“Art-making becomes the encouragement we need and keeps us up to speed with our ability to stay clever, clear and filled with vitality.”
Maggie Forgeron
THE EUROPEAN GRADUATE SCHOOL
https://www.expressivearts.egs.edu/ma-expressive-art-therapy
Trauma-Informed, Hope-Centered EXAT: An Embodied Practice for Dancers
Abstract
This thesis explores movement-based Expressive Arts Therapy (ExAT) as an anchor of relief and hope for professional dancers. Different from passive, wishful thinking and even optimism, this research looks at hope as a goal, a pathway, and the will to pursue a difficult task. I set off on a quest with a group of seven pre-professional dancers from Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Canada, to explore what happens when we investigate the definition of hope through the healing lens of ExAT. This research was conducted over Zoom for the duration of six, two-hour sessions. Also included in the research were pre-series questionnaires, post-series interviews, and an online sharing space to consolidate ART-ifacts. We investigated whether dancers can turn to the arts to find hope when times are difficult and, in turn, uplift them into hopeful action, refreshing their vision of dance and life. Can ExAT connect dancers to embodied hope as a present possibility? By bridging dance with ExAT, the process became a playground for intermodal discovery, freedom from the usual fixed product or purpose, a space without fear of consequence or competition, and so much more. Although it became clear that it was impossible to sustain high hope at all times, it was revealing to see how the dancers dared themselves to show up, take creative action, and find the conscious will to examine what might be in the way of rising hope. What was blocking hope was particularly insightful since I have come to learn, through this research, that low levels of hope are directly connected to trauma. We learned first hand how the healing arts can help us face challenging circumstances in dance and life and turn apathy and despair into hopeful thinking.
Keywords: hope, dance, embodiment, movement-based ExAT, trauma, gut instinct, salutogenesis, response-ability/response-flexibility, menschenbild, change, True Self, mind/body, phenomenology, somatic, metaphor, decentering, low-skill/high sensitivity, intermodal theory, aesthetic response/responsibility, arts-based research, qualitative research, The Tamalpa Life/Art Process®, ethics, and diet and medicine
The Tamalpa Institute 2014, Level 1
Photographer: Taira Restar
Not Just Any Body Part 