-11-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine's girlfriend worked on this book, now available on Amazon. All I had to do were read the reviews (below) and I was sold. I can't wait for the book to arrive! Wonderfully displayed, a review of the book explains how the authors:

...use their computer programs to peer into the inner lives of millions, constructing a vast and deep portrait of our collective emotional landscape. Armed with custom software that scours the English-speaking world's new Internet blog posts every minute, hunting down the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling," the authors have collected over 12 million feelings since 2005, amassing an ever-growing database of human emotion that adds more than 10,000 new feelings a day. Drawing from this massive real-world stockpile of found sentiment, We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion presents the best of the best -- the euphoria, the despair, the passion, the dreams, and the desires that make us human.

...combines the words and pictures of total strangers to explore every corner of the human experience. Packed with personal photos, scientific observations, statistical infographics, and countless candid vignettes from ordinary people, We Feel Fine is a visual, fiercely intelligent, endlessly engrossing crash course in the secrets of human emotion.

We Feel Fine explores our emotions from every angle, providing insights into and examples of each. Equal parts pop culture and psychology, computer science and conceptual art, sociology and storytelling, We Feel Fine is no ordinary book -- with thousands of authors from all over the world sharing their uncensored emotions, it is a radical experiment in mass authorship, merging the online and offline worlds to create an indispensable handbook for anyone interested in what it's like to be human.

Furthermore, for blogging DMTs or DMT students, the content of the book, how people FEEL, is central to our work with therapy and expression.

It is beautifully done. Feel fine. Go ahead, check it out. And let me know what you feel (or think) about it.

Self Portraits and Healing

2009-11-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

William Utermohlen’s self-portraits reveal his descent into dementia over the span of nearly four decades. The accompanying NY Times article can be read here.

In my expressive arts therapy (movement, drawing, writing) training with Anna and Daria Halprin at the Tamalpa Institute, self portraits are introduced as an integral part of the life/art process, at the beginning of the training and at the end.
How we paint or draw ourselves is a creative and symbolic process which can create a dialogue between our psyche and soul. "...the drawing...can contain and express our suffering in ways which help us be with it and move on, finding a healthy way to reintegrate, or live differently with, our wounding experiences" (Halprin, D, p. 179).

Utermohlen's self portraits from 1996-2000:

Dance Therapy for Postpartum Depression

2009-11-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of attending Gabrielle Kaufman, BC-DMT's workshop on postpartum depression and dance/movement therapy this October in Portland, and look forward to working with her in the future, since she teaches my next CMER course in DMT with the elderly in January, 2010.

The workshop on postpartum depression was fascinating. It is such an emotional and visceral topic for many women, I think we were all a blubbering mess sharing stories and connecting through movement.

Dance Therapy for Postpartum Depression by the Postpartum Progress: Together, Stronger blog:

One of the people I met at the PSI conference this summer was Gabrielle Kaufman, one of the PSI coordinators for Southern California. One of the things we discussed was dance therapy. I had never heard of dance therapy, and was intrigued to find out more about what it is and how it might be used to help women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Gabrielle was kind enough to write the following article to enlighten us:

"When Rachel was deeply depressed after the birth of her baby girl, she didn't know what to do. In desperation and with her husband's encouragement, she reached out for help. Her OB/GYN referred her to a specialist in postpartum depression. When this specialist spoke to Rachel, she gave monosyllabic answers. Her baby sat alone in the baby carrier and Rachel stated, 'I don't want to be her mother.' When traditional talk therapy didn't seem enough to penetrate her sadness, her doctor thought to refer her to a dance/movement therapist.

Based on the understanding that the body and mind are interrelated, dance/movement therapy is defined as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, cognitive, physical and social integration of an individual. The dance/movement therapist's goal was to help Rachel "move" toward health and connect with her baby girl Sophie.

So what did they do? A dance/movement therapist has training much like a traditional verbal therapist, but has additional tools in her belt. With an understanding of movement assessment, the dance/movement therapist can begin to help the client interpret her behaviors and initiate a shift. The process of bonding with a newborn is a very physical one. By simply encouraging the mother to hold her baby and rock with her, movement can begin a journey toward connection. The rocking rhythm is soothing to both the mother and the baby, and the closeness of touch can be healing for both as well.

The therapist may mirror the client in an effort to meet the mother in her depression, or she may be a model mother by encouraging her client to 'move' her depression. Sometimes the therapist might bring out scarves for her client to use. She might invite the client to 'hide' from her baby and return, 'peek-a-boo'. This process is one in which the mother can regain control and initiate her relationship with her baby. We know that the bond a mother forms with her baby early on makes a profound impact on the lifetime development of her child. As much of this attunement is non-verbal, dance/movement therapy can be an ideal intervention.

Read the rest of the article here.

Becoming an Embodied Therapist Workshop with Susan Kleinman

2009-11-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

Becoming An Embodied Therapist workshop
Read the news straight from the Hope Blog here.

BECOMING AN EMBODIED THERAPIST:
ACCESSING THE LANGUAGE OF THE BODY IN EATING DISORDER TREATMENT
Wednesday December 9, 2009
9am - Noon
Hancock Center for Dance/Movement Therapy

Earn 3 CEU's
Workshop Cost: $60.00

This workshop offers the opportunity for mental health professionals to discover and trust their innate ability to "attend" empathically, respond authenticcally, and translate non-verbal experiences into cognitive insights. Experiential body/mind exercises based on dance/ movement therapy principles will be used along with didactic presentation, to integrate a more embodied approach into traditional psychotherapy theory and practice.
Participants will learn how these embodied methods can be used to treat individuals with eating disorders with a special focus on how to:

- Be more fully present and congruent.
- Facilitate a somatic state of readiness.
- Utilize treatment techniques based on mind/body congruity to deal with issues
underlying eating disorders.
- Track the process of therapy so as to not become lost in the experience of attending.
Workshop Presenter Susan Kleinman, MA, BC-DMT, NCC, is the dance/movement therapist for residential and outpatient services at The Renfrew Center of Florida. Ms. Kleinman is a trustee of the Marian Chace Foundation, past president of the American Dance Therapy Association, and a past Chair of The National Coalition for Creative Arts Therapies. She is co-editor of The Renfrew Center Foundation's Healing Through Relationship Series, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Creativity in Mental Health. She is the American Dance Therapy Association Recipient of the 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award.

Breath Made Visible, a film about Anna Halprin

2009-11-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

Anna Halprin, post-modern dancer, pioneer, innovator, teacher, co-founder of the Tamalpa Institute (the school of which I just completed my MA coursework through!), shares her life and creative life/art process in this film by a French filmmaker and former student of Halprin's.

I highly recommend you check out the trailer for the film RIGHT NOW.

Time Management for Creative People

2009-10-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

As I begin to type my thesis, I would like to share this Time Management for Creative People ebook.

I've found it extremely helpful!

“Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
Gustave Flaubert

New R-DMT Paperwork and Anti-Aging Yoga

2009-10-25T20:16:00.001-07:00

If you are a dance/movement therapy alternate route student, or plan to become one in the future, you should definitely check out the ADTA's new website to become familiar with the R-DMT packet. There is a bunch of downloadable paperwork as well, which is newly added since the website makeover. Make sure you're organized!

Also, I came across the Gaiam blog this weekend, and thought I'd share the "anti-aging" yoga slideshow with you. Although I'm not a fan of gimmicky incentives as the only motivation for movement and health, this one is at least interesting enough to pass along. Let me know what you think.

Anti-Aging Yoga: How-to Slideshow
by Sadie Nardini

What yogis have known for centuries, science now backs up: When it comes to looking and feeling young, skin creams and injections ain’t got nothing on the practice of yoga. Yoga changes the body’s system as a whole, so the glow on your more youthful face actually comes from an inner transformation and slowing down of the aging process. This means fewer wrinkles, less stress, more immunity, increased brain power and yes, a body that stays healthy and beautiful for a lifetime. So forget botox. Try yoga!

I’m not talking about face yoga here — though that’s fine to do, too.

More and more research is finding that people who practice a vigorous form of yoga just three hours a week are investing in maintaining a youthful glow by switching on the anti-aging hormones that slow down the process from the inside out. In fact, some studies show that on average, these three hourly sessions make practitioners biologically nine years younger than their non-yogi counterparts. Now that’s change we can believe in! Yoga does this by stimulating the endocrine system to produce balanced amounts of hormones, and helps switch on and off genes that we need (or don’t!) to keep us running smoothly. It’s been shown, among other things, to reduce stress hormones like cortisol, a major factor in disease and aging.

Make this practice part of your regular routine, and reap the benefits of invigorated health and beauty that will have people asking you what your secret is. You’ll just smile slyly (with fewer wrinkles) and say, “It’s the yoga.”

THE PRACTICE

The following 6 power poses work specifically to trigger the main endocrine glands: reproductive, adrenals, thymus, thyroid, hypothalamus, pituitary and pineal, and the major organs, which all work together to regulate stress, metabolism, aging, sleep and immunity.

1. Seated Cat/Cow

Regulates: reproductive and stress hormones

Come into an Easy Seat. Place your hands on knees, and with each inhale, arch your back, drawing shoulder blades closer. Exhale, and round in, shoulder blades move apart, chin towards chest.

Repeat for one minute or more.

2. Metabolic Spark

Regulates: metabolism and weight management, immunity

Return to Easy Seat. Inhale into the chest and ribs, and reach your arms out parallel to the floor, palms facing forward. Exhale more quickly from the navel, and swing your arms to reach out in front of you, palms face each other.

Repeat for one minute.

3. Twisted Lunge

Regulates: organ health, overall system function.

Come into a Lunge Position, back heel up, hips squared. Bring your palms together at the chest and plant your right elbow onto the left knee. Keep the hips level as you exhale and spin your heart and top shoulder to the sky. Place your back knee down onto the floor if needed.

Take 5-10 breaths here, then switch sides.

Read the full article here.

Skeleton in the Closet

2009-10-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Skeleton in the Closet is a series of intimate portraits, by artist Fritz Liedtke, of people struggling with anorexia and bulimia.

Combining photographs and text, it creates a powerful narrative of what it's like to live with-–and leave behind-–an eating disorder.

www.skeletoninthecloset.net

Dance Therapy Coursework at Kinections in NY

2009-10-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

Right around the corner in 2010!

May
Dance/Movement Therapy Theory & Practice I
Foundations and Principles of Dance/Movement Therapy
May 24, 2010 - May 28, 2010
Danielle L. Fraenkel, Ph.D., BC-DMT, NCC, LCAT, LMHC

June
Group Processes in Dance/Movement Therapy
The Marian Chace Approach
June 2, 2010 - June 5, 2010
Elissa White, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT

A Bill Evans Approach to Laban Movement Analysis
June 7, 2010 - June 10, 2010
Bill Evans, MFA, CLMA, CMA

An Experiential and Theoretical Introduction to the Kestenberg Movement Profile
Janet Lemon Williams, R-DMT, KMP Analyst Level I
June 12 - June 15, 2009

The CenterPost Trauma & Resiliency Framework
Dance Movement Therapy for Survivors of War, Torture and Violence in Cross-Cultural Settings
June 16, 2010 - June 19, 2010
Amber Elizabeth Gray, MPH, MA, BC-DMT, LPCC

Group Processes in LivingDance~LivingMusic
June 23, 2010 - June 27, 2010
Danielle L. Fraenkel, Ph.D., BC-DMT, NCC, LCAT, LMHC

Articles Relevant to the Creative Arts Therapies

2009-10-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

New research on music, movement, and the brain.

