Author: Siroka, Robert W.

Publication Year: 1977

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Dance therapy is a form of psychotherapy which uses movement to integrate an individual's body and emotions. It is used to treat affective, behavioral, learning, perceptual and physical disorders. Dance therapists work with people of all ages, in groups and with individuals. They are employed primarily as clinicians working in psychiatric hospitals, clinics, special schools and correctional facilities. They also have private practices and serve as consultants, researchers and teachers.

Abstract:

According to Aristotle, theatre healed the audience by purging their pity and terror. The tragic hero, like Oedipus, commits an act of shame or horror, suffers, and is finally freed from suffering through an understanding of himself. The audience participates in this process with the tragic figure.

Aristotle called this process catharsis. In drama as we know it, catharsis is passive; the audience does not participate in the action. In religious drama, rituals, and healing rites, where the audience, protagonist and holy figure are all directly involved, it is active catharsis.

At present, there are twenty-five training centers for psychodrama in the United States. Approximately twenty colleges and universities offer related courses. St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington, D.C. has operated, for over twenty-five years, a federal program to train psychodramatists, which employs staff under civil service designations. (p. 25-26)

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: