Dance has always been a huge part of my life growing up. It has not only been my hobby for the past sixteen years, but my sport. Dance was, and is still today, always a constant in my life no matter what else was going on. It always seemed to take my mind off of everything bothering me and nagging at my emotions. It has always helped me to have a positive attitude rather than a negative one. My dance teacher, Dina Davis, always said “While you are here, nothing else matters.” Ever since then, I have always wondered why that is. In the past couple of years, dance therapy has developed all throughout the world, but it more recently has just been accepted and practiced as an actual therapeutic program. It has been healing individuals with mental disorders such as depression and anxiety by making their mind and bodies become one. Becoming more aware of dance therapy now is important because it is becoming more and more common in the world around us and it is crucial for us to keep up and learn from these types of therapies. By understanding this therapy, I have realized that I have seen this kind of healing all around me during my dancing years whether it be with me or my fellow dancers. Dance therapy heals and benefits an individual’s mental health by taking control of their emotions, coming to terms with one’s self, and freeing their mind of anything negative. This therapy can ultimately heal and strengthen one’s mental health and help them to cope with disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Dance therapy has been used for many generations and is becoming more and more popular in today’s society. Although we see it most commonly used within the younger generation’s age range, dance therapy works for individuals of all ages, including the older individuals. Martha Libster explains this concept by saying “Like all of us, older adults need to move – their bodies, their minds, their spirits” (72C). It is important to keep the body and mind active in not only younger individuals, but older individuals as well. This keeps their body and mind healthy and positive. As Gavrilushka states, dance “gives a new outlook on life” (Gavrilushka).  Dance therapy can heal everyone from all ages in the same way and promotes a healthy style of living. 

Dance therapy is a way to express an individual’s thoughts and feelings about their disorders, such as depression and anxiety, without having to verbally communicate. It has been shown that nonverbal expression is more successful in expressing emotions and feelings involved with depression and anxiety. People tend to not feel as comfortable actually speaking these thoughts and emotions, so dance is a good alternative to doing so. Dancing also releases emotions that one did not know that they even had to begin with. This opens up their mind to new thoughts and ideas about themselves. Patricia Alpert describes the art of dance as “direct expression through the use of body movements and expressions,” (155). Expressing yourself is an important aspect in healing yourself from mental disorders such as depression and anxiety because it leads to the acceptance of your mind and body. It is also another way for one to keep their mind active and away from negative thoughts. Ted Ehrhdart goes in depth with this statement in his Ted Talk “Dance/Movement Therapy & Mental Illness,” by saying “We’ve lifted the movement experience into the realm of the imagination where a patient can interpret for herself what a movement means.” The patient is able to manipulate their dance moves to reflect their emotions in a way that makes sense to them and which they are comfortable with. Because of this, the patient can begin to open up to their therapist and others which help them, and the therapist, understand their thoughts and feelings.

When dancers begin to reflect their emotions fully, this is known as self-expression. Self-expression is a key component in becoming confident and accepting one’s body and mind. Nikki Margallo enhances on this idea during her interview with Saya Hishikawa by saying “Through movement, dance/movement therapy helps individuals with a ride range of psychological disorders achieve greater self-expression.” Margallo goes on further to quote Fran J. Levy when she says “…the idea that the body and the mind are inseparable… that body movement reflects inner emotional states and that changes in movement behavior can lead to changes in the psyche, thus promoting health and growth.” Because the mind and body are inseparable, we are able to express our emotions and thoughts by movement. With that being said, movement is a subtle way to show new truths and changes within an individual. 

Once the patient is able to freely communicate their thoughts and feelings, they are able to fully accept them and come to terms with them. This means that they are able to understand them and why they feel them. This is a major part of the healing process because after they complete that step, they are able to control their emotions through dance. For example, if the patient begins to feel sad or depressed, they can dance to lift their spirits and change their sadness to happiness. According to Elizabeth Svoboda, “As a general rule, moving to music activates the brains pleasure circuits.” Dancing has been proven to provide happiness to an individual due to the freeing of the body and mind. Svoboda further explains this satisfaction by quoting Miriam Berger, “On a physiological and psychological level, humans like order and form, and the rhythm of dancing to music provides that satisfactory patterning.” This leads to suggest that the individuals in dance therapy find happiness and healing in dancing and movement because they are able to come up with a pattern and control it themselves. This feeling of control is important to them because they might feel as if they are not able to control other things in their life, such as depression, anxiety, or other mental disorders. So, people that participate in dance therapy classes are less likely to feel depressed and anxious. 