Yale researchers hopeful for new treatment options for the mentally ill by studying the evolution of the human brain.

Finally, a great essay by Malcolm Gladwell on dogs and body language.

Diane Duggan is Amazing.

2009-10-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

If you ever get the opportunity, take a workshop by this woman.

Why is Imagery Important?

2009-10-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Donna Luder, who certified me in the Pilates method, on mental imagery. As a dancer and researcher, Luder uses visualizations and images when teaching Pilates to clients and is inspired by the Franklin Method.

As Luder's student, I feel more of a connection with my body using cues of imagery, like imagining my spine is a "strand of pearls" for example. But a whole lot more goes into using one's brain for these cues.

About Mental Imagery
by Donna Luder © 2007-08 All rights reserved.
For two and a half millennia, philosophers have discussed and debated the role-assignments of the body and mind. Is the mind superior and the body inferior, or is the body just a way to access the mind, or is there no separation? The debate over the relative superiority of mind or body may not be a useful construct for physical educators. Instead, it may be more useful for teachers to recognize athletic goals can be enhanced through physical or cognitive skill development. Students of movement would be well-served to be accomplished in both skills.
Athletic coaches and physical education teachers are familiar with skill drills and other physical techniques for improving athletic ability. Somewhat less familiar is the cognitive technique of mental imagery. This paper seeks to review the research behind mental imagery, discuss the philosophy of mental imagery, and provide a concrete prescription for the front line of movement educators to improve motor learning and performance through mental imagery. It is advantageous to use this cognitive skill because it is potentially quick, powerful, and applicable to all people in all walks of life, from ballerinas to football players to stroke survivors.
Ernst Weber (1795-1878) founded the field of psychophysics by studying the relationship between sensory information and cognitive evaluation of that information between 1829 and 1834, according to Mook (2004). In 1860, Gustav Fechner contributed a method to correlate physical variables to mental variables over the entire range of possible variables (Mook). Fechner was sufficiently mesmerized to later pen the metaphysical text “On Life After Death”. Early 20th century research branched into the field of mental imagery and theorized the body would respond to mental practice alone (Washburn, 1916) but EMG did not confirm this theory until 1932 (Jacobson). Simultaneously, the lay literature began to explore how concepts from modern science could enhance desired outcomes. The year 1927 brought pianist Heinrich Kosnick’s Lebenssteigerung (Life-Enhancement) in which he described how his “psycho-physiological” method could increase the skills of his piano students. In 1933, Freeman showed concomitant muscle activity could be measured during mental imagery of an activity, as cited in Green (1994). By 1934, Sackett concluded that physical practice was superior to mental imagery but mental imagery did improve performance. Mabel Todd, a professor at Columbia University Teachers College, published The Thinking Body in 1937 in which she outlined her philosophy of “Structural Hygiene” that taught students mental processes to influence ease of movement and posture. In the mid- to late-20th century, multiple reviews of previous research (Richardson, 1967; Corbin 1972; Weinberg 1982; and Feltz and Landers, 1983) concluded mental practice is indeed an effective method for improving performance.
Although research supports mental practice as a viable method of physical skill development, the question remains: how does it work? Evidence points to the theory that mental imagery is consciousness itself (Marks, 1999 and Ginsburg, 1999). Wittgenstein declared mental images are the means by which we interact with the world, they are how we know (1949/1978). For example, when a chef following a recipe reads the ingredient “artichoke”, the chef may visualize the artichoke, smell its aroma, taste it, spatially locate it in the kitchen, kinesthetically feel its spiky roughness, or relate to it emotionally. All of these responses are represented by mental imagery. Even the word “artichoke” on the recipe card is an image, a representation of the real thing. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) expresses this concept with the phrase, “the map is not the territory” (Bavister and Vickers, 2004). In the same way that a map is a representation of the territory but is not the territory itself, the image of the artichoke is not the artichoke any more than the word “artichoke” is an artichoke. Although the mental image of the artichoke as a smell, taste, visual picture, location, or sensation is not the artichoke, it is a valid and useful representation of an artichoke, and the method by which the chef is made conscious of the ingredient for the recipe.
That which one is conscious of is one’s reality; it is a truism from which one operates. Plato’s allegory of the cave described prisoners who have spent their entire lives in a cave, chained so that they can only see flickering shadows on the cave wall. The prisoners think the shadows are real, substantive beings, because it is all they have ever experienced. It is obvious to the outsider that shadows have no substance; they are not real in the sense that people are real. However, whether something is experienced as real has very little to do with its status in the physical world. Only the subject’s perception of the object, dictates its realness (Heidegger, 1932/2002).
In order for an athlete to be considered conscious, some type of mental imagery is in use. The batter anticipates the feel of the bat connecting to the ball, the diver mentally hears the quiet splash of a perfect dive, the dancer visualizes the flight of a swan, and the soccer player daydreams about a friend and subsequently gets thumped by an incoming ball! A constant river of mental information flows through the mind of every conscious human and it can be influenced by consciously chosen imagery.
Purposeful manipulation of mental imagery is familiar to elite level athletes who report using imagery more often than less experienced athletes (Hall, Rodgers and Barr, 1990). This content is largely at the athlete’s discretion and therefore a potential ally in performance success. The athlete who images crossing the finish-line and seeing the desired time on the clock is “using imagery” to succeed; Walter Mitty daydreaming of his secret life as a fighter-pilot thus escapes his normal life. Both streams of thought are purposeful and, by design, both are “real” to the thinker. Negative imagery is just as “real” to the athlete and also powerful. For this reason, negative imagery has been shown to produce significant performance deterioration (Hall, Schmidt, Durand, and Buckolz, 1994).
Vividness refers to how clearly an athlete sees the image. Control is the ability to direct an image and manipulate its contents. Both are important characteristics of successful imagery. Start and Richardson as cited in Green (1994), found that athletes who had high degrees of both vividness and control performed best. They found the next best combination was low vividness and high control, then low vividness and low control, and lastly high vividness and low control. This surprising finding caused the authors to conclude that if an athlete can vividly image performing, but cannot control the image to direct what is wanted, the athlete might actually be practicing detrimental movement patterns.

To read the rest of the article, go here.

Changes in Certification Coming Soon

2009-10-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

According to the ADTA newsletter, The ADTA voting membership ratified creating
a Dance/Movement Therapy Certification Board! In addition, the majority vote was to create new service marks: R-DMT (dance/movement therapist-registered, instead of DTR) and BC-DMT (dance/movement therapist-board certified, instead of ADTR). In the coming months you can expect to hear how this new certification board and the new service marks will be rolled out.

So I will be changing the name of this blog to "The Dance to R-DMT" shortly.

American Dance Therapy Association Conference

2009-10-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

And the countdown begins!!!

The American Dance Therapy Association conference is next week, October 8-11th in Portland, Oregon.

I will be co-presenting with the fabulous Lora Wilson Mau, DTR, and Ty Tedmon-Jones, ADTR on the topic of BLOGGING! This is where it all began, folks. We are so thrilled to be presenting such a great topic. I've learned so much about blogging, Twitter, and marketing since my first post November of 2008. Hope you all can join us in the dance across the world wide web presentation.

If you are able to come to the conference, it promises to be an educational time filled with fun and a huge dance party on Saturday night.

Hope to see you there!

Beyonce makes me want to...

2009-09-27T00:42:00.001-07:00

Movement is expressive. In this case, this kid portrays all the emotions and movements that I want to express when I see this Beyonce video. Go kid, go!

Making Art in Healthcare: Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange

2009-09-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from Stage Presence - Body Presence: Movement and Body Experience With the Elderly by Babette Becker, PhD, CSW, BCD

Liz Lerman, a dancer and choreographer, developed an intergenerational dance company by first training young dancers in her company, The Dance Exchange, to teach and dance with older adults.

Creativity is often arrested in the aged. It is imprisoned by inhibitions, habits, and expectations. When it is released we get a Grandma Moses creating vibrant paintings in the primitive style. If it is never inhibited, we get a Picasso creating until the week of his death. Creativity can be released in many ways.
...The experiences and emotions of older persons can be translated into vibrant, creative works. Usually, however, there must be a program and a setting that encourages and channels free expression into an art form.

Movements can be used to express emotion, re-create an event, tell a story, work out an idea, or simply create joy. Dance is an active expression of individuals' willingness to move, learn, and reveal themselves through their bodies as well as to learn, take directions, work harmoniously, share ideas, and rehearse--to grow as artists, both collectively and individually. As muscles get full play, they are likely to improve in their range of motion, stamina, and agility.

To teach dance to older adults, I rely heavily on the experience of dance itself than on the therapeutic growth of the individual. If each of us listens to our own individual beat, we can create themes and movements. All forms of creativity, emotional and physical expression, physical movement, intellectual agility, and body health together produce therapeutic growth for elderly persons as well as create vitality for rich and long lives.

Read more about Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange here.

Juliette Binoche: Actress, Artist, Dancer

2009-09-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

"And I'd say that as I paint, I'm dancing on the paper, and as I'm dancing onstage, I'm drawing in the space."

Listen to Juliette Binoche on NPR's All Things Considered.

Michael Jackson Tribute at the MTV Video Music Awards

2009-09-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

The MTV Video Music Awards opened last night with a tribute to Michael Jackson.

What was their tribute, you might ask?

The dances from his videos. Enough said.

MTV Shows

Click here for my previous blog post about his death.

Frustrations and Joys and Entering my 29th Year

2009-09-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

I have just entered the last year of my twenties with a whole lot of turmoil and excitement.

I received an email this week regarding the updated requirements of becoming a registered dance/movement therapist, which will be integrated into a new handbook compiled by the American Dance Therapy Association's (ADTA) Credential Committee (which is also transitioning to the official title of DMT Certification Board).

In the new handbook, new guidelines have been established, specifically:

...prior to starting the DMT internship, 9 credits of general training coursework, (abnormal psychology, psychopathology, developmental psychology, and group process)in addition to 18 credits of dance/movement therapy coursework must be completed.

I have approximately 450 internship hours completed at this time. And 3 credits of DMT coursework.

OH NO!!!!!!!!

And this is the main reason why I blog: to let other budding alternate route students aware of what is necessary to become a dance therapist ahead of time, making their alternate route experience, well, a little less bumpy and without these OH NO's.

So I do not know if all my internship hours will count. There is a fear that none will, or maybe only 200 hours will be accredited towards the fieldwork supervision hours necessary in addition to the 700 unpaid internship hours I've been chipping away on all year.

I don't mean to gripe about this experience, either. Trust me, this past year I have had to do A LOT of outside reading, writing, and planning with my supervisor to further understand the breadth and depth of working as a dance therapist in a psychiatric hospital. I've been getting cozy with the DSM-IV, and have been trying on my 'clinical hat' for writing notes. I've scientifically been doing trial and error kinds of experiments with patients and groups to see what happens, (like if the patients are responsive or not to something in particular) and I know for a fact that all of this would be much easier and smoother if I had all of the DMT coursework completed prior to beginning my internship.

Thus, I await further communication with the DMT Certification Board with an open heart and a positive mind. All these experiences in the past year have made a tremendous impact on my life and who I am as a dance/movement therapy graduate student. I would not give back this internship experience for anything.

