Dance and Psychology

Apart from the psyche of “I dance because I need to”, I think it is vital to acknowledge how dance has developed an important role in the area of psychology.  Not only dancers are benefited from dancing.

Dance Psychology provides the patient with the necessary tools to find inner peace. More than a place to vent or sit in a sofa, psychologists have developed Dance therapy as a way to connect mind and body. These dancers don’t dance for a grade or because they have to, just like me, they NEED to.

We as dancers take that sacred place where the peaceful connection between mind and body for granted. Not everyone has that. Most clinical patients seek psychological services because they no longer have that sync. I once felt like I had lost that sync and it was dancing that brought me back. This is why, for me, dance therapy is so important.

I found this blog called Psychology Today. It’s written by psychologists specialized in different areas of psychology, dance therapists amongst them.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201008/mind-your-body-dance-yourself-happy

This article focuses on the importance of dance in life. We live in a world in which not only dancers can be beneficiated by the positive aspects of dance. I think this article addresses that in an informal way that is friendly to the reader and does not use too many medical terms.

I personally enjoyed it because of the way it adapts salsa, clubbing and even “Dancing with the Stars” to a healthy lifestyle. 

Movement, Color, Life... Is there MORE to dance?

The answer is YES! Dance is so much more than the movement and the liveliness of a scene or an act. Dancers are more than perfection, the perfect movement, the perfect ensemble, the perfect direction, the perfect music, the perfect choreography or the perfect costumes. Dancers pride themselves in their work, in what they do and the visual art they provide to the world. The motivation for dance is abstract, untouchable, yet, always there. I've always been moved by the saying:

"Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!"  ~Constanze

Just like we don't really know why we dream what we dream, I dance because its innate in me. I can't ignore it. Its something inside me that needs to dance. Whether I'm injured or not. Whether I can do the movements that are being asked of me, I want to do it and I get frustrated when I can't. Sometimes realizing that you can't do something, whether is dancing, running or even writing a paper is a mental let down. We are raised in a world where everything CAN be done. The mind CAN control everything and the only person that sets the limits is yourself. But, what if I want to, but I can't? 

Realizing how far your mind and body can go in a given activity comes with age. Doing something about it, comes from within. As a dancer, I realized that given my long history of injuries and bad habits, at age 18 it was next to impossible to break away. Given this realization, I quit dance during my first semester in college. Needless to say, WORST SEMESTER OF MY LIFE! What now?

I realized that I needed to dance and that when I danced I did more than injure myself countless times, I gave myself mental peace for an hour each day I went to dance class. During that hour, keeping up with counts, rhythms, movements and combinations was what gave me sanity from everything else that was going on in my life.

For me, that hour of peace is PRICELESS!

Dislocations and Subluxations

We have an injury expo coming up in class this Tuesday. My topic of choice is Dislocations and Subluxations. As a dancer with "bad genes" dislocations and subluxations have always been part of my life. Since overextended tendons run in my family, I experienced my first dislocation of the knee at age 11. Ever since then, it has been physical therapy, ice and many many subluxations and dislocations of both the knees and ankles.


Studying this material from a "science-y" perspective has given me a different perspective to the injuries I've experienced the most. Since we have been studying the anatomy of the body, the difference between muscles, joints and ligaments, it has become clear to me, why I have the issues I have.


I have learned that once you dislocate a bone, it hardly goes back to its natural state of alignment. So like my dad, whose a doctor once said, "You dislocated your knee once doing ballet, you better stop or learn how to live with it for the rest of your life."


Dislocations and subluxations can potentially occur in most (if not all) of the joints of the body. They occur when the ligaments and muscles are not strong enough for the support of the joint.  To my disbelief, not only can I potentially get a dislocated knee or ankle; I can subluxate or dislocate  my pelvis, shoulders, elbows, neck, vertebral cord and even the eye! Below is a picture of a subluxated lens that I found at [http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/eyeforum/atlas/pages/subluxated-lens.html] which is an ophthalmology website.

What I learned the most about this assignment is that we, as dancers, should seek prevention rather than treatment. The difference between the two is that one is before and the other after the fact. Ideally, prevention would include excersice to strengthen the muscles so that they are more able to protect the joints and to avoid repetitive motions.

But, if I don't want to stop dancing because of this, what should I do? For me, aspirin, excersice, icing and wearing prenventive braces, has worked. Whether it was on my knees or ankles, I wore protective braces all through high school and whenever I feel the pain coming back in dance class. The good thing about them is that they do not decrease joint mobility (depending on the brace you get) and its protective, so I feel safer. When I have the brace on I feel I limit myself less in different movements. When I did point, there was no way I would dance without ankle braces, otherwise I was too scared.


We have also talked about the issues that "being scared" causes to a lot of people (not only dancers). Like creating a "fake" limp to protect your right knee and in turn ruining your left knee, prevention can only make you feel safer about what you are doing and keeps you away from these other habits that can be heinous for the body.

Dance + Physique = Dansique

A play of words, Dansique is ONE word that makes up for many words in a dancer's mind. Throughout their career most dancers and even athletes come across different sets of words that describe their connection of mind and body in whatever they do. Sometimes, words even lack the strong sentiment we want to put into them.

This is where Dansique comes to play. Dansique is a place where pictures and words meet physical exercise and dance. Together all of these aspects of a dancer's life come to describe the dancing experience. More than dancing, Dansique will focus on health and fitness that goes into dancing.
Throughout this semester, I intend to Learn more about my body than I have in my 21 years of life.