Dancing provides a comfort for some people, while for others it is the reason for their discomfort. Dancing has been known to be the cause of some eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, because they are thought to be seen in a certain image. This image is usually stick thin with little to no body fat. If one of these dancers does not see themselves in this way, they will resort to things like these eating disorders to make themselves feel better and feel closer to that image. Liora Gvion goes into detail with this issue by saying “…dancers interpret extra-thinness as an essential tool for the making of an ideal body-machine which allows entrance to a professional world of dancers. Working in a demanding professional world, anorexic bodies are seen by dancers as indicators of success and commitment” (67). Ever since the art of dance has been around, dancers were expected to maintain the tiny body image. Starving themselves and developing these eating disorders was not considered a bad thing. In today’s society, we can see that it is still a continuing problem. But, it comes down to the atmosphere and surroundings of the dancers. If the other dancers or teachers around the individual are constantly critiquing them and making negative comments, then they are more likely to want to starve themselves to please themselves and the others around them. If everyone surrounding the dancer has a positive attitude and is accepting, then the dancer will feel no need to change. In Gavrilushka’s case, dance helped her overcome her battle with anorexia. She states, “My personal therapy was ballet” (Gavrilushka). Dance was able to heal her because she was surrounded by people who wanted to help her and she was able to transform her negative thoughts into healthy ones. Dancing made her feel special and like she was worth something, which was the key component to her healing. All because of dance therapy, she is now healthy and happy. This goes to show that being in a supportive dancing environment is important in the healing process of an individual’s mind and body. Dancing really makes the individual feel as if they belong to something and creates a safe space for them to come and feel welcomed. Knowing they are welcomed and not being judge on their image is a defining factor of preventing anorexia, bulimia, and all of the other eating disorders. 

In addition to causing eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, dancing has been known to decrease one’s overall self-esteem. Dancers are known to sometimes push themselves too far and focus all of their time and energy into what they are doing. Because of this, they forget to focus on their mental health. They neglect giving themselves the positive reinforcement needed to maintain and build their self-esteem. They become more focused and concerned on the dance and movement itself and forget to focus on their body and their mind. In a study conducted by Norman and Oliver Bettle, dancers were asked a series of questions related to dance and self-esteem. One set of questions was focused on their body, while the other set was focused on their personality. The higher the score, the lower the self-esteem. After the answers were collected, Bettle explained the results by saying “For both subscales of personality, differences were also found between male and female dancers; female ballet students scored higher” (Bettle & Neumarker 297). What this means is that these ballet dancers constantly struggle with the way they see their body and the way they act. But dancing can also show the individual a side of themselves that they might not normally see. According to Odell-Miller, “Dance movement therapist focus on the use of body movement and dance, and the connections among mind, body, and emotion, in working toward changes in perception of their bodies and their difficulties” (Odell-Miller et. al 122). Dancing is a form of therapy that welcomes change to the body and mind. In some cases, change is the goal. Change in the way we see ourselves is important to really come to terms with one’s self and dance is a healthy way to do so. Dancing creates a different side of an individual, a side that they might not be used to seeing. Dancing is a way for them to build their self-esteem by creating themselves in a new image in which they are content with. Doing so, they are able to forget about everything that they are unhappy with about themselves and release these negative emotions. Releasing these emotions prevent them from building up and cause one’s self-esteem to decrease. So dance can increase and perfect one’s self-esteem if done in the correct healing manner. 

Furthermore, dancing helps increase and maintain a high, healthy self-esteem well into an individual’s middle aged years. Self-esteem is still very sensitive and vulnerable at this age and can change at any given time. It is important to make sure that the self-esteem stays high and in a positive region. Agnes Tihanyi Hos conducted a study on individuals who participated in an aerobic dance class and measured their how their self-esteem was affected by this class by giving different test. Before the study, she explains why dance increases self-esteem well into the middle aged years by saying “It can also be assumed that aerobic dance, which is carried out in a group, influences not only the total self-image and the body image, but the other components of self-image as well” (Tihanyi Hos 143). This shows that dancing leads to a positive self-image and makes other aspects of their life much easier, such as coping with stress and adapting to the everyday changes that surround them. In the results of her study, Tihanyi Hos states “It seems that aerobic dance is one of the best physical activity tools which can increase self-confidence and satisfaction of middle aged women in general and it may counterbalance the negative affect of ageing” (148). This is important because ageing can cause different kinds of emotions depending on the person and it is important to maintain a positive and confident outlook on this process. Even just watching dance therapy during the aging process can be beneficial. Marta Libster explains this by saying, “Even those who cannot participate, but instead watch from their wheelchairs, can benefit from dance therapy” (72C). The more active an individual’s mind and body is, the more confident they will be. 

Dance therapy is an important and a healing therapy because it helps individuals to express themselves, help them control their emotions, and lead them in the right direction for coming to terms with their true self. Dance therapy connects the mind and body and a way that is different from other healing therapies because the individual is the one making the changes and decisions. Understanding and knowing about dance therapy matters now in today’s society because it is continuing to become more and more popular and practiced in therapeutic offices. It is important to make the knowledge of dance therapy known in hopes that it will become more of a regular practice. The more the public knows about this type of therapy, the more open people will be to trying it out for themselves and suggesting it to others as well. To introduce this type of therapy to younger individuals, dance classes to provide therapy should be added into every public school. This type of therapy provides them with self-expression through dance moves, providing happiness and positivity, and help boost self-esteem by creating an individual in their own image. Now knowing more about dance therapy, I can understand why dance always made me feel happy and like I belong to something special. It has made me more open to new ideas concerning myself and more willing to open up to others on my thoughts and feelings.