And then later this week, as I turned 29 years old, I received a message from my three year old niece, saying:

If Auntie Blair is sweaty, I will fix her. I will put a tree and a glass of milk on her and I will wash away all of her eyes. Then I will knock over her milk and laugh about it, then I will sail back home.

So I dance with these nourishing images of milk and trees, dancing their growth potentials until I become sweaty with big eyes, and take a deep inhale. I remember why I decided to go alternate route and stay in California in the first place, opting out of a dance therapy graduate school experience in New York, a decision I made on the day my niece was born. And I exhale, and smile.

And then I got word that SB788 - the bill for professional licensure of clinical counselors in California has passed BOTH THE STATE ASSEMBLY AND THE STATE SENATE.

All that is left is for our Governor to sign it into law!

California Dance/Movement Therapists will indeed be considered licensed clinical counselors after years of being the ONLY state in this country that did not recognize dance therapy as a licensed profession.

This. is. great. news.

And it calls for a celebratory dance. I hope our Governator will sign the bill into law with a dancing heart, because according to this short article, Arnold says "Dancing is not my specialty." Let's hope his pen won't reflect those feelings for this momentus and historical moment for dance/movement therapists in California.

Manu Chao Records his Latest Album in a Psychiatric Hospital with the Mentally Ill

2009-09-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

I love Manu Chao.

If you've never heard of him, definitely check out his music. There's even a free download of his latest endeavor of creating music with psychiatric patients in Buenos Aires at www.VivaLaColifata.org .

Read more about it from the Guardian UK's article, and go listen to some good Manu Chao.

Adios!

Staying in Sync and the End of Summer

2009-08-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm going to Grandma's house for a week of vacation in the humid midwest. In the meantime, I'd like to share a nice article from TherapyTimes.com about dance therapy.

Happy end of summer!

Staying in Sync
Dance/movement remedies to mind-body problems
by Bob Stott

The music is slow, barely audible, a soothing cello wafting across the room from the stereo in the corner. Anya stands between two chairs, her muscles rigid and clearly strained as she attempts to walk from one chair to the other, her therapist standing close by, but not touching her.

Midway, Anya suddenly freezes and her back leg becomes paralyzed. She is unable to move in any direction, and her whole body begins to shake from the strain. The therapist attempts to ground her by reminding Anya that she is in this room, a safe room, and not the traumatic place she is experiencing in her mind. Through this reaffirming tone, the therapist is attempting to teach Anya ways to alleviate the stress of these traumatic episodes.

The therapist moves closer to Anya, coming into her field of vision to establish direct eye contact, and stretches out her hand. Warily, Anya takes the hand and together, they begin to slowly sway, moving gently from side to side in a shared rhythm. Guided by Anya’s subtle movements and the continued eye contact, the therapist “dances” with her until the terrified period subsided, and Anya sits down in the chair to rest.

Looking up at the therapist with tears in her eyes, Anya finally makes the connection that her immobility was caused by some deep-rooted psychological disturbance, rather than her previous self-diagnosis that she was experiencing some rare form of stroke that went undetected, despite the extensive neurological work-up that had been performed on her.

Armed with this simple awareness, Anya is prepared to begin confronting the pain she realizes has been haunting her subconscious mind for a long time.

Different Symptoms, Different Therapy

It is one of the stereotypical aspects of human nature to divide and conquer certain obstacles as they are presented. And to many, the concept of therapy is no different. In the common view, people who have mental disabilities or behavioral problems are sent to a variety of psychologists or behavioral therapists, while people who are in need of bodily rehabilitation, due to injuries or physical disabilities, should be redirected to their type-specific physical therapist.

The logic is so cut and dry that it seems almost preposterous to question, yet, there are a large number of therapy patients whose symptoms would have them tumbling through the gaping holes in this rigid therapeutic divide.

The dance/movement therapist works on the premise that the mind and the body are interrelated, and the disturbances of one can often be seen by the reactions of the other. Not all people who are experiencing mental duress or overcoming a particularly traumatic experience react to it in the same way; many people, unsure of how to deal with the enormity of their feelings or how to express these feelings to others, attempt to repress the entire event.

This type of emotional suppression can sometimes surface later along with a number of different emotional, cognitive, and social problems, ranging from intimacy issues, to physical disability, to a disconnect with their normal activities.

Dance/movement therapists work with individuals of all ages and cultural backgrounds, operating in both group and private sessions, depending on which is better for a patient at a particular stage of therapy. Therapists primarily focus on helping their clients improve their cognitive skills or social abilities by developing effective communication skills and expanding their movement vocabulary, a particular pattern of actions that mirror the client’s own usually-limited range of expressed emotions.

“The language of the body is, in essence, our ‘native language’, since human beings communicate through their bodies long before they learn to talk,” says Susan Kleinman, MA, ADTR, NCC, a dance therapist for residential and outpatient services at the Coconut Creek-based Renfrew Center of Florida. “As we develop, we add words to our communication; however, body language remains our most acute means of recognizing our needs and expressing ourselves.”

Movement is the primary medium that dance/movement therapists use for observation, assessment, research, and therapeutic interaction. Working in settings where the patients are most susceptible to mind-body distortions, dance/movement therapists can be found in psychiatric and rehabilitation facilities, schools, nursing homes, drug treatment centers, counseling centers, crisis centers, and various medical facilities.

A Healthy Image

An eating disorder is just one of several ways in which repressed traumatic experiences can manifest themselves. Eating disorders need to be understood in the context of experienced trauma, with many eating problems beginning as survival strategies rather than vanity or obsession with appearance. Feeling helpless in the face of an inflicted trauma, people look for a part of their lives they can control – food and weight become that “control” for them.

Low self-esteem and constant self-criticism cause these individuals to constantly fear losing control, and even consuming a small amount of food could be considered a loss of control. Studies on women from various social backgrounds, sexual orientation, and ethnic cultures find that eating disorders are a common response to environmental stresses, such as sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.

“I work with girls and women with eating disorders, who also have trauma or abuse issues, or have substance abuse issues,” says Kleinman. “Women with eating disorders tend to avoid connecting in their body and because of this, they often feel numb. Whenever they get feelings that overwhelm them, they turn to their eating disorder in order to cope with those feelings. Instead of expressing a feeling or a problem, a person might hold back or restrict a problem, and that person may then go on to turn it into an eating disorder in which they mix up food and feelings. They then begin to restrict food, which becomes their main calling in life – restricting food – and quickly evolves into anorexia.”

To confront this common theme of disconnect, dance/movement therapists encourage their patients to communicate via postures, gestures, and idiosyncratic movements, with the therapist using their own physical responsiveness to create a therapeutic interaction.

Through these non-verbal sessions, underlying issues, such distorted body image, fear of intimacy, lack of body boundaries, and fear of taking risks, start to become visible in this exchange between patient and therapist.

A Child’s View

Dance/movement therapy is also utilized to treat a number of pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) – characterized by delays in the development of socialization and communication skills – which has the therapist most frequently working with children. The most commonly known developmental disorder is autism, but PDDs also include Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, and Asperger syndrome.

While parents may note symptoms of PDD as early as infancy, typically onset is prior to 3 years of age, evident by delays in the child’s ability to adjust to their environment or socialize with others.

Children afflicted with PDD vary widely in abilities, intelligence, and behaviors. While some children do not speak at all, others speak in limited phrases or conversations, and some are noted to have relatively normal language development.

These children are shown to display repetitive play skills and a limited set of social skills, as well as atypical responses to certain sensory information, such as loud noises or different kinds of light. Limited to particular patterns of expression and mechanical socialization, this disorder represents the sort of ‘break’ in the mind-body sensory input that dance/movement therapy can readily assist.

Gayle Gates, MA, ADTR, NCC, LPC, a dance/movement therapist and associate director of dance/movement therapy education at the Hahneman Creative Arts in Therapy program at Drexel University in Philadelphia, has worked extensively with adolescents with developmental disorders. Working exclusively with autistic children at the Philadelphia-based Green Tree School, Gates recommends that therapists pay close attention to a child’s physical posture before beginning therapeutic interaction.

“[Ask yourself], ‘What do I think when I look at this body as a whole? What are the body parts that the child is using?’” says Gates. “Is there a lack of complex gestures? Are there stereotypic and atypical patterns of mobility?”

From her experience, Gates has developed her own dance/movement therapy assessment, which allows therapists to observe and measure the movement data and interaction that patients express in a given environment:

Limitations interfering with the patient’s adaptation to an environment
Strengths that patients use to compensate for weaknesses
Emotional problems, such as depression, anxiety or anger
Behavioral problems, such as attention span, impulsivity, and low tolerance level
Body image disturbances involving distortion of self and environment
Fragmented communication patterns affecting the patient’s ability to interact and socialize

Through dance/movement therapy and the kinesthetic awareness that its therapists employ, patients are given another outlet through which they can express their suppressed emotions. By allowing patients to overcome their emotional hurdles at their own pace, therapists form a tighter bond with their patients – oftentimes this is a necessity when assisting them.

As exploration into the field continues, therapists from other modalities, such as physical and occupational therapy, are becoming steadily aware of the chances for progress available for patients that may have already plateaued in respect to physical rehabilitation.

Check Out Ning.com

2009-08-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Ning.com?

You should check out Ning.com's Dance/Movement Therapy social networking page. Beautifully organized, it's an interactive and multi-modal page that offers videos, postings, articles, and chat opportunities, and more to share with others.

Dancing with Apples on the Road

2009-08-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

What do you want to reach for right now in your life?

It’s amazing how many patients reach for apples. Their arms reach upward, outstretched in a single movement, as they pick an imaginary apple off an imaginary tree. I see a gentle twist in a wrist indicating pulling the stem off of a branch, I see the rounding of fingers as if to hold the apple in the palm of their hand, bringing it in to their body. Sometimes they want to bake an apple pie with the apples, or offer one to their neighbors. Patients will reach for all types of apples--red, green, Fuji, pink lady, delicious, Macintosh--and I’m amazed with the diversity of apples present within our diverse group, but then again, this is Berkeley, a Northern California utopia for foodies. Everyone knows their varietals, they get to taste them at the local artisan farmer’s markets, experiencing a myriad of tastes and textures—sweet, bitter, sour, crisp, juicy, bland, mushy—and many are aware of which fruits are in season. As we’re approaching autumn now, the season for apples, and I’d like to offer you one to provide you with an apple dance, full of nourishment.

I wonder if it’s this metaphor of apple that is so intriguing to hospital inpatients. Do they yearn for nutrition, or comfort, or childhood snack time memories? Do they crave the seeds, the core, the flesh, and the skin as a way to reach for and hold a metaphor of their own body?

I am reaching for so many things I desperately want right now.

Most of all, I want to become a certified dance / movement therapist. I feel so passionately about this work that I want to scream it from the mountaintops and shout it through the valleys. Dance with others to help them? This is the best job on earth! This work feeds my soul and speaks to my truth, my intuition of yes. Movement works. To dance is human. To dance is art. It connects us to ourselves and others, and makes us feel better. Results are often instantaneous. But dance is also an act of alchemy and is purely improvisational, one that requires many tools for working with a myriad of populations, and a ton of education.

As an alternate route student in California, I made the commitment to become Dance Therapist Registered (DTR) knowing that it is a challenging road, mostly because there is no ADTA approved graduate program in the state, so the road ahead is bound to have a few speed bumps. At times, the road is not paved, and other times, it’s smooth and conducive to cruise control. I imagine my road is now surrounded by apple orchards, full of vitality and abundance, and most of all, opportunity.
When I first began my journey to become an alternate route student, I felt isolated and disconnected from my peers. I craved human connection with others reaching for my same goal.

