Alter magazine

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

alter PROCESS NOT PRODUCT

editors note

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he cultural arts are so much more than simple aesthetics and entertainment.

They enable us to connect with ourselves both physically and internally. Furthermore they allow us to connect with others in some form or another. This publication aims to focus on the process of creating and experiencing cultural art in the forms of art, music, dance and theatre.

The cultural arts is relatable to everyone in one way or another, children , adults, creatives and spectators. Our focus is process over product, to inform you of the benefits of arts and cultural in your physical as well and mental health. As something that we at Alter are passionate about we hope to inspire and motivate you to spread creative energy and engage in creative methods that contribute to enjoying life a whole lot more.

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contents LETTING GO

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ILLUMINATING THE SYMBOLISM

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THROUGH THEIR EYES

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EMBRACING OUR VIBRANT CULTURE

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MUSIC AND MENTAL HEALTH

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CREATIVE COMMUNICATION

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TAMING THE TIKS

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THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

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THE POWER OF MOVEMENT

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FINDING A CIRCLE

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CITY STAGE

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ROLE PLAY

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ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

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REHAB THEATRE

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Pastime THE HEALING POWER OF ART

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rt may not be able to cure disease, but it can surely make coping with it a lot better.

Researchers have acknowledged the therapeutic qualities of art for years, and today, art therapy is used to help people express themselves when what they’re feeling is too difficult to put into words, such as when they’re faced with a cancer diagnosis.

Research shows this form of therapy often has tangible results. One 2006 study, for example, found that mindfulness art therapy for women with cancer helped to significantly decrease symptoms of physical and emotional distress during treatment.

Another study from the same year concluded that after only one hour of art therapy, adult cancer patients of all ages “overwhelmingly expressed comfort” and a desire to continue with the therapy.

"People with cancer very often feel like their body has been taken over by the cancer. They feel overwhelmed," Joke Bradt, a music therapist at Drexel University in Philadelphia said, "To be able to engage in a creative process... that stands in a very stark contrast to sort of passively submitting oneself to cancer treatments.”

It’s not just those with cancer that can benefit from the visual arts, either. Art therapy is also helpful among people dealing with a variety of other conditions, such as depression, dementia, anxiety, and PTSD.

Art therapy often involves using an art medium as a tool to help address a patient’s specific problem, but as you might have observed in your high school art class, some individuals are more artistically gifted than others. Those who judge themselves as bad artists may be more likely to miss out on the benefits of art-based therapies.

Adult colouring, therefore, presents a creative venture without the need for artistic flair. One simply needs to colour within the lines in order to get the desired effect. However, some experts suggest it’s this lack of artistic input from patients that prevents adult colouring from being considered a genuine form of art therapy.

“It’s like the difference between listening to music versus learning how to play an instrument,” Donna Betts, president of the board of the American Art Therapy Association told The Guardian. “Listening to music is something easy that everyone can do, but playing an instrument is a whole other skillset.”

Drena Fagen, an art therapist and adjunct instructor at New York University’s Steinhardt School, shared Betts’ sentiments: “I don’t consider the colouring books as art therapy,” she told The Guardian.

“I consider the colouring books therapeutic, which is not the same thing.”

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healing WHAT’S GOING ON WHEN WE COLOUR?

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ust because adult colouring alone may not constitute art therapy, that doesn’t mean the activity isn’t helpful. Theresa Citerella, an art therapy student at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass said that she has seen more people using the colouring books, both in class and in therapy, to help them focus.

“A lot of my fellow graduate classmates bring these colouring books into the classroom setting as a tool to focus more on lectures,” Citerella said, explaining that more professors are beginning to welcome this behaviour. “For my internship, I find the clients who are fidgeting and cannot sit still ask for colouring the books in order to concentrate on group discussions.

We have several adult colouring books at my site to offer the clients.”

And considering the inability to focus is often a symptom of anxiety or stress, it only makes sense that adult colouring books would also help with those as well. Dr. Stan Rodski, a neuropsychologist who also happens to be the author of his own line of adult colouring books, says that colouring elicits a relaxing mindset, similar to what you would achieve through meditation. Like mediation, colouring allows us to

switch off our brains from other thoughts and focus on the moment.

Tasks with predictable results, such as colouring or knitting, can often be calming — Rodski was even able to see the physical effects they had on our bodies by using advanced technology.a “The most amazing things occurred — we started seeing changes in heart rate, changes in brainwaves,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, adding that part of this neurological response in “colourists” comes from the repetition and attention to patterns and detail associated with colouring.

