With my hair slicked back in a tight bun on the crown of my little head, a soft pink leotard and a matching tutu, I was always fascinated by dance, and not just because of the pretty dancewear. I knew that I needed dancing in my life at a young age; it was my way of releasing emotions I could never put into words or even into pictures in a journal. Whenever life felt overwhelming and unbearable, I’d turn on my iPod, put my headphones in and let the music take control of my body to turn whatever emotions I was feeling into a performing art.
Dance was my first love and has been my favorite escape from reality when I needed it most for the past 14 years.
As marvelous as it is to use dance as a pastime, the art form has also been a great therapeutic technique in many challenging times.
Using dance as therapy
As noted before, dance is not only used as a pastime or a way to be active. Whether viewed at a ritzy performance or in a casual dance class setting, dance means many different things to all kinds of individuals. For me in particular, dance is a way to express myself and stay active. However, with the many events that unraveled in 2020, dance has become a form of therapy to calm my jittery nerves. In other words: dance/movement therapy.
According to Koch, et al. in Effects of Dance Movement Therapy and Dance on Health-Related Psychological Outcomes, dance movement therapy (DMT) is “the psychotherapeutic use of movement, based on the assumption of the interconnection of the body and mind and the healing power of dance.” The American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) defines it as “the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, for the purpose of improving health and well-being.” Most DMT professionals work in psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools and private practices.
The process is as intimate as you want it to be, and there is no right or wrong way to go about it. DMT is entirely free for interpretation by anyone, and best of all, every method is different for everyone. The only thing that each DMT session has in common is that it allows each participant to be alleviated of all tension.
Trusting the DMT process
Although I’ve danced for most of my life, I had never participated in dance/movement therapy until earlier this summer (over Zoom, of course).
I have always felt disciplined through dance when learning to regulate my mind and body in times of stress, yet I always felt that dance was more of a workout than a much-needed therapy session.
Going into DMT, I thought it would be something that would have the same impact as a regular dance class. I was expecting to feel drained physically and like I had gotten a vigorous workout. Instead, I got something much more: the feeling of release.
Being able to release tension and emotions that have built up for months is emotionally draining—literally.
The exercise takes time. Allowing myself to be vulnerable and communicate my feelings through my dance movement took a while and wasn’t something I could do right from the beginning. Learning to listen to my body’s strains and easing into them was a process worth being patient for, mostly since I could get something out of an art form that holds a special place in my heart.