Relevance of Body Politics in Dance Movement Psychotherapy - Essay Example

Relevance of Body Politics in Dance Movement Psychotherapy The topic to be explored in this paper is body politics and its relevance with dance movement psychotherapy. The importance of body politics and the way it influences the potential of dance movement therapy will be the subject of discussion in this paper. What is body and what is its relationship with self and healing will be a matter of concern in this research. In Dance movement psychotherapy, different body shapes and movements are valued and controlled to bring out a healing effect. As per Snow ( 2009,pg.164) “The body politics can be defined as the use of body movement – based parameters to evaluate psycho social healing process in a human being”. The paper has an objective to research on the relevance of body politics on dance movement psychotherapy .Here, how a person is persuaded to develop a deeper connection with the self dance with body politics is explored. In dance movement therapy, the body politics which is the motion and emotion produced by body is utilized to heal the body.(Thesis) Body politics is thought to have a crucial role to play in dance movement where healing can be practiced by an unconscious spontaneous movements. Dance movement psychotherapy is a creative approach and a scientific healing process where self awareness and self – esteem is used to change , transform and heal the body. Dance movement therapy is a psychotherauptic use of movement and dance through which a person can engage and creatively heal is body in emotional, cognitive, social and physical level. It is seen that different body movement has different effect on the body the same way of exercise. In dance movement psychotherapy, the unconscious movement of the body connects the inner self with body to transform the body to give a therapeutic results. The body politics is a basic approach to engage the body in a positive way so that the dance movement as a creative healing process within a person .As per Law( 2009) “Many dance movement therapist use improvisational structures which are similar to the authentic movement in guiding the client to move in a spontaneous unedited manner”. Various dance forms has unique effect on various body parts and levels of emotions hence they trigger the healing process by connecting with spirit and mind of a person.In dance movement psychotherapy , the bodily movements is transformed in to artistic expressions which has a creative healing function, The body itself is the medicine for the dysfunctions and it is a self healing process with a significant artistic As per Allegranti (2011,pg.3-10 ) Ethical approaches to practice and research in psychotherapies demand an urgent attention to body politics. Bodies are not considered neutral; gender, ethnicity sexuality has a huge role to play in shaping our emotional, mental and physical selves”. Body politics is basically the effect of the body to change and transform a person for a better life and health. representation. As per Gray (2011,pg.34-48 )“Dance/Movement psychotherapy is both a somatic and an expressive arts therapy. A primary theoretical underpinning of this psychotherapeutic practice is that movement is a primary language for all human beings and, as such, is a powerful means to access implicit memory and stored history, trauma-related or not”. Gray look at the non – verbal therapies or alternative treatment like dance movement psycho therapy which has huge effect on people from every gender, culture and socio – economic background. In dance movement psychotherapy the creative power of body is used to modify the healing process. For Chyle, dance is a most fundamental form of art which has enormous power to connect mind and body and rejuvenate the therapeutic essence in humans. As per Chyle(2009,pg.14) “The majority of dance/movement therapists work from the idea that a session unfolds along the needs of the client. Shaping intervention based on kinesthetic empathy with the client which is created by the therapist physically reflecting back the client’s physical and emotional state”. For Chyle, body movements reflect inner emotions and change in bodily movement can change the psyche which can promote health and growth. So body politics is what makes the dance movement therapy a creative self – healing process.The calling is affected by contemporary mental hypotheses and psychotherapeutic and restorative practices, multi-social conventions in move, bodywork and is constantly ceaselessly educated by national and universal examination studies. DMP is honed as both singular and gathering treatment, transcendently in instruction, wellbeing, social administrations and other group-based settings for instance, voluntary and private associations, jail administrations and in private practice. According to Hricht ( 2009,pg.136-156) “Due to their widespread availability and relevance for clinical practice, dance and dance movement psycho/therapy as well as concentrative movement therapy and functional relaxation are particularly important”.DMP is an examination-educated practice. Exploration holds an essential place inside DMP and happens at diverse levels inside this practice. Case in point, exploration permits the DMP clinician to educate their practice and assess the techniques and results of their work. In DMP, the clinician work on an individual or a group basis. The self – esteem and body image of the person is enhanced by employing certain scientific dance movements. As per Kaylo (2009,pg1-14) “ Regardless of where or how the body is positioned, all movement moves either towards or away from an organizing centre, which lies at the middle of all of our extremities”. The DMP connects spirit, mind and body as an effective medium for therapy. The dancer therapist uses the dancer specific knowledge of body, skill and expression to give a medicinal effect to heal the inner and outer self.It includes an alternate and express hypothesis of psyche body working, which takes into account the unpredictability of the convergences and interactions between the body and the mind. The basic underlying supposition is that the body is the entire individual and there is a useful solidarity between brain and body. The body does not simply mean the "soma" furthermore that this is discrete from the psyche, the “mind". Numerous different methodologies in As per ( Balgaonkar (2010,pg . 