So I started this blog.

I began my personal blog, The Dance to DTR, in November of 2008 as an effort to put my energy, experiences, and questions out into cyberspace. My hope was that others going through the same wonders, trials, and tribulations along the road would miraculously find my needle of a blog in the vast cyber haystack, and that the blog would become a platform for what to do (or, at times, more aptly what not to do) to become a dance/ movement therapist.

But now my blog has transitioned, in its own timely dance, to become a marketing tool for the field of dance and the expressive and creative therapies. Now my goal has also transitioned to explain what dance therapy is to the world. I blog and put a link to it to send it out on Twitter. I search for others in cyberspace who have similar interests or stories and continue to write, to learn, and to reach for more.

I was doing a lot of reaching and not a lot of receiving. And then one day I received a comment on my blog from a young woman that read,

Oh my gosh, i am soo happy to have stumbled upon your blog. It is my
dream to become a dance therapist but I am really confused as to where
I should start and what I should do. Do you happen to have an outline
as to the steps you took? Would you mind if I emailed you or scheduled
a phone interview? Thank you so much for providing all this information!

Someone found my blog! It’s a miracle!

The young woman called me for information on educational opportunities for alternate route certification in the state, and, with all the bottled energy I had planned to share with everyone interested in becoming alternate route in California, I talked her ear off. I told her about my journey and my thoughts and my advice, and about the then future event the California chapter (SCCADTA) was promoting in her area. I told her to sign up for the list serves to stay abreast of events, and of course, to stay tuned to my blog.

She arrived at the SCCADTA event a few months later, introducing herself to me, and as I reached out my arms to give her a welcoming hug, I felt proud of my journey thus far, and of meeting my intention to help others.

How ‘bout them apples?

International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) Convention

2009-08-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

The IEATA convention is this week in Cambridge, MA. I am not able to go, but am looking forward to attending (and co-presenting!) at the American Dance Therapy Association Conference this October in Portland.

Dance therapist, Donna Newman-Bluestein, is attending and presenting at IEATA's conference and has a blog posting about it you can read here. Sounds lovely!

Zen and the Art of Expression

2009-08-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

When times are bad, like in this recession, we evolutionary beings tend to seek for ways to feel better by expressing ourselves and searching for meaning, understanding, and connection. We search for ways to feel human and alive, to console ourselves and trust that the world is a good place and that things will get better.

There's a zen saying that the purpose of life is "to express the ineffable, which is the ultimate paradox."

Expressing the ineffable is the language of art. And these days, performance art is used as self expression, healing, and to establish community. And it seems to be everywhere.

Many times in an improvisational way, performance artists plan (somewhat) to gather a large number of people to perform a certain an art, like doing a choreographed dance in a train station, for example, or causing a scene of some kind in an urban setting, like in the popular NYC group, Improv Everywhere's video, Human Mirror:

Some performance artists nonverbally make a statement, like in this video, also by the same group:

Performance art, which is a nonverbal display of art, integrates a lot of movement or dance as its medium. The human body is the canvas, and the situation and/or costume or clothing its paint.

It expresses the ineffable in a world full of paradox. Its a in-your-face-art, one in which passers by do not need a ticket and is usually documented or videotaped for the world to enjoy with the click of a button.

I'm planning one I hope to perform in before 2010, and I'll definitely be videotaping to share with the world.

Stay tuned.

What is JCAHO?

2009-08-06T12:43:00.001-07:00

"The state is here!" cried a doctor from her car as she pulled into the parking lot. My supervisor, walking with me into the hospital, stopped abruptly and slowly covered her hand over her mouth.
"You can't be here" She said as she looked at me.

Of course, I had a heads up for a few weeks, knowing that Jchao (pronounced "JAYCO"), whoever that was, was going to make a surprise visit to review the hospital, and all interns (that's me) were to be sent home. It made sense, I am technically a "volunteer" since I opted not to do my dance therapy internship through my graduate school, but rather for the hours and experience towards my hopeful dance therapy registration in the future, and I don't have formal training. Yet.

So I Googled "Jayco" when I got home and found this blog post, written by the CEO of a Boston hospital, stating why Jcaho, The Joint Commission, is important and necessary. Here is Jcaho's website on hospital standards, and Wikipedia's explanation of who they are and why they're so important for our health and wellbeing.

Good luck, hospital!

Why I love Surfing

2009-08-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

1. Movement.

Not a big surprise from a future dance / movement therapist, right?! The movement of the waves, the movement of paddling and pushing my body up on the board to stand, and the process of letting the ocean's energy move me through the water is like nothing else. It's a dance on water and an improvisational act. Each day the conditions are different, each wave is different, and each surf spot is different. I never know if the water will be crowded, what sea life and creatures will show up (or how they will behave), what the exact water temperature will be, or if I'll be able to catch a wave at all.

2. Ocean/Water.

My mother would take my sister and me to the beach when we were fighting a lot as children, saying in recent years that it was to "chill us out." It worked. And still does. Like a mother rocking her baby to sleep, the lapping of waves on the shore is a tranquil sound, and calm waves can create a rocking and holding quality of movement that is nourishing to my body and my mind. I still go to the ocean to clear my head, and I always feel better.
Water is healing. There's nothing revolutionary about that, the ancient Romans knew to take baths to cleanse, and Scandinavians still partake in dipping their bodies in freezing cold water temperatures after sweating profusely in saunas. Of course, we can't forget about Turkish baths or the cleansing rituals of the Japanese or Mikvot in Jewish culture.

3. Confronting the Unknown.

Waves can be very big and very scary. Many people die in the ocean. Many times while paddling out, I feel my body being aggressively pushed and pulled in a way that is totally out of my physical control. When the bigger sets come through, I find myself duck diving or pushing through the white water (for the smaller waves), hoping to not get rocked or too pummeled. I like to be in control in dark, cold, and wild waters. But I also love the feeling of confidence and joy I get when I confront these unknown conditions and fears. These are rare occasions when I am actually proud of myself.

4. Connecting to Nature.

Fresh air and exercise are a great combination, and to get both of while in the ocean is pure delight. Sunshine doesn't hurt, either. To quote a friend,

"There is something so tranquil and revitalizing about being in a body of water that connects all across the world…"

And it's no wonder that I find surfing, like dance, therapeutic. Like dance and movement on the earth and land, it's improvisational, healing, nourishing, and connecting. Growing up near the ocean, I've seen how surfers can become happily addicted to surfing in the ocean, their calm demeanors shining like a halo around their heads.

Since I am interested in alternative therapies, I did a little research and found:

The Jimmy Miller Foundation in Southern California uses Ocean Therapy to work with mentally ill children, and the Paskowitz family's Surfers Healing teaches children with Autism to surf.

The Most Talented Chroeographer EVER...

2009-08-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

...is Wayne McGregor.

I had the opportunity to intern for McGregor's dance company, Random, while I was studying abroad in London during college. I was living a dancer's dream there, commuting by Tube to Sadler's Wells Theatre by day, where Random is the resident company, and taking classes by night at Pineapple Dance Studio in the quaint Covent Garden. I was amazed with McGregor's talent then, and continue to be consumed with wonderment with every project he takes part in, which most recently was for the opening ceremonies of the World Swimming Championships in Rome:

McGregor's style, one that I believe competes to being the most unique and artistic of our time, is to use dance as a way embrace, question, and challenge aspects of being human. This perspective on dance as an organic art form along with a voluminous confidence (in personality and in the work) is one of the most appealing aspects, to me, about McGregor's work. I can't get enough of this guy. I want to drink him in, in ridiculous hope that some residue of his gold (which everything he puts his mind to turns into) will pool up in my gut, constructing a temple of genius there, so that I may become an enlightened (or golden), McGregorite. One blogger describes seeing his work for the first time in Proprius, a dance including London school kids age 8-14:

Wayne’s movement style is very familiar to me – a way of doing trust falls, of lifting and carrying other dancers, of turning people using your heels, of balancing in a way that’s just not quite standard in modern dance – a way I find far more intimate and involved than most modern dance, and certainly ballet – that totally says, “This is something Wayne McGregor created.” It’s a language that is as clearly itself as Chinese or Japanese – I would never mistake it for Korean just because it was in a different context. And it’s difficult, and it’s, I think, not something people wrap their heads around easily – it doesn’t really have a basis in the “language of dance” that people outside of modern dance aficionados have in their heads (think of ballroom dancing or club dancing or even how people dance in musicals – it’s not modern dance at all).

I agree that his work is a recognizable language, and would argue that it is modern dance, possibly postmodern. A world in which movement is art and life informs the dance.

Years ago when I was the intern, I remember much of McGregor's choreography was influenced and inspired by computer software programs that bend the body, on screen, in impossible and unthinkable ways. McGregor's recipe for choreography also adds quality dancers with strong, very thin and flexible bodies, music and sounds by Scanner, and a splash of artistic lighting. The result is genius.

Proven: Dance Combats Dementia

2009-07-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

For hundreds of years dance manuals and other writings have lauded the health benefits of dancing, usually as physical exercise. More recently we've seen research on further health benefits of dancing, such as stress reduction and increased serotonin level, with its sense of well-being.

Then most recently we've heard of another benefit: Frequent dancing apparently makes us smarter. A major study added to the growing evidence that stimulating one's mind can ward off Alzheimer's disease and other dementia, much as physical exercise can keep the body fit.

You've probably heard about the New England Journal of Medicine report on the effects of recreational activities on mental acuity in aging. Here it is in a nutshell.

The 21-year study of senior citizens, 75 and older, was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, funded by the National Institute on Aging, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Their method for objectively measuring mental acuity in aging was to monitor rates of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

The study wanted to see if any physical or cognitive recreational activities influenced mental acuity. They discovered that some activities had a significant beneficial effect. Other activities had none.

They studied cognitive activities such as reading books, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards and playing musical instruments. And they studied physical activities like playing tennis or golf, swimming, bicycling, dancing, walking for exercise and doing housework.

One of the surprises of the study was that almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia. There can be cardiovascular benefits of course, but the focus of this study was the mind. There was one important exception: the only physical activity to offer protection against dementia was frequent dancing.

Reading - 35% reduced risk of dementia

Bicycling and swimming - 0%

People who played the hardest gained the most: For example, seniors who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a 47% lower risk of dementia than those who did the puzzles once a week.

Playing golf - 0%

Dancing frequently - 76%.
That was the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or physical.

Quoting Dr. Joseph Coyle, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who wrote an accompanying commentary:
"The cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are critical to these activities, are remarkably plastic, and they rewire themselves based upon their use."

And from from the study itself, Dr. Katzman proposed these persons are more resistant to the effects of dementia as a result of having greater cognitive reserve and increased complexity of neuronal synapses. Like education, participation in some leisure activities lowers the risk of dementia by improving cognitive reserve.

Read more of Richard Powers' article here.

Tips on How to Mentally Boost your Self Esteem

2009-07-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I realize that I bombard myself with an onslaught of harsh, critical, and negative thoughts. "Why haven't you finished your degree yet?!" or "If you looked like that, you'd be so much happier." If I don't feel good about myself or have confidence in my abilities, many other pieces in my life's puzzle are unable to thrive. With a little kindness, understanding, and self love, I am able to be comfortable and confident in the person I am.

