Dance Movement Therapy in Healthcare

Is dance movement therapy (DMT) a viable treatment modality in health care? It is well established as a form of complementary medicine. More recently, oncology, neurology, and geriatrics—especially dementia treatment— have adopted DMT, and this chapter reviews these applications in preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and promotional healthcare. The current state of relevant research is summarized, and practical vignettes illustrate treatment options in various healthcare settings with a wide range of populations. Opportunities for assessment, treatment documentation, and evaluation are highlighted. The chapter’s summary addresses DMT’s contribution to healthcare in promoting wellbeing.

Dance/Movement Therapy and Breast Cancer Care

Breast cancer causes the second highest mortality rate for any type of cancer. The illness, treatment, and side-effects can impact a woman’s identity, body image, and ability to function. Medical dance/movement therapy (MDMT) is a holistic therapeutic method uniquely suited to working with women with breast cancer. This chapter describes MDMT as an intervention that, through a safe and supportive environment that encourages creativity, can help develop psycho, social, and spiritual dimensions of women’s lives at a time when their life trajectory has been interrupted. It explores ways in which MDMT can enable women to rebuild their sense of self and their worlds. Arguments are put forward that create new meaning-making systems, confronting existential issues, and experiencing personal transformation through movement which can lead to enhanced wellbeing. A review of relevant literature is included to illustrate some key ideas of this work at individual, group, and ritual/community levels.

Dance Movement Therapy and the Possibility of Wellbeing for People with Dementia

Despite the seeming contradiction between a state of wellbeing and that of dementia, this chapter attempts to show that wellbeing is indeed possible for people with dementia and that dance movement therapy is one of the pathways towards this. The chapter covers different concepts of dementia and of wellbeing within a traditional biomedical framework and a person-centred framework, and introduces other non-dementia-specific theoretical constructs which enrich understandings of wellbeing, such as resilience and flow. Philosophical underpinnings of dance movement therapy and specific aspects of practice within a dementia context are described, providing examples from a phenomenological study. The suggestion is made that the impact of dance movement therapy on wellbeing may not only be in the moment, but may reach beyond the session itself. The chapter concludes that rather than being satisfied with wellbeing, workers and carers should look to the possibility of flourishing for people with dementia.

Introduction

This first part intends to set the scene in its rightful home: the body. As such, it treats the body as the primary ‘location’ of dance, where wellbeing, measured or felt, can be found. The chapters refer to neuroscientific, physiological, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual approaches to movement and dance, and reflect a continuum from objective to subjective experiences and from scientific reasoning to transpersonal discourses. In all cases, contributions are brought together to reflect multiple and comprehensive ways in which dance can contribute to wellbeing.

Cultural Adaptations of Dance Movement Psychotherapy Experiences

Water plays a key role in all our lives, and in South Africa it epitomizes a space in which political inequalities have played themselves out with devastating consequences. The current ecological crisis demands new ways of engaging with ourselves, each other, and nature. This research is an initial exploration on the use of a body-based creative movement approach within a transdisciplinary complex social–ecological systems researcher group. The research objective was to develop culturally relevant themes from professional dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) training in the UK for application in a South African water-resource management context, using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Artistic inquiry was used to reflect creatively on the themes and to add an embodied response to the discussion. The cultural adaptations of DMP can contribute to a more engaged and non-hierarchical collaboration between practitioners and the people and communities they serve.

Wellbeing and the Ageing Dancer

The fusion of dance aesthetics with exercise and safe practice can result in challenging and fulfilling dance experiences for the ageing dancer. This chapter charts the author’s own experience in New Zealand, teaching two different cohorts of older women, in a contemporary dance performance-based dance collective, and in an aerobic dance exercise programme. The impact on society of an ageing population is discussed. The author reflects on how ageism is present in community and professional dance, and how dancers in both contexts deal with the challenges, promoting an image of fitness and health, as exemplified by local ethnic groups. The author finishes with a profile of Crows Feet Dance Collective, the company of mature women whom she has directed and choreographed since 1999, highlighting the qualities which these dancers display, opportunities for self-discovery, and a new level of creativity in a body that encapsulates a ‘lived richness.’

Evidence-Based BIODANZA Programmes for Children (TANZPRO-Biodanza) in Schools and Kindergartens

Biodanza for children was developed in Chile by Cecilia Luzzi, from the model of the BIODANZA method, created by Rolando Toro. Stück and Villegas developed evidence-based and structured Biodanza programmes in conjunction with the Ministry of Health in Germany for children in schools and kindergartens. These programmes—TANZPRO-Biodanza—were introduced in twenty-two locations with around 500 children. Each ten-session programme included dance, movement, encounter, and non-verbal communication with music, aimed at two age groups of 4–6 years and 7–12 years. In this chapter, scientific results are shared about the effects of TANZPRO-Biodanza on cortisol, testosterone, Immunoglobulin A (IgA), change in heart frequency, hypersensitivity of the skin, implications for psychology, and autoregulation in children. The results indicate the potential of the programme to reduce stress and enhance social skills in children, providing a first insight into the effects of dance on the responses and modulation of neurohormones in children.

Reimagining Our Relationship to the Dancing Body

This chapter focuses on reimagining our relationship to the dancing body, inviting connection to self, others, and the natural world. Body systems and earth systems are seen as intricately interconnected, and dance as an essential way to experience this connection. Utilizing personal narrative, scientific research, experiential exercises, and visual imagery as modes of inquiry enables one to create the conditions for wellbeing through movement. The goal is to bind subjective experience with a scientific foundation through embodied scholarship. This multifaceted approach enhances the reader’s receptivity to discovery and discernment, encouraging agency in creative projects, intercultural communication, and daily life through dance. Attention is given to the science of perception, including tools for balancing the autonomic nervous system to support healing and creative thinking. Throughout, we foster positive responses to challenging social and environmental conditions through moving, dancing, performing, and writing—celebrating the intrinsic intelligence of the body.

Flow in the Dancing Body

This chapter is centred on research on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, which explores optimal experience from the context of positive psychology. It develops a theory of flow in dance improvisation which draws on the eudaimonic concept of wellbeing. Links are made between flow and the defining characteristics of eudaimonia such as personal expressiveness, self-realization, excellence, and relatedness. The chapter draws on case-study research which proposes a methodology that allows the researcher/spectator to engage with the dancer’s experience of flow. The research employs ‘reflexive embodied empathy’, involving hermeneutic reflection for understanding both the participant’s experience and the researcher’s role in constructing that interpretation. The chapter argues that flow enables the researcher/spectator to connect with the experience of the dancer, informing both their understanding of the dancer’s wellbeing and their own wellbeing in the moment of observation. Flow thus offers a perspective of wellbeing that enhances the spectator–dancer relationship.

Authentic Movement and the Relationship of Embodied Spirituality to Health and Wellbeing

This chapter explores the possibility of a relationship between spiritual practices and some of the many facets of wellbeing. It considers the distinction between religion and spirituality with reference to the literature. It discusses Authentic Movement, an inner-directed movement process rooted in the intersection of dance/movement therapy and Jungian depth psychology, and the concept of embodied spirituality in which the relationship between the mover and the witness is explored. In particular, it explores the relationship of this practice to health and the increased sense of wellbeing that stems from a direct experience of the sacred, which supports a deepening sense of connection to one’s true self.