Dr. Joel Pearson, a brain scientist at the University of New South Wales in Australia presented a different explanation for the therapeutic effect: Concentrating on colouring an image may facilitate the replacement of negative thoughts and images with pleasant ones.

“You have to look at the shape and size, you have to look at the edges, and you have to pick a colour,” Pearson told Nine MSN. “It should occupy the same parts of the brain that stops any anxiety-related mental imagery happening as well. ... Anything that helps you control your attention is going to help.”

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etting go

Rhodes University student Savannah Roering shares her story on psychosis, escape mechanisms and finding herself again through art as a creative process “I realised that my parents were terrified of me, terrified to be honest with me because of how I would react.�

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P JESS MATHIE

erhaps it started in her second year of university, when her friends locked her in her room to keep her from drinking even more or long before that when she climbed into a pool fully clothed at fifteen years old. Maybe it started on that day in January when Savanna Roering was walking the dogs with her mom in a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

“I don’t know if it was maybe the oxygen going to my brain but I felt more desperate and it was getting harder to deny things to myself. I can’t really call rehab my decision. I knew I needed help though.” Rock bottom is a strange concept. It implies that once you’ve hit the bottom, there’s nowhere left to go but up- to survive or remain in the darkness forever. The darkness was literal. A few drinks down and she was lost in what the rehabilitation centre termed “psychosis.” “Psychosis is something I’m inherently prone to, because I experienced it with two of my main substances of choice. It’s just your mind losing touch with reality.” This removal from reality was once exactly what Savanna wanted because reality was full of people judging her; it was a place where the perpetual fear of failure and disappointment haunted her. “I had this warped sense of pride,” she explains, “If I never open myself to getting hurt, I never get hurt. My life’s mission for a long time was not to feel anything at all.” All she had to do to escape was indulge in alcohol and marijuana.

Sitting in front of me now on her bed, she looks at me with dark brown eyes, this twenty-one-year-old Fine Art student with an explosively creative mind. Her room is lined with images meant to inspire, to capture, and to set alight some sort of creative fire within- it seems to work. Above her bed is a watercolour painting of a bearded man, a portrait she did for an assignment. The artwork of dripping purples and blues tells a subtle story about a girl who was once too afraid to be proud of herself. Now she sleeps beneath it, and a dream catcher which she made herself.

Savanna started studying Journalism at Rhodes University in 2013. She chose Journalism because an aptitude test suggested it. In hindsight, she wonders, “Did I answer those questions in the test properly or how I would have liked to have seen myself?” A year later, she made the switch to Fine Art, something she had always wanted but was too afraid to pursue something others might have judged her for choosing.

The need to control what she wanted and how she went about obtaining it was driven by the fear of what other people thought of her: “I think it started when I started caring too much about what people thought. It ruined me. Before I went to high-school and all that social bullshit started, before I completely bought into it,

“I FEEL LIKE NOW THE MAGIC CAN HAPPEN BECAUSE I LET IT.”

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was so free and open-minded.” She talks about the person she used to be as though it were someone else, as though she were split in half. The person she is now is more like she was as a child, confident and able to do things on a whim. The person she used to be found herself neglecting relationships, locked herself away from the world and turned to substances to numb herself. These two people inhabit the same body.

Savanna talks about never forgetting who she was, or what she did because that would make it easy to fall back into the same bad habits she has tried to break and replace with good ones. “I think that my default is self-destruct,” she admits She talks about the person she used to be as though it were someone else, as though she were split in half. The person she is now is more like she was as a child, confident and able to do things on a whim.

The person she was neglected relationships locked herself away from the world and turned to substances to numb herself. These two people inhabit the same body, however.

Savanna talks about never forgetting who she was, or what she did because that would make it easy to fall back into the same bad habits she has tried to break and replace with good ones. “I think that my default is self-destruct,” she admits.

Forgiving herself is a slow process, just as recovering from her addiction in every aspect has been. She is reluctant to call her recovery something to be proud of: she does not feel that living by your won principles is an achievement as much as it is a breath of fresh air. The ideas of waking up in the morning and having a healthy routine, being able to exercise and eat healthily, have become the safety net she needs to remain consistent in her progress. Her relationship with her family is a lot more honest now, she explains.

For a long time, it was difficult to see that her substance abuse was affecting the people whom she loved in a negative way.

“In rehab I realised that my parents were terrified of me, terrified to be honest with me because of how I would react.”