In the hospital, I work with many depressed patients and eating disorder patients who could benefit from a little boost in their self esteem and self image. As a dance therapy student and intern, it is important that I be healthy in these ways so that I am able to help others on their path to wellness.

Here are a list of 7 things you can do to mindfully boost self-esteem according to PsychCentral:

Write it down - In working with erroneous negative self-judgments, it is a great idea to actually write them down. Writing them down on paper separates them from the emotion and also creates a pause so you can reflect on the meaning of whether this judgment is even accurate or not. We also can come to a place where we don’t have to ruminate about it because we already have it down.

Ask the question - Is this just a well worn habit of my mind to think this way? Do the facts of the situation support this? Are there alternative thoughts here?
Question your mood - Be aware of how you are feeling. Ask yourself, if I were feeling well right now, would I see this the same way? This gets at the heart of thoughts being just transient mental events and not facts. This helps the thought not be quite as sticky.

Question the source - Where did I originally get this message? Sometimes we can look back to our earliest relationships or traumas and notice that where having this thought and attitude helped us cope as children, it is an old coping habit that is no longer effective or helpful right now. Gaining this perspective can support us in letting go of it.

Make a list of what you like about yourself - This may be a difficult one, but after each thought you write down, take a moment with it and notice what it feels like to even write it down. Expand this list by taking anothe perspective. Ask what your friends would say about you? If you have difficulty with this, ask them in person, by phone, email or text.

Create a file - Therese Borchard writes about how her therapist suggested she create a self-esteem file. Each time people say something positive about you, put it in the file. Make it a practice to look at this file daily. To add some mindfulness to it, notice your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that arise while writing in the file and also while re-reading it.

Lovingkindness - Many people wish they were well, happy, healthy, free from fear, free from the torment of that inner critic. So add to this list what you wish for yourself and say it like this, “May I be healthy, may I be happy, may I be free from fear, may I be free from my harsh inner critic.” After reading the list over each day, pause, and then intentionally repeat these words and aspirations of lovingkindness to yourself.

Know that this is a practice in loving yourself. Allow yourself to settle into whatever arises for you in this process. When you wander off and don’t stick to this, that is perfectly fine. As soon as you notice that you’ve wandered from the path, you are present and can now invite yourself to start it up again.

Calling all Alternate Route Students!

2009-07-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

Have you registered as an alternate route student with the American Dance Therapy Association?

I spent this past weekend in Claremont, California, for the first half of a course on Dance / Movement Therapy with Children and Adolescents.

Some of us, myself included, were meeting for our first course in dance therapy (see earlier blog posts regarding low enrollment in the Northern California classes). We alternate route students were reminded to email the ADTA AND send in a hard copy declaration of beginning the process of becoming Dance Therapist Registered (DTR). The ADTA is in the process of modifying and changing DTR requirements, so if you get your letter to them now (and soon) you will most likely not be responsible for the changes they make in the future.

Here is some helpful information:

Email the ADTA office: info@adta.org (you may need to ask for a specific name of who to send your email and letter to.)

The ADTA national office address to send the hard copy of your letter:
10632 Little Patuxent Parkway
Suite 108
Columbia, MD 21044-3263
Fax: (410) 997-4048
Telephone: (410) 997-4040

If you have questions about being credentialed as a dance therapist, contact Gabrielle Kaufman, head of the credentialing committee at dmt@leventhal.com .

To email CMER instructor Janet Lester, ADTR, PsyD: janetlester@earthlink.com .

Remember to also join the ADTA as a student here! You will get 50% off membership as a student member.

Enjoy the dance!

Dolores Park Dancer

2009-07-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

When I saw this guy set up his sound system and begin to dance in San Francisco's Dolores Park on a sunny Saturday, I didn't quite know if I should join him or observe him. Then I decided that I should videotape him to share it with all tens of you out there reading my blog. He was very entertaining!
Thank you, Dolores Park dancer man, for your intriguing moves and engaging smile. I imagine it was quite therapeutic for you.

Dolores Park Dancer from blairingrid on Vimeo.

S.T.O.P. Right There

2009-07-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately with a myriad of tasks and deadlines. Many times, I feel as though I resemble a chicken with its head cut off, running here and there mindlessly (or headlessly rather), which creates a cycle of not being in the moment, in my mind, or in my body. One challenge I have with my schedule is to create time for mindfulness and meditation. Mindfulness exercises are a great way to bring your mind into your body, ease stress, anxiety and depression, and gain some perspective on things. I try to be creative and resourceful in how to bring in mindfulness--while eating, dancing, walking, standing in line at the grocery store, etc.--but please let me know if you have any creative ideas for carving out time to breathe and become embodied during your day.

Next time you find yourself rushing around like a chicken with your head cut off, try to S.T.O.P.:

S - Stop what you are doing, put things down for a minute.

T - Take a breath. Breathe normally and naturally and follow your breath coming in and of your nose. You can even say to yourself “in” as you’re breathing in and “out” as you’re breathing out if that helps with concentration.

O - Observe your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You can reflect about what is on your mind and also notice that thoughts are not facts and they are not permanent. If the thought arises that you are inadequate, just notice the thought, let it be, and continue on. Notice any emotions that are there and just name them. Recent research out of UCLA says that just naming your emotions can have a calming effect. Then notice your body. Are you standing or sitting? How is your posture? Any aches and pains.

P - Proceed with something that will support you in the moment. Whether that is talking to a friend or just rubbing your shoulders.

The Road Never Traveled

2009-07-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

This blog was originally created as a way for me to communicate and share my process of becoming a dance therapist in California. Since there are no approved graduate programs in this state (yet), I have chosen a Robert Frost kind of path--one which is not paved, definitely a road less traveled--to make my dream a reality.

However, my road, as the first student to undergo the Lesley University & Tamalpa Institute graduate school program, appears to need to be carved out with machetes. There's an overgrown forest and I'm fighting to blaze my own trail, it's not only less traveled, as Mr. Frost would say, it's never been traveled. And I'm not so sure I would recommend this path to you. There have been some major scares, terrors, mis-communications, and redundancies. You can read more about me in my previous blog posts.

In addition to my graduate school work, I have signed up for CMERs program to become certified as DTR (dance therapist registered), so that I'm credentialed with the American Dance Therapy Association. And I'm halfway through my 700 hour internship doing dance/movement therapy at a hospital in Berkeley. Bring it on! I want to be a dance therapist!!!

But first there was a hiccup in my proposed thesis research involving human subjects, and now I have just received news that CMERs program is not happening due to low enrollment. C'mon Northern California, wake up and join the dance! Thus, I will now be commuting to Southern California to attend the alternate route courses there one weekend a month for the next 18 months.

Like a whirling dervish who can't seem to become enlightened, there are so many pieces and components to this degree and the process of becoming certified with the ADTA, so much money and time and energy spent, it is literally dizzying. It seems as though this road will never end.

But amidst all this frustration and difficulty, I choose to dance. I will be dancing across the forest of the great state of California to live my dream of becoming a dance therapist. Won't you join me?

Michael Jackson Dance Quote

2009-07-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion, when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The creator and the creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing— until there is only. . .the dance.

Michael Jackson 1992

Post Modern Dance Video

2009-07-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a video montage of post modern dance history for your Wednesday.

Michael Jackson is Dead and the World Dances

2009-06-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

I grew up during the height of Michael Jackson's solo career, and like most people alive in that time, I literally wore out my Thriller cassette tape. Twice.
I watched his videos over and over again--each time my older sister turning out the lights in hopeful anticipation of scaring the crap out of me during Thriller, and always succeeding--while I studied Michael's choreography with wonder and amazement at *how* he could get his body to move in truly skilled and unique ways. The King of Pop was also the King of Dance.

And now, sadly, he will no longer dance for us. But the whole world seems to be dancing for him. Masses of people all over the world, including New York and San Francisco, are gathering together to grieve, to sing, and especially to dance in remembrance of Michael Jackson.
And this is why I am becoming a dance therapist. Because even if people don't always realize it on a cognitive level, their bodies instinctually want and need to dance. They dance for grievance. They dance for closure and connection. They dance for memory, and honor, and respect, and love. They dance to make sad news a little bit lighter. They dance to heal.

Why do YOU Dance?

2009-06-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

The folks at Jacob's Pillow Dance Co have started asking this question, and I would like to ask it, too. So, why do YOU dance?

I dance because it makes me think and connect or care about what I'm thinking. I feel better. I feel more there, alive. I smile and I smile hard and harder. I love the sensation of movement itself. For me, moving has something to do with being free and being honest and being yourself.
- Anonymous

Because it feels good and natural.
- Clare O'Donnell via Facebook

Because it makes me happy - it's the expression of life!
- Tracy Frederickson via Facebook

I dance, because it makes me happy and it's in my blood :)
- Kris Nobles via Facebook

There is no other way to express the things that can only be expressed through dance.
- Kaity Barnes via Facebook

I dance because there is something inside me that wants out - it wants to move and express and be beautiful and feel good.
- Anonymous

Because without it, my soul is incomplete.
- Carla Santia via Facebook

Because my body loves to express stories.
- Frederic Troadec via Facebook

"i don't know what it is, but i need it" ~antonio gades, "carmen"
- Ed Young via Facebook

Because there's no greater feeling in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Miriam Louie Brown via Facebook

Paying it Forward -- with Art!

2009-06-20T09:02:00.001-07:00

This week, the staff at the hospital were encouraged to "Pay it Forward." Based on the 2000 movie, everyone was asked to say something they appreciate about a colleague, to promote staff rapport and overall happiness in the workplace. It works!

I witnessed people sharing their gratitude for others regarding specific situations in the past, for being consistently prepared and professional, and for always being friendly and approachable. The day to day grind at the hospital can be challenging. Especially now, in this era of short inpatient stays due to insurance companies and economic crises, there are more acute patients coming in for a shorter period of time, staff shortages, the occasional news of the death of a former patient, and a lot of overall stress. For everyone.

So what can we do? Personally, I believe gratitude is good for the body and mind, and thus, 'paying it forward' and participating in random acts of kindness and art are positive ways we can make the world a better place.

Psychology Today's blog post by Cathy Malchiodi on Random Acts of Art focuses on the importance of sharing creativity:

"Gratitude is a practice of giving thanks, appreciating others, and acknowledging the wonders of life. It's time to make a gratitude adjustment and carry out random acts of art - a commitment to compassion in action through creative imagination.
In Buddhism, a powerful expression of compassion in action is given by the bodhisattva, a person who has dedicated his or her life to the service of others and vowed to ease suffering of others whenever possible. The Dalai Lama points out that taking the bodhisattva vow doesn't force one into a life of service to others, but it does set a life path for offering acts of charity. It can also involve "random acts of kindness," simple actions on behalf of others, often performed anonymously. To me, these are also acts of gratitude -- the belief in both the goodness of others and yourself."

Read the rest of the article here. And share your art with someone today!

Great Blogs on Dance Therapy

2009-06-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of research about how to become a dance/movement therapist, but one of the best ways for me to learn is through direct experience.

Here are three great blogs written by dance therapists about the work:

*Somatic Revelations

*Moving Towards Understanding

*Musings of a Dance/Movement Therapist

Happy reading!

