Dance as a Way of Expressing our Individuality Essay

Dance as a Way of Expressing our Individuality - Essay Example But there has to be more scholarly studies that should be conducted on this subject, as what is being done on poetry, music and other classes of literature, as there is a dearth on this particular aspect. When I reached this discovery (of the many topics related to dance), I had to figure out what specific subject would I focus on. I decided the general topic to be about dance and its role in human development but the specific topic is on dance movement/therapy, a rather obscure but interesting topic for discussion which some scholars and experts in the literature, have started to dig and explain to the general audience. What can be said further is that this obscurity has been brought into the open for the many people interested in a new form of medicine and healing. I want to present this to target audience which should be the young. Dance is being practiced – or performed – by our young population but it seems there has been no aim presented to; Why do they dance? I c an surmise that their primary aim is to present or perform for entertainment or to show their skill. But the ideal motive of dance has not been presented. Dance is part of culture, there’s no arguing about that. But its role in the present age should be on the movement/therapy, which will be the main emphasis of this essay. ... Dance is significant in human existence. It is a nonverbal creative way of expression. People express their humanity and individuality in several ways, and mostly through verbal communication and in the art. Dancers feel it as an expression of the soul, sometimes of their own existence. Dancers have also reported of its â€Å"freeing, health-promoting experience† (Degges-White 2011, p. 4). Dance has also been introduced to psychiatric patients and positive results have been noted in the treatment for depression. The logic behind is because of the integration of mind and body that is attributed to dance. Dance and movement allow us to express ourselves when words find it difficult to express. (Degges-White 2011), it is also considered the most primitive of all the arts but there is not enough literature and history of scholarship, unlike poetry and music. (MacDonald 2003, p. 151) The main point of this initial part of the essay is to provide a short origin of dance and its role as dance movement psychotherapy. This concept evolved from the mere fact that therapeutic benefits can be derived from dance. It grew in a unique therapeutic modality during the early 1940s, just like art and music (Malchiodi, 2005 as cited in Degges-White 2011, p. 4). The therapeutic benefits of dance have been one of the areas of study by several authors. An example is the one presented on the youtube website (Therapeutic dance and dance movement therapy 2011) which explores the power of creative arts with ideas on the similarity and difference of therapeutic dance and dance movement therapy. The therapeutic aspect should be emphasized as we see the difficulties of modern medicine to cope with re-emerging illnesses like tuberculosis or the emergence of pathogens as a result of war or