Leaning against a wall is a painting she made of herself as a child and her father. It reminds me of what she said about feeling like her childhood self again, and being able to lean on her family- all tied together with an incredible artistic talent that she has.

Before, she used to rely on marijuana to aid the creative process. It would take her on a journey which she has now realised she doesn’t need to take to get lost in her work.

Leaning over a new piece that she’s working on, she explains that she used to approach art in a “paint-by-numbers” way, instead of just trusting herself to let go and believe that it will work out without the aid of any mind-altering substances. She looks down at the unfinished work, smiles triumphantly and says, “I feel like now the magic can happen because I let it.”

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ART THERAPY EXPLAINED

ILLUMINATING THE SYMBOLISM

16 Art JESAME GELDENHUYS

“I

t’s all about providing a space for soul, psyche, imagination or a neglected part of yourself. It’s the neglected part of oneself that I provide a safe space for which to be explored,” says art therapist Eloff Snyman, who has been exploring the expressive realms of art therapy for the last 25 years. He is now paving the way in academia for the discipline to be more recognised in South Africa.

After disillusionment with the structured teaching system, Snyman found himself organically morphing his formal Fine Art training and PGCSE degree that he completed at Rhodes University into a therapeutic technique called art therapy. After completing his masters in art therapy in London, where he lived and worked for most of his career, he returned to South Africa and now dwells in the peacefulness of Grahamstown where he privately practices art therapy at Carinus Art Centre and lectures a post-graduate art therapy psychology course at Rhodes University.

The only course of its kind in South African academic curriculum Boxes of paint and materials sit on the tables in his practice room at Carinus and expressive,

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symbolic raw paintings line his walls, all setting the ambiance for the free and open space that Snyman facilitates the therapeutic process in.“The platform for healing lies in the free space in which the process can be allowed. It’s all about the process in Art therapy,” he explains. He looks over his written notes that date over the last decade; all of his recorded sentiments and recollections of enlightening and illuminating experiences in his role as an art therapist with the children, students and “burnt-out academics” that he has worked with.

“Can I explain it all in key words?” he asks. “Illumination, realisation, knowledge, return to self and discovery.

That’s it. It’s all about illuminating the symbolism.”

WHAT’S THE IMPORTANCE OF ART THERAPY? •

Rediscovery, returning, respecting- it’s all RE… to neglected parts that have = been deemed unimportant. But, it’s a return to something very valuable. It is there, giving people a space to dare think for themselves and have an opinion and then explore, experimentally, wherever it takes them.

HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR ROLE AS AN ART THERAPIST? •

My role is to provide space for the soul, psyche, imagination and neglected parts. All of those places, we have different words for them, but it’s a neglected part of oneself that I provide a safe space for which to be explored. External environments are usually controlled and judged, but not here. Eventually the mind tires of that and sometimes you need something a bit more meaningful.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT ART THERAPY? •

Space for imagining. Only that. That’s the main thing.

It is a space. It’s also locating or allowing the client’s time to come to contact with the neglected part of themselves. That’s why we often work blindfolded and with the non-dominant hand, to give some air to a part that is so often not seen as very important. So very much, space.

PHOTO BY AMAURY SALAS

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MATTHEW MIENTKA

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AFRICA’S FIRST PSYCHOANALYTICALLY INFORMED COMMUNITY ART COUNSELLING TRAINING CENTRE

efika La Phodiso ‘The Rock of Holding’ is Africa’s first psychoanalytically informed Community Art Counselling training centre.

Through this specialised skills development, we are able to facilitate community outreach projects as practical placement sites for our students.

Recognising the universal need and nature of psychosocial health, we have grown from our initial centre based in Gauteng and now reach interprovincial communities across South Africa and abroad. We are currently celebrating over 20 years alongside our country's two decades of democracy.

Art making is an innately human instinct that overcomes language and cultural barriers and is therefore a highly effective way of engaging those affected by traumatic experiences.

When art materials are engaged with in a therapeutic environment, the process may evoke different feeling states reflecting the unconscious forces that shape a person’s experience.The role of the Community Art Counsellor is to create a safe space in which the voice of the image can be heard, understood and contained.

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THROUGH THEIR EYES Patricia Santoso creates beautiful abstract artworks inspired by people who share their stories with her

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SOMEWHERE IN THIS WORLD

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“There is so much that people share with me and there have been times when I have showed them an artwork I have created that has been inspired by their story, their self-expression, their ability to communicate the darkness, hardship, joy, and neutrality that they have felt.�

BLACK ANGEL

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STIRRING WITHIN

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MORPHOSIS

WITHIN

RIPPLES

Patricia Santoso Santoso Resin Art

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27 Music

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Embracing our vibrant culture M

usic Therapy is an established health care profession registered with the HPCSA (Health Professionals Council of South Africa). A music therapist utilizes clinically informed music-based interventions to form a therapeutic relationship with an individual client or group that serves to optimize their quality of life. (In other words the client and therapist might create music together or listen to and discuss music to get to know one another and create the most helpful course of therapy.)

