Hello all,<BR>I'm delighted to find this site and interestingly enough I recognize Azlan's name from the Joanna Berman chat several nights ago on the Voice of Dance webpage. I am currently finishing my degree in dance therapy while dancing professionally part time with a modern dance troupe (only part time, due to lack of funding) Several of my favorite dance related interests include dance history and dance criticism ( I am a dance/theatre critic for the Commonwealth Times, my university's newspaper). Hopefully I'll be able to find some interesting material to post on this site's diverse forum; I'm looking forward to it.<BR>Regards,<BR>Marisa<P>------------------<BR><BR>"If it's self expression you are looking for the place for you is the analyst's couch" - Merce Cunningham

Hello, Marisa, and welcome! I'm glad you found us. I think most of us would be very much interested to hear what you have to say as a critic of a university paper.<P>Wasn't that chat with Joanna Berman fun? I'm looking forward to the next one, with Merrill Ashley.

oh, marisa: <BIG><BIG>GOOD ONE!</BIG></BIG> - LOVE it! <P>""If it's self expression you are looking for the place for you is the analyst's couch" - Merce Cunningham"<P>and as far as i know, we may not have anyone at this board who specialises in dance therapy, so your insight will provide a very welcome addition indeed..... <P>(apologies in advance, if there is anyone whose dance therapy involvement i am unaware of!....)

Welcome Misa - I see you live in Richmond, VA. That's quite near the home of Thomas Jefferson, a particularly interesting historical person to me. After, Washington, that is.

how strange that jefferson's name should come up like this! <P>i was just watching a made-for-television movie, about his life, and learning things i never knew, when i went around monticello! i really wondered about him, wanting to understand a bit more, but felt i couldn't bring it up here on a dance board, even though you americans might be better informed. actually i still have the monticello guide book from about 20 years ago (when i was there) - it's right beside my desk, so i think i'll look it up again and see if it DOES mention any of these things which i was unaware of.....probably NOT!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! Funny about Jefferson .. I have lived here for two years now and still have not visited Monticello (which is about an hour away, I think)..If anyone is interested in dance therapy let me know! I'd love to talk about it or anything dance related for that matter.. which of course why I am here.. duh <P>------------------<BR><BR>"If it's self expression you are looking for the place for you is the analyst's couch" - Merce Cunningham

Grace - I think you would have to ask those of us older Americans about Jefferson - they aren't teaching a great of history in our schools any longer. <P>Washington, as Signer of the Declaration, Framer of the Constitution, General of the Revolutionary Army, and first President of the United States - and generally considered to be the one truly irreplaceable person - gets about half a page in some of today's text books in our schools.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when you say dance therapy do you mean psychological or phsyiological?

marie - i realise i should really leave your question for misa to answer.....but my assumption is that she is meaning dance AS therapy, (like art therapy), rather than therapy FOR dancers (by which i am meaning dance psychology....) still- looks like there must be a lot of crossover, given that i have to be trying to explain even my OWN words this much! look forward to misa's answer....

um, yes please help, because now I'm really confused (it really doesn't take much)...

Don't worry Marie!<BR>There are so many different facets, methods and opinions in dance therapy that I confuse myself all the time ... and Grace was right I did mean dance therapy as in similar to art or music therapy, and she is also correct that there is a lot of crossover! My mentor just told me "Marisa, you have to buckle down and decide if you are going to work in dance therapy through the mind or the physical side". This is a hard decision, I am torn because I see so many benefits of dance that its hard not to want to help everyone through movement. What she means though is that I must decide in the future if I will work with mentally disturbed patients or people with disabilities such as autistic children (with whom dance therapy has had a profound effect on) or the more physical side of dance therapy such as movement for elderly people in nursing homes and so forth. I am just so amazed at the healing power of dance that I am sometimes overwhelmed. Oh.. but to clarify something.. we are mainly trained in psychology so the mental help aspect of dance therapy is what most people refer to.. however, new outlets make it hard to clarify the distinction between dance therapy and physical therapy sometimes. Thanks for your interest, I'm glad you asked.. and I hope my answer was ok.. (I'm a little tired and now and fear this will be full of unclear statemetns and typos.. so good luck deciphering heehee) <P>------------------<BR><BR>"If it's self expression you are looking for the place for you is the analyst's couch" - Merce Cunningham

Thanks so much Misa for your explanantion. I have a friend who wants to get into Dance Therapy, she told me there are only two programs, one in London, at the Laban Centre and one in the U.S., is this true?

May I pipe in? It's not true. There are not many in the U.S., but there is certainly more than one. I believe both Antioch and Hunter have programs, and if you give me a minute, I know I can come up with more, as can,I'm sure, others of you. I think this field is growing some. After I danced my way through cancer recovery, my doctors (particularly the radiologist) wanted to know what the devil I was doing to prevent so many typical side effects and asked me to document some of the particular aspects of ballet that were so beneficial. For some very strange reason, I found, at that time, in my dance articles archives, a photocopied story about a woman who was teaching classes for breast cancer survivors at University of Santa Clara. The reason this is strange is that, I could tell by the type of paper I'd copied this on,that it was from the 70s. Now what would possess a very young woman, who was also vegetarian, low body fat, non-smoking, exercising, had no history of breast cancer in the family, blah, blah, blah, to cut out and save such an article? And find it years later when the unlikely occurred? I telephoned (this was about 5 years ago) the University of Santa Clara (or maybe it's Santa Clara College -- someone correct me, if I don't have this right) and spoke to one of the Brothers of this small Catholic college who told me that he did recall this program many, many years ago -- I believe the woman who ran it may have since died. If memory serves me correctly, he also spoke about how this kind of program could be even more far reaching, for instance, to involve AIDS patients, etc. <P>Shortly after that, I attended a seminar in Boston held by Victoria Magazine; it was the first of their annual entreprenuerial seminars for women. Several hundred women who either had a business or just had an idea for one attended -- a fantastic, cheerful group of women. I had just started my program, "Transcen-Dance" -- classes of ballet movement specifically designed for cancer recovery. Although I dance with a number of women who are breast cancer survivors, they were already dancers prior to getting sick. I had a dickens of a time trying to get newcomers to ballet who were overcoming cancer to give it a try. The thing is, there were certain specific exercises prescribed anyway -- my thought was, why not do something beautiful and fun and which has comraderie, but then I surmised that it's hard enough to get a middle aged woman into a leotard in front of others for the first time, much less one who feels disfigured. I therefore began work on creating a video to be used in the privacy of your own home, and am still working on the music issue -- trying to get around the expense of using copyrighted material by either composing my own or working with a local musician (there's a harpist I've talked to about this). <P>With people living longer but still having a variety of ailments, I believe that dance therapy can only grow into a larger and more diverse field.

I've done a bit of research on this and, accordingly, have posted more information in a new thread.

christina, what a marvellous post! <P>yet another 'good story', with deep truths....<P>you are quite right that dance therapy is a growing field - i'm sure there are at least a few courses, as i believe we have at least one and probably more in australia, now.<P>forgive me for stating the obvious, which i'm sure you thought of - and would only have been ONE of many factors keeping your ladies away - but did you think of NOT expecting leotards for that ballet class? what i mean is, a track suit or WHATEVER someone was comfortable in, is better than not doing the class....i saw an ad here for a dance class for adults, which said in the ad "NO sexy leotards please!" - i thought that was great - as it made it clear to all-comers, that they would not have to compete with that sports-club aesthetic....