Dance Therapy in the UK: BBC Article

2009-06-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

Dancing may be a way to tone the body, but it is also a dynamic way to exercise the mind, say health experts. Read the BBC article about Reach4Dance's initiative to bring dance as therapy to the mentally ill.

What exactly is Dance/Movement Therapy again?

2009-06-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

Read another interview with a DMT here.

Susan Kleinman and Hope for Anorexia

2009-06-09T21:12:00.001-07:00

In March, I had the opportunity to attend a dance/movement therapy workshop with Susan Kleinman, ADTR, on embodiment as a therapist. Ms. Kleinman works with eating disorders at the Renfrew Center in Florida, and has published and presented extensively in this field of work.

Here is an excerpt from one of Kleinman's articles on body image from the Anorexia Hope Blog.

Great Intro to the Work of Dance/Movement Therapy

2009-05-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview with Dr. Lori Baudino about her work as a dance/movement therapist in Los Angeles.

Become Certified in Dance/Movement Therapy!

2009-05-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

The Center for Movement Education and Research

Explore Dance/Movement Therapy this summer
Courses in Northern & Southern California

>
> Northern CA held at Sonoma State University
> July 10, 11, 12 & August 7, 8, 9, 2009
>
Theoretical Origins of Dance/Movement Therapy: Foundations Level I
This is an introductory level course reviewing the theoretical origins of
dance/movement therapy as a therapeutic modality. The foundational tenets
defining dance/movement therapy as a creative, healing and integrating
process will be presented in relation to self and other awareness and
insight oriented symbolic functioning. The course will review the history
and conceptual development of the major pioneers in the field and the
application of their work within various settings. Additionally the
cultural, ritual, modern dance and nonverbal communication historical
elements will be reviewed.
>
> Course Hours: 45 Contact Hours
> Course Instructor and Credentials: Janet Lester, Psy.D., ADTR
> Dates: July 10, 11,12 & August 7, 8, 9, 2009
> Location: Sonoma State University
> Times: 9-5:30 Friday-Sunday
> Fee: $1200.00/ 45 Hour CE Credit for MFT/LCSW (Provider #3888)
>
> Southern CA held at Scripps College
> July 24, 25 & August 21, 22, 2009
>
> Dance/Movement Therapy with CHILDREN/ADOLESCENTS
This DMT theory and practice course will cover the specific developmental
needs of children and adolescents and the DMT skills pertinent to working
with this population age group. The course will include movement assessment,
diagnosis and treatment planning specific to the needs of
children/adolescents including child/adolescent psychiatric populations.
Additionally, the clinical methods, leadership skills, and framework for
understanding the client individually, within groups, families and systems
will be reviewed.

> Course Hours: 30 Contact Hours
> Course Instructor and Credentials: Janet Lester, Psy.D., ADTR
> Dates: July 24, 25 & August 21, 22, 2009
> Location: Scripps College Richardson Dance Studio 1030 Columbia Avenue
> Claremont, CA 91011
> Times: 9-5:30 Saturday-Sunday
> Fee: $750/30 Hour CE Credit for MFT/LCSW (Provider #3888)
This course meets the qualifications for 30 hours of continuing
education credit for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board
of Behavioral Sciences (Provider #3888).

These courses have been approved by the American Dance Therapy
Association as meeting requirements for the Alternate Route D.T.R.
Credential.

For full details on coursework and application, go to:
http://www.movement-education.org/courses_alternateroute

DMT Director of Southern California Courses:
Pamela Fairweather, ADTR, NCC

>> DMT Director of Northern California Courses:
Janet Lester, PsyD, ADTR

For Course Fees and Refund Policy go to:
http://www.movement-education.org/courses_alternateroute.html

Contact Information:
To apply for courses go to: http://www.movement-education.org/index.html
or write to:
Judy Gantz-CMER Director
POB 2001
Sebastopol, CA 95473
judy@movement-education.org
(310) 477-9535

Body Movements Help Problem-Solving

2009-05-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

By RICK NAUERT, PH.D. Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 13, 2009

As most exercisers have experienced, performance of physical activity is often accompanied by clarity of thought. A new study supports this premise as investigators demonstrated that the brain can use bodily cues to help understand and solve complex problems.

The study, appearing in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, is the first to show that a person’s ability to solve a problem can be influenced by how he or she moves.

“Our manipulation is changing the way people think,” said University of Illinois psychology professor Alejandro Lleras, who conducted the study with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Laura Thomas.

“In other words, by directing the way people move their bodies, we are – unbeknownst to them – directing the way they think about the problem.”

Even after successfully solving the problem, almost none of the study subjects became consciously aware of any connection between the physical activity they engaged in and the solution they found.

“The results are interesting both because body motion can affect higher order thought, the complex thinking needed to solve complicated problems, and because this effect occurs even when someone else is directing the movements of the person trying to solve the problem,” Lleras said.

The new findings offer new insight into what researchers call “embodied cognition,” which describes the link between body and mind, Lleras said.

“People tend to think that their mind lives in their brain, dealing in conceptual abstractions, very much disconnected from the body,” he said.

“This emerging research is fascinating because it is demonstrating how your body is a part of your mind in a powerful way. The way you think is affected by your body and, in fact, we can use our bodies to help us think.”

In the study, the researchers asked study subjects to tie the ends of two strings together. The strings dangled from ceiling rafters and were so far apart that a person grasping one could not reach the other. A few tools were also available: a paperback book, a wrench, two small dumbbells and a plate.

Subjects were given a total of eight, two-minute sessions to solve the problem, with 100 seconds devoted to finding a solution, interrupted by 20 seconds of exercise.

“Our cover story was that we were interested in the effects of exercise on problem-solving,” Lleras said.

Some subjects were told to swing their arms forward and backward during the exercise sessions, while others were directed to alternately stretch one arm, and then the other, to the side.

To prevent them from consciously connecting these activities to the problem of the strings, the researchers had them count backwards by threes while exercising.

The subjects in the arm-swinging group were more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem, which required attaching an object to one of the strings and swinging it so that it could be grasped while also holding the other string.

By the end of the 16-minute deadline, participants in the arm-swinging group were 40 percent more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem.

“By making you swing your arms in a particular way, we’re activating a part of your brain that deals with swinging motions,” Lleras said. “That sort of activity in your brain then unconsciously leads you to think about that type of motion when you’re trying to solve the problem.”

Previous studies of embodied cognition have demonstrated that physical movements can aid in learning and memory or can change a person’s perceptions or attitudes toward information, Lleras said.

Other studies by Lleras and his colleagues also have shown that directing a person’s eye movements or attention in specific patterns can also aid in solving complex problems, but this is the first study to show that directed movements of the body can, outside of conscious awareness, guide higher-order cognitive processing, he said.

“We view this as a really important new window into understanding the complexity of human thought,” he said. “I guess another take-home message is this: If you are stuck trying to solve a problem, take a break. Go do something else. This will ensure that the next time you think about that problem you will literally approach it with a different mind. And that may help!”

Columbia College Chicago

2009-05-17T10:20:00.001-07:00

Columbia College has an approved and accredited DMT graduate program, and here is an incredibly informative and well written article about dance/movement therapy and using the body to heal the mind.

June 6th Dance/Movement Therapy Event in Claremont

2009-05-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTER OF THE
AMERICAN DANCE THEARAPY ASSOCIATION
and
THE CENTER FOR MOVEMENT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
PRESENT:

Moving Forward
3.5 Continuing Education Conference
Attendance of this conference meets the qualifications for 3.5 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (Provider #3888).

June 6, 2009
9:00 - 3:30
Claremont, California

Schedule

9:00 - 9:30 Registration/Check In

9:30 -10:15 Welcome & CCCL Forum

10:30 – 12:30 Morning Workshop
(Choose A1 or A2)

12:30 -1:30 Lunch ($10 – preordered or on your own)

1:30 -3:00 Keynote Workshop by Warren Lamb

3:00-3:30 Raffle and Concluding Remarks

A1
A Creative Movement Process-
From Inner Listening to Form
Paula Perlman
Bringing something to form is part of the creative process and the integration of our experiences. After deepening our capacity for “inner listening” by working with concrete and abstract images we will bring a movement experiential to form that works toward an integration of self. The movement approaches of Alma Hawkins and Mary Starks Whitehouse are influential in this presentation.

Paula Perlman, LMFT (#02136), ADTR and CLMA (certified Laban Movement Analyst) teaches creative movement with children in private and public schools and an art center in the inner-city of Los Angeles. She also works with seniors as a Dance/Movement Therapist and movement specialist. She is a faculty member at the Center for Movement Education and Research instructing in the Alternate Route Training for Dance/Movement Therapy. She is co-creator of a professional development program for teachers, “How to use movement in the classroom to teach curriculum and the arts- K-5th.”

A2
Autism: Breaking Down the Disorder
Dr. Lori Baudino

Dr. Lori Baudino, ADTR, discusses her clinical work with young children given the diagnosis of Autism. She reveals 5 categorizations of the disorder, which can be used to further understand children with this diagnosis and the empowering support that clinicians can provide to parents and professionals. A clinical case presentation will provide in depth discussion into one of the categories: Trauma. In addition, Dr Baudino will describe the use of Dance/Movement Therapy in the treatment and intervention for these individualized children.

Dr. Lori Baudino has been a practicing clinician for the past six years, providing services in Los Angeles, California, Washington, DC, Melbourne, Australia, and Ghana, Africa. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology and her Masters in Dance/Movement Therapy. This therapeutic approach identifies symptoms and creates ways to work toward incorporating movement expression into everyday action and also provides a place for self exploration, which promotes well being and self awareness. Dr. Baudino worked extensively in psychiatric hospitals with adolescent and adult populations and rehabilitation centers for pain management. Dr. Baudino has specialized in supervising, facilitating, and providing treatment for children with special needs and their families. She has worked as the coordinator for Behavior Intervention Programs within the home/school setting and Psychological services for aiding families with special needs children in support groups for parenting from the inside out.

Keynote Address:
Effort/Shape Compatibility
Warren Lamb

Warren Lamb studied at the Art of Movement Studio, Machester, England (1946-1950) then continued as apprentice to Rudolf Laban in developing Laban/Lawrence Personal Effort Assessment.

After Laban’s death in 1958 Lamb taught Effort/Shape to Irmgard Bartenieff and helped her form the Effort/Shape Department of the Dance Notation Bureau in New York, which later became the Laban Institute of Movement Studies.

Lamb also taught Dr. Judith Kestenberg and worked with her Child Development Group in Long Island, New York for many years on the development of the Kestenberg Movement Profile.

Lamb was responsible for developing Action Profiling, now re-named Movement Pattern Analysis and formed Warren Lamb Associates, based in London, to apply it, primarily in the field of Business Management, but also in other fields.

He is now seeking to gain more recognition for Movement Study as a discipline in its own right and is also working on the contribution to Decision-Making Theory and to Gender Studies.

Lamb’s work is documented in multiple books and DVDs.

Directions to the Joslyn Senior Center:
Joslyn Senior Center,
660 N. Mountain Ave.
Claremont,CA 91711

Located in Linkin Park, Claremont, CA

From Northern CA
I-5 South
I-210 E (Signs for Pasadena/I-210)
Take exit 47 for Foothill Blvd toward La Verne, Keep right at the fork to continue toward CA 66/Foothill Blvd
Turn right at N Mountain Ave (destination on the right).