Music Therapy is used in medical, educational, rehabilitative and everyday environments to address physical, emotional, cognitive, communicative, spiritual and social needs of individuals, groups and communities.

South Africa has a unique and diverse musical background, and music forms an integral part of customs, rituals, healing and everyday life. Music Therapy is a relatively new profession in South Africa, fueled by passionate music therapists who tap into this vibrant musical culture, offering a distinctive practice relevant to this context.

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Chris Cornell Music Therapy Program

Healing through the power of music JON BLISTEIN

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he Seattle-based nonprofit Childhaven announced the establishment of the Chris Cornell Music Therapy Program Thursday in honor of what would have been the late musician's 53rd birthday.

Cornell's widow, Vicky Cornell, committed $100,000 to Childhaven to bolster the organization's efforts to help children and their families overcome the effects of trauma.

"The Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation is excited to join Childhaven to support its extraordinary work impacting the lives of those in need," Vicky Cornel l said. "Chris and I always shared a strong belief in the healing and inspiring power of music, and through Childhaven's establishment of this program, we are able to keep the promise for Chris by continuing to protect the world's most vulnerable children." Childhaven uses various therapeutic methods

and early learning programs to help young children develop healthily after facing experiences such as abuse, neglect, domestic violence and chemical dependency.

Music therapy specifically gives kids a creative outlet through which they can express and grapple with their feelings. Seattle musician Brian Vogan, who runs the music therapy program at Childhaven, explained, "Because of what they've experienced, a lot of children come to Childhaven struggling with anger and other overwhelming emotions. Being able to beat on drums is really helpful for them. Other kids are very shy, and music helps to bring them out of their shell."

The Chris Cornell Music Therapy Program will be open to children at Childhaven who are infants up to five years old. The Chris and Vicky Cornell foundation

previously contributed to Childhaven's music therapy program in 2013. Along with helping the music therapy program at Childhaven, the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation was dedicated to assisting child refugees. (One month before the musician's death, the couple toured a refugee camp in Greece.) In June, a posthumous video for Cornell's song "The Promise" – for the 2016 film of the same name about the Armenian genocide – arrived, widening the movie's scope to include recent footage of refugees fleeing war-torn cities in Libya and Syria.

Following the music video's release, a slew of Cornell's friends, including Josh Brolin, Tom Hanks, Christian Bale and Elton John contributed to a short video promoting sales of "The Promise" with all proceeds benefiting refugees and children in need.

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Drumming Healing Body, Mind and Soul

BY SAYER JI

T

o understand the transformative power of drumming you really must experience it. Anyone who has participated in a drum circle, or who has borne witness to one knows that the rhythmic entrainment of the senses and the anonymous though highly intimate sense of community generated that follows a direct and simultaneous experience of deep transcendence and immanence was not an extraordinarily rare occurrence as it is today.

This experience is so hard-wired into our biological, social and spiritual DNA that even preschool children as young as 2.5 years appear to be born with the

PHOTO SOURCED

ability to synchronise body movements to external acoustic beats when presented in a social context, revealing that drumming is an inborn capability and archetypal social activity.

We do have some compelling evidence from human clinical and observational studies on the power of drumming to affect positive change both physically and psychologically, seemingly indicating the answer to our question about the biological role of acoustic information in modulating micro and macro physiological processes in a meaningful way is YES.

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HEALTH BENEFITS

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REDUCE BLOOD PRESSURE, ANXIETY/STRESS: A 2014 study published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine enrolled both middle-aged experienced drummers and a younger novice group in 40-minute djembe drumming sessions. Their blood pressure, blood lactate and stress and anxiety levels were taken before and after the sessions. Also, their heart rate was monitored at 5 second intervals throughout the sessions. As a result of the trial, all participants saw a drop in stress and anxiety.

Systolic blood pressure dropped in the older population post-drumming.

