Dance Movement Psychotherapy

When you are dancing, there are many things you can channel; emotions, memories, people, experiences, stories, the list goes on and on. These properties can be portrayed through movements, facial expressions, and music. Dancing can also portray conflict; such as the conflict between Ponyboy Curtis and Darry Curtis in S.E. Hinton’s beloved novel, The Outsiders. In our dance piece, titled, Hard to See, both the music and movements work in harmony to illustrate Darry and Ponyboy’s maturing relationship.

Meli’sa’ thesis provided supportive research regarding the history and successful dance therapy interventions for working with African American male youth. As an African American, I think it is important to provide other dance therapist information for working with African American and educate them about our culture.

This was in line with the societal idea of “playing” and finding ways to experiment with norms or popular beliefs. To prevent conforming to the pre-established rules of dance, Tharp tested the limitations and experimented with a range of new possibilities such as combining genres and creating pieces with diverse sets of

When looking at the periods of dance it can be separated into Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Pre-Romantic, Romantic, Russian Classic, and Ballet Russes before we reach the Twentieth Century. Ballet began during what is known as the Italian Renaissance, and permeated French culture by Catherine de Medici’s marriage to the King of France. The very first endorsed “ballet”, Le Ballet Comique de la Reine performed on October 15, 1581, marked the beginning of theatrical and technical dance performances. During this time our first prominent ballet masters came about, including; Balthasar Beaujoyeaux, Pierre Beauchamp, Domenico of Ferrara, and Guglielmo Ebreo, to name a few. These early ballet masters created and built upon social dance and turned it into a technical spectacle.

I also believe that it is important to study the body’s movement to understand culture and society. For example, if you look at Korean Traditional Dance, viewers can understand how live was in Korea, long time ago. Korean Traditional Dance tries to portray the culture and society through their dance and music. Korean Traditional dancers also wear hanbok, Korean traditional costume, when they dance and play the instruments. Korean Traditional dancers also play the instruments, while they dance to show the audience their dance and music at the same time.

To dance is to be knowledgeable about the stories of the ancestral heroes. Dancing, unlike painting and singing, is learnt at an early age. This allows large groups of people to demonstrate their clan rights in front of an audience. Dance is also seen as an occasion to entertain and to be entertained and through the work of dance to show their love for families and kin. It is for this reason that dance may be performed at the end of every day in some communities.

Merleau-Ponty tells us that, “the real has to be described, not constructed or formed” (1969, p. 17). Phenomenological art therapy as explicated by Betensky (1995) is a clearly formulated art therapy approach that attempts to understand the phenomena of the artwork and the creative process from within itself through "intentional observation" and reflection. The three main features of the phenomenological method are 1) the attention to the description of the perceived phenomena; 2) focus on capturing the essence; and 3) the essence is found by intuiting and not by deduction or induction. The 5 key concepts of phenomenology concepts outlined by Merleau–Ponty in the introduction of Phenomenology of Religion (Bettis 1969) can be applied to art therapy (Carpendale, 2002).

There are many other aspects of dance then just learning the “moves”. A dancer must have well trained technique, flexibility, muscular body, know terminology, memorize steps and so much more. There are so many important aspects of dance most people do not realize. If dance was given more publicity, more people would view it as a

“What is going on in these pictures in my mind?” (Didion 2). Joan Didion’s “Why I Write” provides an explanation to her perspective om writing and why she writes. Later on, she states that she writes as a way to discover the meaning behind what she is seeing. During this past semester as we wrote about dance, a heavy focus was on description and interpretation rather than contextualization and evaluation.

1.1 Music Therapy Music therapy is the practice of using music as a form of treatment for certain conditions (especially mental conditions). The idea of using music as a form of therapy dates back to Aristotle’s and Plato’s days. Aristotle understood the great impact music had on listeners and spoke about how it can affect the emotional states of an individual. “Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul… when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued with the same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form” (Aristotle). Music can affect the brain and body in unexpected ways.

Sleeping habits are improved making people happier and look forward to days to come. Music is the best use of therapy to heal those hurting in as many forms as one can think of. That’s why music therapy should be used above all other types of therapy because of all the positive characteristics it

The dancers were observed to be full of energy which showed through their movements and dancing. Every movement was sharp and clean. Furthermore, the action portion of the basic dance elements was seen through the dancer’s basic movements that turned into dancing. For example, in one scene, the actor jumped off the table and broke into a little skip-glide dancing movement.

Art therapy is defined as a form of expressive therapy that uses the creative process of fabricating art to improve a person’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Well known psychologist Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud both had theories of the subconscious and unconscious. They believed that art therapy is based on the premise that images and visuals are the most natural form of communication to humans. The feelings that stem from the subconscious mind are more easily expressed in visuals rather than verbally because people usually cannot explain emotions in such detail. Creative art therapy is offered in many hospitals, outpatient centers, and private practices as a form of depression treatment.

Moreover, it can also be a better alternative treatment for several diseases and sickness. Central Idea: Music treatment is the expert use of music and its components in therapeutic, instructive, and ordinary situations with people or groups to upgrade their quality of life and enhance their physical and wellbeing. Introduction: Do you ever know how powerful music is? Why do people continue to compose songs and why do many songs made you feel happy but some instead made you cry?

Have you ever heard of Dance Therapy for Children? What is Dance/Movement Therapy? The American Dance Therapy Association defines dance/movement therapy as: “the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual.”