54-72) The Dance is the most fundamental of the arts involving direct expression through art and is a powerful medium for therapy”. Body psychotherapy acknowledges this essential. Body psychotherapy perceives the progression and the profound associations in which all psycho corporal techniques help, in equivalent manner, to the association of the individual. There is not a various leveled relationship between psyche and body, between mind and soma. They are both working and intelligent parts of the entire individual. As per,Prospects (2013)“Dance movement psychotherapists use movement and dance to enable personal, emotional, cognitive, spiritual, physical and social integration and development”.Dance Movement psychotherapy includes a developmental model, a hypothesis of identity, speculations as to the starting points of unsettling influences and changes, and additionally a rich mixture of demonstrative and restorative systems utilized inside the structure of the helpful relationship. Dance Movement psychotherapy exists as a particular remedial methodology with a rich exploratory premise on an unequivocal hypothesis. There are additionally a wide variety of procedures utilized in this psychotherapy and some of these are procedures utilized on the body including touch, development and relaxing. There is thusly a connection with somebody helps, physical procedures, and some integral restorative controls, however whilst these may additionally include touch and development, they are extremely unique for DMP. Dance movement psychotherapy, as a standard limb of psychotherapy can be accepted as a scientific healing therapy. As per Allegranti,(2011,pg.23) “Dance Movement Psychotherapy is an exceptional type of psychotherapy in which the inventive utilization of move and development assume a key part inside the remedial relationship”. There are reasons, as we should see, for underlining the part of "science" in the improvement of dance movement psychotherapy. In any case, what is not being said appropriately, and what is correlated, if not questionable, to this point, is that fundamentally dance movement psychotherapy is additionally a specialty. What is more, as we might see, there was a an important period in the history of this extension of psychotherapy that centered considerably all the more on the "art" angle, to the rejection of just about whatever else might be available, both to the banquet and to the inconvenience of body psychotherapy. In any case, "specialty" is not the antonym of "science" and I might additionally demonstrate how an alternate manifestation of "science" has created, or is constantly created, out of this "special. In addition, what applies to psychotherapy, in this occurrence, additionally largely applies to dance movement psychotherapy. There was an activity in 1990-1991 to make the exploratory legitimacy of body psychotherapy as a "standard" inside psychotherapy also this was greatly fruitful, despite the fact that the different modalities inside body psychotherapy politically additionally needed to go with the same pattern. Whilst this exercise was difficult, it additionally guaranteed that the different modalities inside body psychotherapy got their demonstrations together and "did the science.” As of right now, it is important to distinguish a percentage of the various "modalities" that as of now exist inside the mains Stream of body psychotherapy: an alternate kind of logical grouping. Simply their titles will be recorded here, with the name of the "originator" of this kind of body psychotherapy. In DMP, the gestures and expression of body is seen as healing medium which connects intricately with the inner self of a person. It is a combination between science and art. The body politic the influence of body movements on a person in every level is identified. In dance movement psychotherapy, the effect certain body movements is utilized to the maximum to elevate the spirit, mind and body. In general, women have an emotional and psychological connection to dance and the body politics of a female has more effect on her. As per Bordo (2010 )“Now, feminism imagined the human body as itself a politically inscribed entity, its physiology and morphology shaped by histories and practices of containment and control from foot-binding and corseting to rape and battering to compulsory heterosexuality, forced sterilization, unwanted pregnancy, and (in the case of the African American slave woman) explicit commoditization” forms. This is a natural psychotherapy where in there is no medication other that the vital force of body. I realized that body politics for me as a woman is really important and the way that I used my voice and body was a powerful experience. I believe from the experiential perspective I feel that when I was moving in the space I have realized that my body is saying sometimes what I cannot say easily. I understand that body can be seen as an agent where it influences itself to create a healing power with the practice of specific dance. Conclusion I have believed and understood all along the years that even in ancient world, dance was seen as a healing art where there is expression of feeling and emotion. For me in dance movement psychotherapy, different approaches are utilized to enhance the effect of dance movement on the body. The body politics have a significant relevance in dance movement psychotherapy because the therapist uses various forms to explore the potentiality of body influence on people. Dance movement therapy is rooted in the expressive nature of dance itself and woman has more connection with it as she is emotional, delicate and graceful. For me dance is more of a emotional art and for this reason woman has more connection as a healing ritual. References Allegranti, B. (2012) ‘Ethics and Body Politics: Interdisciplinary Possibilities for Embodied Psychotherapeutic Practice and Research’ British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Vol 39, Number 5. Allegranti, B., 2011. Ethics and body politics: interdisciplinary possibilities for embodied psychotherapeutic practice and research. Routledge, 39/5, 3-10. Balgaonkar, A.V, 2010. Effect of Dance Therapy. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3/11, 54-72. Bordo,S. 2010. Feminism Western Culture and Body. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/events/Seminars/Feminist/Bordo.pdf. [Accessed 23 May 14]. Chyle,F. 2000. Applying Creativity Dance/Movement Therapy And The Creative Process. [ONLINE] Available at: http://tanzundtherapie.de/nl/_files/nl/206/Applying%20Creativity-Thesis.pdf. [Accessed 23 May 14]. Gray,A. 2011. Expressive arts therapies:. Torture Volume, 21/1, 39-48. Hricht, Frank, 2009. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 4/2, 136-156. Kaylo, J, 2009. Anima and Animus embodied. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 1/13, 1-14. Law, Agnes. 2009. The use of dance movement therapy in social work. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sasw.org.sg/public/documents/SASW_DMT_powerpoint_agnes%20law.pdf. [Accessed 23 May 14]. Prospects. 2013. Dance movement psychotherapist: . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/dance_movement_psychotherapist_job_description.htm. [Accessed 23 May 14]. Snow, S., 2009. Assessment in the Creative Arts Therapies: Designing and Adapting Assessment . 1st ed. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publishers. Read More