INCREASE BRAIN WHITE MATTER AND EXECUTIVE COGNITIVE FUNCTION: A 2014 study published in the Journal of Huntington’s Disease found that two months of drumming intervention in Huntington’s patients resulted in “improvements in executive function and changes in white matter microstructure, notably in the genu of the corpus callosum that connects prefrontal cortices of both hemispheres.” The study authors concluded that the pilot study provided novel preliminary evidence that drumming (or related targeted behavioural stimulation) may result in “cognitive enhancement and improvements in callosal white matter microstructure.”

REDUCED PAIN: A 2012 study published in Evolutionary Psychology found that active performance of music (singing, dancing and drumming) triggered endorphin release (measured by post-activity increases in pain tolerance) whereas merely listening to music did not.

The researchers hypothesised that this may contribute to community bonding in activities involving dance and music-making.

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OF

DRUMMING

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REDUCE STRESS (CORTISOL/DHEA RATIO), INCREASE IMMUNITY: A 2001 study published in Alternative Therapies and Health Medicine enrolled 111 age- and sex- matched subjects (55 men and 56 women; mean age 30.4 years) and found that drumming “increased dehydroepiandrosterone-to-cortisol ratios, increased natural killer cell activity, and increased lymphokine-activated killer cell activity without alteration in plasma interleukin 2 or interferon-gamma, or in the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory II.�

TRANSCENDENT (RE-CREATIONAL) EXPERIENCES: A 2004 study published in the journal Multiple Sclerosis revealed that drumming enables participants to go into deeper hypnotic states, and another 2014 study published in PLoS found that when combined with shamanistic instruction, drumming enables participants to experience decreased heart rate and dreamlike experiences consistent with transcendental experiences.

SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DISORDERS:

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A powerful 2001 study published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that low-income children who enrolled in a 12-week group drumming intervention saw multiple domains of social-emotional behaviour improve significantly, from anxiety to attention, from oppositional to poswt-traumatic disorders.

Taking into account the beneficial evolutionary role that drumming likely performed in human history and prehistory, as well as the new scientific research confirming its psychosocial and physiological health benefits, we hope that it will be increasingly looked at as a positive medical, social and psychospiritual intervention.

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MUSIC AND MENTAL HEALTH E

vidence has shown that music therapy can address people’s physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs by either creating, singing, moving to, and/ or listening to music. A recent study conducted at Queen’s University Belfast has revealed that music therapy can effectively treat depression in children and adolescents dealing with emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems.

"This study is hugely significant in terms of determining effective treatments for children and young people with behavioural problems and mental health needs."

Professor Sam Porter, lead researcher from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen's University, said in a statement. Queen’s University researchers in partnership with the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust recruited 251 children and young people with emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems to participate in a study that lasted from March 2011 to May 2014.

Researchers split the sample into two groups, including 128 who received usual care for depression and 123 who received music therapy as well as usual care. The group of children and young people who received musical therapy were able to increase their selfesteem, improve their communicative and interactive skills, and reduce depressive symptoms compared to those who only received usual care. Follow-ups conducted after the study concluded found that the positive result of music therapy had long-term effects.

Researchers are currently collecting data to determine how cost-effective music therapy is compared to other forms of depression treatment.

"Music therapy has often been used with children and young people with particular mental health needs, but this is the first time its effectiveness has been shown by a definitive randomized controlled trial in a clinical setting,” said Ciara Reilly, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, around 11 percent of adolescents exhibit symptoms of depressive disorder before the age of 18.

Current treatment methods include costly antidepressant medications and psychotherapy.

The Food and Drug Administration recently placed a “black box” warning label on all antidepressant medications over an increased risk for suicidal thinking.

“The findings are dramatic and underscore the need for music therapy to be made available as a mainstream treatment option,” Reilly added. “For a long time we have relied on anecdotal evidence and small-scale research findings about how well music therapy works. Now we have robust clinical evidence to show its beneficial effects."

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Meditation through music JULIAN DOUGLAS

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’ve always loved rhythm - but not because it connects me to the “heartbeat of the earth,” or the “cycles of life,” or the “rhythms of the cosmos.” These cliché metaphors seem to suggest that musical rhythm is a microcosm of a more profound reality. I love rhythm because in music, I have found a pulsing, lifegiving universe of infinite exploration that does not need any justification beyond itself.

Musical rhythm takes advantage of a unique human capacity - that of measuring time with great precision through the senses. As one of the legs of the trinity (along with melody and harmony), rhythm is a fundamental aspect of what makes music a universal human language. Rhythm is math expressed with a passion that compels the body to move and the soul to awaken. Rhythm has been the vehicle for the visions of shamans, the engine of trance and ecstasy in religious rituals and ceremonies, and a guide toward personal evolution for musicians around the world and throughout history.