From Los Angeles
Take I-10 East toward San Bernardino
Take exit 46 for Towne Ave
Turn left at N Towne Ave, Turn right at E Harrison Ave
Turn left at N Mountain Ave (destination on the right).

From San Diego
Take I-15 North
Take exit onto I-10 W toward Los Angeles
Take exit 47 for Indian Hill Blvd toward Claremont
Turn right at S Indian Hill Blvd (signs for Claremont)
Turn left at W Bonita Ave, Turn right at N Mountain Ave

For registration information and questions, email blairwilliamsca@yahoo.com .

See you there!

Posture Matters

2009-05-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

Posture does make a difference. In the hospital, patients say sitting up straight helps them feel emotionally "confident" "good" and "happy." Good posture is good for every body.

The Epoch Times writes:
"Good posture denotes a positive image, sending signals to the world signifying confidence and ability. Posture is not just physical, but an indicator of mood, strength, weakness, intention, and ability."

Here's the full article.

Interested in becoming a Dance/Movement Therapist?

2009-05-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I started my blog for anyone interested in going into the fascinating field of dance/movement therapy (DMT). If you live in California, we have the particular challenge of becoming certified through the American Dance Therapy Association, since there are no approved graduate level programs in DMT yet in the state. Thus, alternate route certification is possible, and the Center for Movement Education and Research (CMER) has programs available in both Northern and Southern California.

Check here for information on CMERs alternate route training, including dates of the next program offerings and introduction to DMT workshops (highly recommended).

There is also information on the ADTA website regarding general answers about the career of DMT, educational opportunities for certification, recommended reading, and much more.

Britney Spears on Dancing as Therapy

2009-05-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

After hearing about my career goal of becoming a dance/movement therapist, my cousin told me about a quote from MTV's documentary, Britney: For the Record, where Britney talks about expressing her life issues through dance.

She said: "Everybody has a world that they create around themselves. If I have a lot of nervous energy, when I start dancing it goes away and I just feel emotion."

"People think that if you go through something in your life you need to go to therapy, but for me art is therapy because you are expressing yourself in such a spiritual way."

"Sometimes you don't need to use words to go through what you need to go through. Sometimes it's an emotion that you need to feel when you dance, that you touch on and the only way you can touch it is if you move a certain way."

We Shake with Joy: A Poem by Mary Oliver

2009-05-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

We Shake with Joy
by Mary Oliver

We shake with joy, we shake with grief.
What a time they have, these two
housed as they are in the same body.

Best Yoga Video

2009-05-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

I have a really hard time sticking to a yoga video routine. There's something about the ritual of going to a class with others, getting corrections and attention from a live teacher that I love. If I am in my living room doing a video I become easily distracted by time, what I need to do, phone calls, etc. But this video from the Monterey Channel is done by one of the best yoga teachers I've ever had. If I can't go to her class, this video is the very next best thing.

Namaste.

http://www.ampmedia.org/asx/11785.asx

Woo! More Dance/Movement Therapy Video

2009-05-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

Dancing as Liberation by Victoria Day

2009-04-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

There are countries where it is a punishable crime to dance.

Women must cover their heads,
never raise their voice in song and
never ever display such immoral conduct as dancing.

Those who forbid the dance forbid life.

If they tied me in ropes
Held a gun to my head
And forbid me to dance
I would dance in my head.

If I woke up tomorrow
Without limbs that would move
I would dance in my soul.

If dance was taken from me
I would snatch it back.
I would dance with my eyes.
I would dance in my breathing.
I would dance completely still.
I would dance with the atoms moving inside me.

I would dance in the mingling of voices around me
Layering transcending swooping into each other.
I would dance in the red-blushed sky that caresses the tree line.
I would dance on the call of the geese
that cut through the sky above me,
my winged partners in the dance.

If dance was taken from me
I would snatch it back.

I would dance passion.
I would dance pain.
I would dance magick.
I would dance at my labor and dance at my rest.
I would dance my power.
I would dance my palpable joy of existence.

In some countries it is illegal to dance.
It is illegal to display such immoral conduct.

Dancing is an act of liberation.
It is for those who must dance in stillness
that I open myself up and dance.

Memory, Emotion, and Therapy in Music

2009-04-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Currently, there is A LOT of information out about music and the brain. I've been reading Oliver Sack's book, Musicophilia, which covers many different aspects of how the brain remembers music, including those catchy advertising jingles, or how a song will pop into one's head out of nowhere, or how someone can be transported back in time to a specific time and place when hearing a song.

Dance/Movement Therapists see the transformative effects of music on people every day. When the sounds of James Brown or Al Green bellow from the boombox in the hospital, many patients become alive when they were not before. It is the music many times that physically gets people out of their seats and moving, singing along, and even smiling. The staff will join in at times, bouncing to their own beats, joining in on the group when they weren't before, for a moment or two of connection to self and to the dance/movement therapy group.

Music and dance go together. Thus, research on the brain's effects of listening to music, especially those when hearing a particular song that one has not heard in a long time, is pertinent to our research as dance/movement therapists.

Here's a related article by Discover magazine.

Your Life in Your Art

2009-04-14T10:14:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine from grad school choreographed and performed a truly inspiring and comical life/art dance here in SF. View it here.

What Exactly is Dance/Movement Therapy Anyway?

2009-04-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

Dance/Movement Therapists have to explain what they do a lot. This is a challenge, since DMT doesn't always fit into a cookie cutter type answer, and its very difficult to explain with words at times. My supervisor says that talking about DMT to others takes practice and time, the more familiar with leading groups, the easier it is to communicate what it is and how movement can heal and be therapeutic. Here is a very complete explanation of the work, found on the Coventry website:

What is it?

Dance therapy (also called dance/movement therapy) is the use of choreographed or improvised movement as a way of treating social, emotional, cognitive, and physical problems. Throughout the ages, people of many cultures have used dance to express powerful emotions, tell stories, treat illness, celebrate important events, and maintain communal bonds. Dance therapy harnesses this power of movement in a therapeutic setting and uses it to promote personal growth, health, and well-being.

Dance as therapy came into existence as a marriage of sorts between modern dance and psychiatry. Its was pioneered by Marian Chace (1896-1970), who studied dance in New York City before establishing her own studio in Washington, DC, in the 1930s. Because Chase's dance classes provided unique opportunities for self-expression, communication, and group interaction, psychiatrists in Washington began sending patients to her.

By the mid-1940s Chase was giving lectures and demonstrations, and other professional dancers soon followed her lead, using dance to help people with an array of emotional, mental, and physical problems. It was not until 1966, when the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) was founded, that dance therapy gained professional recognition. Today the ADTA has nearly 1,200 members in 46 states and 20 countries around the world.

How Does It Work?

Dance therapy is based on the premise that the body and mind are interrelated. Dance therapists believe that mental and emotional problems are often held in the body in the form of muscle tension and constrained movement patterns. Conversely, they believe that the state of the body can affect attitude and feelings, both positively and negatively.

Dance movements promote healing in a number of ways. Moving as a group brings people out of isolation, creates powerful social and emotional bonds, and generates the good feelings that come from being with others. Moving rhythmically eases muscular rigidity, diminishes anxiety, and increases energy. Moving spontaneously helps people learn to recognize and trust their impulses, and to act on or contain them as they choose. Moving creatively encourages self-expression and opens up new ways of thinking and doing.

On a purely physical level, dance therapy provides the benefits of exercise: improved health, well-being, coordination, and muscle tone. On an emotional level, it helps people feel more joyful and confident, and allows them to explore such issues as anger, frustration, and loss that may be too difficult to explore verbally. On a mental level, dance therapy seeks to enhance cognitive skills, motivation, and memory.

Dance therapists can also address specific problems in specific ways. For example, to help a patient reduce stress, a dance therapist would first identify how the person's body reacts to stress, then explore specific movement techniques to increase circulation, deepen breathing, and reduce muscle tension.

What You Can Expect

Your dance therapy experience will depend on your ailment, whether you work with a dance therapist in private practice or in the context of a treatment team, and whether you are the only patient or part of a group. And naturally different dance therapists have different styles. You need absolutely no previous dance training to benefit from dance therapy.

Generally speaking, however, for the initial consultation, you will meet with the dance therapist in a dance studio. You should wear comfortable clothing for this and all subsequent sessions. First, the therapist will talk with you about your needs and your reasons for wanting treatment. Next, the therapist may ask you to walk around the studio in order to analyze your body shape, posture, and movements: Is your body erect or caved in? Do you reach out or hold yourself in? Do you move in a fluid or restricted way? Finally, the dance therapist will discuss your treatment goals with you, and the two of you might arrive at an agreement regarding the duration and nature of the therapy. You should review your goals with the therapist periodically to see if you are meeting them.

In your regular sessions, your dance therapist will watch you dance, encourage you to express your feelings through movement, and, at times, imitate your movements (this is called "empathic mirroring") to establish rapport and make you feel accepted. The therapist may also try to help you connect your thoughts, feelings, and memories to your movements.

If you are part of a dance therapy group, the dance therapist will typically assess how the group works together--how you all interact and share emotional expression through movement--and intervene or direct the action accordingly. For example, the therapist might introduce the idea of leading and following to help draw a member of the group out of isolation or self-preoccupation. The dance therapist might also employ equipment such as beanbags, balls, and stretch cloths to explore a theme, such as trust.

The number of sessions, both for individual and group work, will vary. You might have to commit to at least six months of treatment, depending on your ailment. The sessions are usually weekly, although this can vary as well.

Health Benefits

Dance therapy has a broad range of health benefits. It has been demonstrated to be clinically effective at improving body image, self-esteem, attentiveness, and communication skills. It can also reduce stress, fears and anxieties, as well as lessen feelings of isolation, body tension, chronic pain, and depression. In addition it can enhance the functioning of the body's circulatory and respiratory systems.

Dance therapy has also been shown to benefit adolescent and adult psychiatric patients, the learning disabled, the visually and hearing impaired, the mentally handicapped, and the elderly (especially those in nursing homes).

Proponents of dance therapy claim that it has also been used successfully to help people deal with brain injury, AIDS, arthritis, amputation, stroke, cancer, and a number of other physical ailments.

Unfortunately, there are relatively few reports of formal studies of dance therapy in medical conditions. One recent study showed that dance movement therapy significantly improved emotional responses in adolescents with mild depression. (1) A pilot study of another dance movement program improved the quality of life in 35 women who were survivors of breast cancer. (2) A review summarized clinical studies that supported the use of dance therapy in psychiatric disorders (psychosis, dementia, and neuroses), as well as in such conditions as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, and terminal illness. (3) One case study illustrated the benefits of dance/movement therapy in a patient with severe brain damage after head injury (4), and a brief study demonstrated improvements in verbal and nonverbal communication among laryngectomy patients after dance therapy. (5)

There are more reports featuring the benefits of dance programs, though you should be aware that these studies did not employ formal dance therapy. A 12-week program of Korean traditional dance improved balance and reduced healthcare utilization in elderly women. (6) Four sessions of social dancing appeared to support the feelings, communication, and behavior of 6 nursing home patients with dementia (7), and seniors who danced an average of 3 hours a week showed improvements in bone density. (8)

One reviewer concluded, "Dance may help the healing process as a person gains a sense of control through (1) possession by the spiritual in dance, (2) mastery of movement, (3) escape or diversion from stress and pain through a change in emotion, states of consciousness, and/or physical capability, and (4) confronting stressors to work through ways of handling their effects." (9)

Pilates Wonder Woman

2009-04-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

My fabulous Pilates instructor, who is the woman who certified me as an instructor, was interviewed in Pilates Pro magazine about the Franklin Method. It's a great interview! Read it here.

