Handout_-_PTSD_Workshop.docx.docx

Police workers have to contend with a variety of traumatic incidents in their daily work.

This thesis explores dance beyond entertainment, psychological, behavioural or cognitive theory; beyond conventional interpretations of performance, and beyond the disciplinary categories that tend to separate practices in contemporary Western culture. This is a study of "Daggering," the Jamaican style of dancing marked by violence and raw sexual licentiousness inna di dancehall (in the dancehall)-a male-dominated dance space in Jamaica. The problem of daggering analyzed stems from the so-called "causes" of violence. Cultural theorists argue the violent situation in the dancehall and throughout Jamaica is related to the history of colonialism and slavery, poverty, the polarization of the country's political parties, and politicians who first issued guns. Some philosophers argue the myth of 'poverty' is an illusion and world-historical logicomathematical thinking is delusional. Primary texts studied are: The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche, and the Concluding Unscientific Postscript by Kierkegaard. I am interested in the inseparability, the embeddedness of Dionysus in all the phenomena of life. The myth of Dionysus contains statements about society and the individual not easily accessible by purely objective techniques. Nietzsche writes: the invisible forces of nature, "through whose gestures and eyes all the joy and wisdom of 'illusion,' together with its beauty, speak to us." Kierkegaard's aesthetic philosophy of subjectivity challenges the myth of poverty. Thus, this thesis marks a connection between daggering, the myth of Dionysus, and subjectivity. The essential question asked: 'what' knowledge is of the most worth to transform the individual and a society in crisis?

American Journal of Dance Therapy, 36:189–208 DOI 10.1007/s10465-014-9175-4, 2014

Dance/movement therapy (DMT) is considered an effective therapeutic modality for people who have experienced trauma because it facilitates access to body- felt trauma responses. Antecedents of DMT, including the use of dance and music in traditional modes of healing, point to the potential for it to be effective for people strongly connected to traditional culture. Yet the literature regarding the application of this therapeutic modality in post-conflict and developing nations is modest. This article discusses an exploration of DMT as a vehicle for positive change in Timor-Leste. The people of this half-island developing nation have experienced trauma and dislocation over many generations as a result of waves of punitive colonization and consequent social turmoil. An introductory program of DMT that was offered to address issues including: health and well-being, peace-making, recovery from trauma and creative engagement, is described in detail. This includes exercises to develop body awareness, grounding and centering techniques, and opportunities for personal expression. An exploratory qualitative evaluation, including leaders’ observations of participants’ movement responses and participants’ post-session verbal reflections, offers evidence of the relevance of DMT for this post-conflict context and significant positive outcomes from these activities. Issues such as cultural appropriateness and the challenge of sus- tainability, where there are no trained professionals and few funding opportunities, are addressed. The article concludes with recommendations for the integration of DMT with the powerful role of traditional dance in this community, and reflections on more sus- tainable practices for visiting professionals.

A Handbook for Pastors and Other Helping Professional

2015

This interdisciplinary thesis examines the role of dance/movement in training programmes, which address peace, violence, conflict and trauma. Despite the growing literature and scholarly interest in embodied practices, few training programmes address dance/movement peace explicitly, identify shared beliefs or make connections between movement behaviour and decision-making. The research questions explore how dance/movement trainers experience, implement and conceptualise embodied processes that enable the transformation of conflict, particularly concerning interpersonal and/or intergroup violence. In order to investigate this question, an ‘internal’ analysis of relations and practices amongst its practitioners progresses to an ‘external’ analysis of contributions to arts-based peace practices and peacebuilding. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced trainers working internationally who use artistic, therapeutic and educational approaches to peace practices. The practitioners’ curricula and training materials were examined using thematic analysis and qualitative analysis software (NVivo). The data analysis results in a map of shared beliefs, positionality and boundary shifts amongst the respondents, and proposes an exploration of practices applicable to multiple settings and client groups. This thesis presents new research in Communities of Practice (CoP) theory with artistic communities. It also deepens previous research on dance/movement peace practices and movement analysis, which sustains peaceable and violent actions can be understood through conscious and/or unconscious movement decision-making processes. The thesis concludes that embodied processes involve reflexive and enactive interventions, and proposes analyses of spatial relations, symbolic enactment and relational nonverbal interactions as key contributions of dance/movement. These embodied processes challenge ‘conventional’ forms of knowledge transmission and the arts’ constant pressure for legitimisation. The thematic exploration of shared practices and beliefs therefore integrates movement analysis and social theory to present an interdisciplinary contribution to embodied analyses of violence.