I compose, produce, arrange, and perform rhythmically-driven contemporary world music. As a percussionist, my influences include contemporary and traditional music from the African diaspora, the Middle-East, Eastern Europe, India, and anywhere else I can encounter weird and wonderful sounds. As a composer, I sometimes think of rhythm as a matrix or tapestry, where

the horizontal threads are the flow of time for each sound and the vertical threads are the sounds or silences.

Through the array of vertical and horizontal threads, a sonic image that is greater than the sum of its parts comes into focus. For me, a well crafted rhythmic composition is one that is musical at every level of resolution. The rhythmic relationship between any combination of rhythmic “identities” is intentional and tells a story of tension and resolution, but each element also plays a meaningful part in the whole.

If I were satisfied with the purely intellectual challenges and rewards of creating complex structures, I might have chosen architecture as my medium (though I’m not suggesting architecture can’t also be sensual) - but music is not just cold lines, angles, and mathematical precision. It is also heat, curves, color, sweat, and passion. Fundamental to rhythmic precision is the ability to embody rhythm - literally for rhythm to be in the body - not just in the limbs but in the core. Music must be physically felt before it can be played. Otherwise, it is merely sound.

As a performer, I get to take a wild ride through time. At its best, performance of deep, rhythmic music is an opportunity to experience each passing moment as both vast and ephemeral.

Each moment requires complete commitment and complete

surrender. As an improviser, I get to pull on the threads of the rhythmic tapestry. Through sound and silence, I get to illuminate the subtle colors and shapes in the composition so that each performance can offer a unique perspective on what has been written.

Renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described optimal experience, or what he calls “flow,” as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one ... Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” The fact that his description is remarkably similar to that of mystical experiences is, I think, not a coincidence. Music provides an experience of unity between mind and body, thought and feeling, commitment and surrender.

Through the creative process, I am able to be the most complete version of myself and yet not be bound to a sense of self at all. The power of music and rhythm is in its ability to resolve these paradoxes and contradictions. On a spiritual level, like so many musicians before me, I have found music to be meditation for my otherwise restless mind, and an aperture through which I can experience a reality that is deeper and more profound than the one I more often inhabit.

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Creative communication E

veryone can participate in music therapy. A person engaging in music therapy does not need to be a musician; even a severely disabled person can find ways of expressing and interacting through music therapy.

In this manner a child with Cerebral Palsy who is unable to talk or walk may gain opportunities for self-expression and social interaction through creative vocalization.

Music therapy is a means of communication. Music therapy offers a non-verbal means of addressing and responding to a person’s communicative needs, even if their ability to

communicate has been impaired. For example a stroke patient who has limited speech may be able to form a communicative relationship with the music therapist. This may occur through the client’s participation in instrumental and vocal improvisation (using open vowel sounds) while having his/her vocalizations reciprocated and acknowledged in in an affirming and creative manner. Music therapy is an alternative and safe medium for expression.

Music can convey and contain difficult or inaccessible emotions. In music therapy, clients may express and work through

such emotions in a creative manner. For example a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome who might not be able to regulate his/her emotional outbursts may have the opportunity to contain and express his/her aggression and frustration through drumming. By harnessing/ tapping into their creativity and playfulness, clients explore their world and consider alternative ways of being and relating, which may lead to change.

In this manner a child on the autistic spectrum who is usually withdrawn and struggles to connect socially with others may gain opportunities to playfully interact with others through musical games.

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MEDICINAL MUSIC M

usic has the power to motivate, inspire, and heal a broken heart, but new research suggests that the right song could also relieve the pain caused by a back injury. The study from Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical School suggests that music therapy may be implemented as an integral part of spinal injury recovery treatment.

The new study, published online in The American Journal of Orthopedics, found that patients recovering from spine surgery reported less pain when they also received music therapy, as opposed to those who received only traditional rehabilitation treatment.

Music therapy treatment ranged from patient to patient, consisting of either live music, joint singing, and/or rhythmic drumming. Results suggest that it may be beneficial to offer more music therapy options for recovering surgery patients as a way to help them deal with post-surgery pain.

Music Therapy Works Better Than Relaxation Exercises In Improving Health Of Palliative Care Patients "This study is unique in its quest to integrate music therapy in medicine to treat post-surgical pain," said John Mondanaro, the study's lead author, in a recent statement. "Postoperative spine patients are at major risk for pain management challenges." For the study, 60 patient pain ratings, as based off the visual analog scale, were collected both before and after music therapy. One group of patients had 30 minutes of music therapy in additional to traditional postoperative care, while the control group only received the traditional postoperative care, which primarily includes drugs. Results showed a notable difference in the post-therapy pain rating between the group that received music therapy and the control. Patients ranged in age from 40 to 55 years old, and underwent a variety of different spinal operations.

