Is Dance an Alternative Form of Healing?

Dance is beyond doubt a form of healing. In our modern world, it is also commonly used as entertainment, an expression of cultural heritage, a form of art, an exercise workout, something we do to celebrate special occasions, and something new to learn.

More traditional healing is geared towards the physical body, namely allopathic (conventional Western) medicine and traditional medicine systems. Dance might be considered an ‘alternative’ form of healing sets it against these practices.

The Ancients

 

Prehistoric people understood the link between dance, health and healing. The god Apollo in ancient Greece was responsible for music, dance and healing. Mythologies throughout the ancient world link dance and healing: the Egyptian god Bast, the semitic god Baal, and the Hindu god Shiva.

Indigenous Dance Practices

Dance has long been used in the healing rituals of indigenous people throughout the world reflecting an understanding of the deep interconnection of a healthy mind, body and spirit. Drumming, singing, dancing and trance-states are used to unite communities and address mental and physical ailments.

Healing the Mind and Emotions

Increasingly in the West we are aware that our physical bodies are not separate from our thoughts and feelings. We are one system and healing can take place in more than one sphere and can also affect others.

Physiologically dance can be used to reduce pain felt in the body with gentle movement, help those at risk of falls by improving balance and posture, lower the stress hormone cortisol, promote relaxation and body awareness.

Dance Movement Psychotherapy

Therapy is a form of healing and doesn’t only happen when we sit and talk. There is a vibrant and well-evidenced discipline, Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMT) that offers an embodied, non-verbal approach to all the things that conventional therapy addresses: stress reduction, improved mood, trauma, emotional regulation, eating disorders, relationship issues, plus Parkinson’s disease, autism, learning disabilities, chronic illness/pain and dementia.

Trauma

The number one New York Times best-selling book, The Body Keeps The Score (Bessel Van Der Kolk) has in recent decades popularized the understanding that trauma reshapes the body and brain; it inhibits pleasure, trust and self-regulation. There have been many other brilliant scientists who have confirmed this story.

Trauma is real. We see it in veterans suffering with PTSD, those from abusive backgrounds, victims of terrorism and torture, people who have witnessed disturbing life events, and in a sense it affects all of us when we no longer have the resources to be present to our immediate reality. We dissociate and disconnect from our physical bodies. Dance Movement Therapy is a recommended and well-used healing modality for re-establishing trust, safety and agency in our bodies.

Healing Isolation and Loneliness

We humans evolved in groups and have survived and thrived on this planet due to our ability to not only out-compete other groups but also from our ability to cooperate with each other. Not being connected up with others or having a sense of belonging is inherently challenging for us. In fact neuroscience through brain imagining reveals that the same brain areas are activated when we experience physical pain and social pain such as exclusion or rejection.

Dance is the perfect antidote or healer! It bonds and unites people; it allows us to experience ourselves beyond our normal physical boundaries and instead feel at one with those around us. Dance creates and strengthens communities.

Conscious Dance

When we put together all the healing benefits of dance described above with awareness of moving and breathing, the therapeutic potential is magnified. This is conscious dance. As the saying goes: ‘where attention flows, energy flows’. By giving deliberate attention to our moving bodies in dance, we heighten the benefits therein. We might also notice patterns, both physical and relational, that we can then choose to move with in a different way.

My Journey

I became a psychotherapist before I became a teacher of conscious dance. I have had the great priviledge to have been active in the healing of hundreds of people in the therapy space, and to have received the same healing balm myself. I have also experienced personal healing on the concsious dance floor and witnessed that of many others. There are some issues that will always need the safe container of an intimate relationship with a trained therapist. There are also many others that can be healed on the dance floor without having to utter a word.

Come and try out one of my sessions www.flomotion.dance/bookings

Want to know more? You can buy my book, DANCE FOR LIFE here