E-International Relations, 2018

Sounds of War is a book on the aesthetics of war experience in Chechnya. It includes theory on, and stories of, compassion, dance, children’s agency and love. It is not simply a book to be read, but to be listened to. The chapters begin with the author’s own songs expressing research findings and methodology in musical form. Susanna Hast is Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher with a project “Bodies in War, Bodies in Dance” (2017–2020) at the Theatre Academy Helsinki, University of the Arts. She does artistic research on emotions, embodiment and war and teaches dance for immigrant and asylum-seeking women in Finland. See also the album Man State War by Hast & Cast on Spotify, Google, Play, ITunes etc. Additional material: https://www.susannahast.com/sounds-of-war

A study with the use of dance movement therapy as a counseling approach in a chemical dependency setting was presented. The objective of the study was to find out if the use of dance movement therapy in male chemical dependency groups reduces overall anxiety.

We encourage deep engagement through the transformative experiences of dancing and dance making. Hone your creative voice and benefit from an extraordinary breadth of resources at a leading research university. Two-year MFA includes full tuition coverage, health insurance, and stipend. smtd.umich.edu/dance GET YOUR MFA IN DANCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN School of Performing Arts [email protected] +356 2340 3524 um.edu.mt/performingarts um.edu.mt/admissions Off ering programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on Dance, Music, Theatre and Performing Arts. School of Performing Arts DEPARTMENT OF DANCE dance.osu.edu | (614) 292-7977 | NASD Accredited PhD, MFA, BFA, Minor

While thinking about notions of the ‘local’, the ‘regional’ and the ‘authentic’ in a social and economic context, one sees these terms becoming increasingly blurred. What remains when the ‘local’ turns out to be a mere product? How does this constant shift between locations, contexts and cultures influence artists’ work? How do these artists elaborate their ways of communicating their practice, while challenging the status of mobility, instability, being-in-motion? Where are the centre and peripheries and how do they influence working conditions? Is the East still running after the West? And what does ‘the East’ mean, after all? These were the main questions we asked while creating IDENTITY.MOVE! - a temporary space for sharing knowledge, experience and intuitions for performing artists working in so-called ‘East Europe’ - a Europe which, for many, remains on the peripheries. The geopolitical situation definitely influences artistic practice, not necessarily always thematically, but mainly through accessible working conditions and artists’ position in society.

Differing techniques, pedagogical approaches, aesthetics, lineages – there are many ways conflict can manifest itself in communities of dance practitioners. Perhaps no other dance form, however, has been the site of as much disagreement around the simple issue of what to call it as belly dance, which has also been known in English as danse du ventre, raqs sharqi, Oriental dance, Middle Eastern dance, and Arab dance, among others. This presentation will give a historical overview, based on primary text sources, of when various names for the dance were introduced into the English language. The primary source evidence belies some common myths about the origins of the term “belly dance”: in particular, that it was coined by promoter Sol Bloom at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair to publicize the Middle Eastern and North African dancers of the exhibition’s Midway Plaisance. The paper will also detail how the popularity of these terms waxed and waned over time, with “Oriental dance” giving way to danse du ventre, then “belly dance,” followed by a resurgence of “Oriental dance” in the twenty-first century. The presentation will conclude with an examination of dancers’ attitudes to the various names for the dance in the present day, based in part on a survey of 154 practitioners residing in Canada conducted by the author. Ultimately, due to the shortcomings that dancers have identified in every name for the dance introduced to date, the community has yet to reach a consensus, and this remains a dance of many names.