Past research has also suggested that music therapy may be an effective way to help patients deal with depression. A 2014 study found that children and young people with depression who received music therapy reported increases in their self-esteem, improvements in their communication and interactive skills, and overall had reduced symptoms of depression compared to young patients who only received traditional depression treatment.

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TAMING THE LUCY WALLIS

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t the age of 20, Ruth Ojadi had a powerful singing voice and a place to study music at university.

She should have been on her way to the top, but within two years was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and her world fell apart.

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Three years on, Ruth has decided to take her life back and step up to the mic once more.

In 2008 Ruth was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome - a neurological disorder characterised by tics or sudden, involuntary movements and sounds that occur repeatedly.

She was two years into her music degree course at Middlesex University in London at the time. "It was weird because my tics were starting to surface. I was suppressing them, but it wasn't as obvious and I remember sometimes running out of lectures and having panic attacks because I felt like I didn't know what was going on with me," she says.

Although Ruth had not realised what they were, her tics started with rapid blinking and twitching at the age of 16. Her GP had put this down to nerves, but her condition became debilitating. Before long she started swearing and blurting out inappropriate comments, eventually dropping out of university

and locking herself away from the outside world.

Tourette's Syndrome affects about 300,000 people in the UK, but only 10% of those are like Ruth, where their Tourette's compels them to swear and act inappropriately (known as coprolalia). This makes everyday tasks like commuting and shopping extremely difficult.

"I noticed a few months ago as soon as I walked into a shop the first thing I shouted out was, 'I'm stealing' and it's just stuck," she says. Ruth also shouts out personal details that she does not want other people to hear, such as her bank card pin number. Or makes rude hand gestures to motorists when trying to thank them for stopping to let her cross the road. Some motorists even speed up towards her when they think they have been insulted.

Another symptom of the condition is that Ruth repeats phrases or noises that she hears around her (called echolalia). It took a while for Ruth’s older sister, Joy Ojadi, to get used to her sister’s condition. “I didn’t know how to cope with [her] Tourette’s,” she says. “I think Tourette’s affects people around you, because when we used to talk before, I didn’t know how to carry on having a conversation with [her]... I’d carry on stopping constantly.”

The only time Ruth’s tics subside is when she sings and for the first time since she was diagnosed, she has decided to perform in public to a group of strangers at an open

Art 39

TIKS

Could singing be the secret to taming Tourette’s?

mic night. “I realised that actually making music was almost like a therapy.

I get release from this and I’m able to just do something and know full well that I’m going to be in control of it at all points,” she says. When Ruth sings she does not show any signs of the condition, but is still worried the audience will be distracted by her comments or expressions before and after the performance.

BITCH

“I don’t think everyone as they get ready for a gig is prepared to see someone with Tourette’s, but I want to make them feel like that.

Not that everything is a possibility, but that we exist,” she says. Ruth also makes sure she always dresses the part and would not walk around in jogging bottoms, because her condition has the tendency, she says, to make her look a little like a “madwoman” and she is determined to make even more of an effort with her physical appearance.

Most cases of Tourette’s Syndrome appear in childhood, but Ruth’s first facial tics emerged at secondary school where her motor tics - rapid eye blinks, then nose twitches, were all on the right hand side of her face. Her former teacher, Lynne

Franklin, recalls Ruth’s “quiet determination” as a student, a time before her Tourette’s took hold.

Ruth now teaches at a centre for autistic adults, where she works hard at suppressing her tics in front of the students. “She may have the occasional hand twitch but in terms of the vocal tics, there are none,” says work colleague Panos Bouras.

“Maybe towards the end of the day there is a bit of breathing like ‘huh’, but not once has she swore, not once has she said anything offensive whilst working with the clients, and I just think that’s absolutely incredible, but you can see it takes its toll.” To suppress her behaviour Ruth tenses her body and mind which leaves her exhausted at the end of the day.

The pressure leading up to the open mic night is also physically and mentally stressful for Ruth, and just ahead of her first live performance, her nerves send her tics into overdrive. However the gig is a personal triumph and vocal success and Ruth is planning to do more live performances.

“If I’d have tried to do this two years ago, I wouldn’t have given it as much performance, effort, energy as I do now.

