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?
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