I am LOVING all this Dance Improv all over the world!

2009-04-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

Bay Area National Dance Week

2009-03-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

is April 24th - May 3rd, 2009!

What is National Dance Week, you ask?

About Bay Area National Dance Week, from the website:
• We envision a Bay Area that celebrates dance in all its forms.
• We envision a Bay Area that is passionate for, knowledgeable about, and participates in dance.
• We envision a Bay Area that values dance as a cornerstone of civic pride and identity.
• We envision a Bay Area that recognizes dance as a defining characteristic of our humanity.

The Bay Area has one of the largest, most active and thriving dance communities in the country. During Bay Area National Dance Week, participants and volunteers reaffirm our region’s commitment to dance, offering hundreds of free events.

This year's festival once again will offer a diverse roster of programs—including free classes, performances, rehearsals, lecture demonstrations and studio open houses—giving a wide-angle view of the many and varied styles of dance practiced in the region. Ranging from established company programs to one-time events, Bay Area National Dance Week is an opportunity for dance-lovers of all ages and experiences to take a grand tour of the many movement styles, including Argentine tango, classical Indian, jazz, hip hop, ballet, traditional hula, fire dance, Samba, modern, Chinese classical, belly dance, aerial dance, West African, contact improvisation and more!

Click here for more information, or to sign up for the newsletter.

Surf and Ocean Therapy

2009-03-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

When my husband comes back from surfing, he glows. It's as if the ocean coated his body with what I call "happy juice." He is invigorated; yet is calm, clear, and radiating well being from head to toe. Surfing makes him very happy.

There is something about this flow, motion of the wave to catching it to standing up on the board. To many, surfing is a soulful connection to nature and the earth, a therapeutic embrace, a bonding. Like a dance, the movement can be nourishing, grounding, connecting.

Waves are movement, energy. A surfer must catch the wave, feel the push of energy, hold on to it and ride it, and then let it go.

To me, surfing can be frightening. There are many unknowns: What's out there? How strong is the wave? Will I be gently pushed and pulled by the waves, or pummeled and thrashed around? And of course, the light, warm, calm Tropic waters are much more enticing than the cold, dark, vast (and sometimes shark filled) waters of Northern California.

But what is this fear all about? The same fear of the unknown I experience working in the hospital with the mentally ill? What, exactly, am I scared of? Death? Pain? Loss of control? Being 'pummeled'? Not being a strong enough swimmer?

When I do ride a wave, I feel a deeply gratifying sense of accomplishment, a feeling very difficult to describe with words. Similar to the way I feel after a day at the hospital, I feel strong and proud and confident. A sense that through movement, a deep connection to self, to others, and to world emerge.

The Jimmy Miller Foundation in Southern California is a nonprofit Ocean Therapy foundation, that enables children with physical and mental disabilities a "pure surfing experience." Check out their website here.

I think I need to get in the water more often...

DMT with Autistic Children

2009-03-26T14:35:00.001-07:00

DMT in Iowa

2009-03-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

Chair Workout

2009-03-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

Leading Dance/Movement Therapy groups in the hospital setting, we do a lot of movement warm-ups while seated. Here's an exercise video featuring a chair workout. The leader goes very quickly, perhaps too quickly, but there are some goodies here.

While I work on my paper...

2009-03-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

Even though I've been feeling a bit 'under the weather' and have a huge paper due in two weeks, I went to SF Ballet's Program 5 last night, the "All Morris" program, featuring three of Mark Morris's choreographic gems; A Garden, Joyride, and Sandpaper Ballet.
Mark Morris and his company have been doing a lot of work with using dance with people who have Parkinsons Disease. I have posted some of the articles and videos on this blog in past posts. I imagine the dance and movement with these non-dancers, used to rehabilitate and give expression, will be a future source of fascinating choreography. I hope.
SF Ballet is always a pleasure to watch, and its a real treat when I get to see any live performance, but Morris's choreography left me a bit confused. What was he trying to convey? In A Garden, for example, choreography was a blending of traditional and contemporary ballet, with very blah costumes (I especially was turned off by the color of the mens shirts). It seemed just a bit too scattered and arbitrary of a piece. It lacked a sense of cohesion and flavor until the pas-de-deux, which spurt out a bit more spice and chemistry.
The second piece was much more my personal style, very contemporary. The dancers were in incredibly shimmery-gold-spandex unitards that screamed the Star Wars' character, C-3PO in a much more oiled and smoothly sculpted body. There were digitally lit numbers that flickered and changed on the dancers' bellies, a statement of...something. Perhaps left to the audience's individual interpretations. The choreography and music were erratic and unique, heart-pounding and eye catching. To me, the movements, and especially the poses, echoed contemporary society's image-oriented obsession, a focus on numbers and flashy things. This is particularly interesting to me, considering the SF Ballet posters all around town, on buses, bus stop advertisements, taxis, and store windows, show the image of the principal ballerina, an emaciated arm outstretched, in an exasperated expression, and milky white skin pounded with blush.
To me, the antithesis of what (I hoped) Mark Morris's choreography conveyed.

I've gotta get to writing my paper, so my next few postings will be of the youtube videos I've been watching while I procrastinate. Here's one:

Everyone Can Dance

2009-03-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Marian Chace: Mother of Dance/Movement Therapy

2009-03-15T20:19:00.001-07:00

Here's an article from Time Magazine written in 1959 about Marian Chace. Marian was the first Dance/Movement therapist, who wrote extensively about her work in psychiatric hospitals. Read about her here.

Readings in the Creative Arts

2009-03-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Violin Therapy for drug addicts.

An article on the correlation between anxiety disorders and physical balance.

Children need more movement. And traditional classroom desks need a make-over.

THIS WEEKEND IN LONG BEACH...

2009-03-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

I am headed to Southern California for our first Califonia ADTA event of the year!
Susan Kleinman, MA, ADTR, NCC will give a presentation on:

"Becoming an Embodied Therapist: Accessing the Language of the Body in Treatment" THIS SATURDAY!

Date: March 7, 2009 Time: 1:30- 4:30 PM

Location: California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840-7201
Dance Studio in Dance Department/Dance Building
(Please see campus map for specific location)

This workshop presents an opportunity for mental health professionals to learn how to discover and trust their innate ability to “attend” empathically, respond authentically, and translate non-verbal experiences into cognitive insights. Experiential body/mind exercises based on dance/movement therapy principles will be used along with didactic presentation to integrate a more embodied approach into traditional psychotherapy theory and practice. Participants will learn how embodied methods can be used to treat eating disorders, addictions and trauma.

Susan Kleinman, MA, ADTR, NCC, is a dance/movement therapist for residential and outpatient services at The Renfrew Center of Florida. Ms. Kleinman is a trustee of the Marian Chace Foundation, a past president of the American Dance Therapy Association, and a past Chair of The National Coalition for Creative Arts Therapies. She is a co- editor of The Renfrew Center Foundation’s Healing Through Relationship Series, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health. She is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences.

Come early and participate in the Southern California Chapter Update and Social Hour in same building from 12:30-1:30 PM. Brown Bag encouraged. Snacks provided.

ADTA Refund Policy: $25 Administration Fee Charged. Absolutely no refund will be made after Feb 21st or for no-shows.

Please call Lora Wilson at 562-682-7761 if experience difficulty finding location of event.
At the door fees:
$50 SCCADTA member,
$60 Non-member,
Always $20 for students.

Hope to see you there!

May 30 Event!

2009-02-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

Special thanks to Nate Ludens for this AMAZING design.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

2009-02-25T07:22:00.001-08:00

In working with the eating disorders patients this week, my supervisor and I brought in women's magazines to have the patients cut out or tear 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' media images that they would then put into a collage together. In my experience, doing this exercise can have a way of clarifying inner issues of the body, and projecting them out onto paper. When done mindfully, this exercise can highlight ways in which we may be triggered by images.
In this era of normalized hatred of women's bodies, I want to share two youtube clips that I think everyone needs to see.

What I'm Reading

2009-02-24T16:15:00.000-08:00

High School Dance Concert

2009-02-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

I'm so proud of the high schoolers I substitute taught beginning, intermediate, and dance company classes to while their teacher was on maternity leave last fall. What an AMAZING job they all did performing in the Winter Dance Concert!

Wasted/Waisted Time

2009-02-17T10:42:00.000-08:00

My friend from graduate school is pioneering the Tamalpa Latin America program, and has chosen some images of me to include in the brochure, pamphlet, and website. The images are from my Level 1 performance, when my costume was a black trash bag and my theme was Wasted/Waisted Time.

Licensure and Certifications Demystified

2009-02-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

Dance/movement therapists are very educated people. We know from the ADTA website that to be a DTR or ADTR, alternate route students must have a master's degree (MS, MA, MEd) in a related field, but are other certifications necessary? Here are a few credentials dance therapists commonly have:

NCC. National Board for Certified Counselors.
MFT. Marriage Family Therapist.
LCSW. Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
LCAT. Licensed Creative Arts Therapist.
MSW. Master of Social Work.
CMA. Certified Movement Analyst.
LMHC. Licensed Mental Health Counselor.
LPC. Licensed Professional Counselor.
LMA. Laban Movement Analyst.

Somatic Movement Therapists also have a wide range of possible certifications and licensing, including:

ISMETA. International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.
REAT. Registered Expressive Arts Therapist.
RSMT. Registered Somatic Movement Therapist.
SMTT. Somatic Movement Therapy Training.

How is one supposed to choose what organization(s) they want to register with when there's all these possibilities? Very confusing, indeed!

Here in California, DMTs are not considered licensed therapists like they are in other states. The California Coalition for Counselor Licensure, or CCCL, is working with dance therapists to pass legislation to make dance/movement therapy . To learn more and to sign up for updates on licensure, visit their website.

If you want to become a licensed therapist in California, you will need your MFT (Marriage Family Therapist) license additionally to DMT alternate route work, OR you may want to get a PhD or PsyD in Clinical Psychology.

Good luck in your decision making!

Dance when you least expect it

2009-02-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the T-Mobile advertisement that took place at Liverpool station? It's fabulous! Watch it here and then watch the making of the advertisement here.

Dance Therapists Pulse for Peace

2009-02-02T20:19:00.001-08:00

On Barack Obama's inauguration day, dance therapists all over the country came together in movement. Here are some videos from DC, LA, and Merced:

DC.

LA.

Merced.

1980s Popculture and Dance

2009-01-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

In the 1980s, I was born and so was MTV. Movies and TV sitcoms were filled with dance and performance themes, like Fame, Kids Incorporated, and Star Search. Today's dance television includes So You Think You Can Dance?, Dancing With the Stars, America's Best Dance Crew, and the new Superstars of Dance.

One of the reasons I want to become a dance therapist, I think, is partly because of experiencing dance and movement as a tool to release emotion, express myself nonverbally, and to become more in tune with the world and myself, just like the characters in my favorite movies. Let's take a look at some of my favorite dance scenes in movies from the decade, shall we?

The Angry dance in Footloose,
The African Anteater Ritual dance in Can't Buy Me Love,
The Maniac dance in Flashdance.
The "nobody puts Baby in the corner" dance in Dirty Dancing,
The Dance TV contest in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,
The Saturday school dance in The Breakfast Club.