I wouldn’t have seen it through,” she says. “It’s the only respite I get, and I’m truly grateful for that, because not many people with Tourette’s can have that.”

WANKER

40 Art

“How we dance reflects the way we live and connect with others.”

DANCER PHOTO SOURCED

Dance 41

JOURNEY THROUGH DANCE B

ased in Cape Town, the purpose of Journey through Dance classes is to create a space for healing, transformation and exploration within.

To build a strong a connection to ourselves and others, to balance, energise and birth the creative, heart-filled potential that we all have inside. How we live and connect with others reflects our dance. So how is your dance? How are you moving in life? Are you wanting to change certain aspects of your life? Are you sitting with deep emotions that no longer serve you?

Perhaps it;s time to move them and ultimately let them go and transform them. Anything is possible through the Dance. Dancing is about connection. Connection with yourself and the connection with others, In a time when there is so much disconnection, dance is a wonderful universal tool to help us to connect more deeply. You do not need any experience when you dance, ‘you come home to your body’.

Surrendering to movement, you begin to connect with yourself, and begin to express your true self.

Discover the intoxicating medicine of movement as you dance through your emotional blockages and original wounding, embracing the dance until you come into contact with the unique essence of who you are.

Dance classes promote the connection and balance between the Chakra System, male and female energies, reflection and expansion, light and shadow and acceptance and intention.

42 Dance

CHRISTINA LAVERS

The universal language T

here is not one culture on Earth that does not have a long tradition of dance. This suggests that dancing, the act of moving in time to music, is central to the experience of being human. It is such a key form of cultural expression that it has been called the “universal language”. Every culture in the world has a customary style of dance that communicates aspects of the group’s identity, creativity, rituals, history and meaning. In fact, it has even been suggested that a person could learn as much, if not more, about another culture through participating in their dance as they could reading an anthropological paper.

A recent study led by researcher Bronwyn Tarr from Oxford University produced further evidence that demonstrates that dancing plays a role in supporting and strengthening social cohesion. Tarr, a dancer and experimental psychologist, postulated that dance, being essentially cooperative in nature, could have played a role in our evolution by encouraging social bonds and other pro-social behaviour between community members.

Other studies have found that people who performed synchronous tasks (doing similar movement at the same time) together were more likely to have positive feelings about the other participants and were more likely to engage in positive social behaviour within the group.

It is believed that this is because these unified actions obscure the barriers between self and others, making it easier to think in terms of the collective, rather than individual good.

This particular study wanted to examine the difference between dancing individually (with self-generated moves) and dancing collectively (following a set of established moves). It was also designed to measure the effects of exertion on levels of social bonding. For this experiment the researchers recruited two hundred and sixty-four mixed gender high school students from local schools on Marajó Island, Brazil. To establish synchrony conditions, the participants were asked to perform the same movements to the same music at the same time. For non-synchrony conditions the participants were asked to perform their own individual sequence of moves. Exertion was controlled by having participants learn dance moves that required them to be standing and using all their body (high exertion condition) or tiny, low impact hand gestures that could be performed while seated (low exertion condition).

The wider group was broken down into small groups of three. Every micro group could decide whether they participated in high or low exertion activities and whether their moves were synchronous or not.

Each participant was asked to measure their sense of connection to the others in their sub-group before and after the experiment. Another noteworthy aspect of the study was that participants were fitted with wrist cuffs that measured levels of endorphins in their bodies. The study found that those who participated in synchronous dance activities were much more likely to have an elevated sense of connection to the other members of the micro groups than those who engaged in their own unique dance moves.

Dance 43 Further, those that engaged in synchronous moves, and high levels of exertion were found to have higher levels of endorphins, which translates to higher pain thresholds. Tarr stated, “Maybe this is why we love to flash mob, because we’re hitting both these two things: we’re getting this elevated pain threshold from the feel good chemicals pumping through our systems, but also we feel more connected to others because we’re doing the same thing at the same time and that signals the sense of connective oneness we like to get.”

What I find particularly interesting about this study is that, as discussed at the start of this article, dance is a means to express our cultural values and perceptions, and while we all come from cultural traditions that embraced some form of synchronous dance style, today in Western societies the most common style of dance is an individual based one.

This mirrors our modern social identity which has become increasingly focused on the individual.

While historically cultures have evolved with an emphasis on the collective, today in the West where the emphasis is on the individual, we also see a culture that is plagued by problems that relate to alienation and disconnection. There is a saying in many shamanic cultures that if you came to the medicine person with a complaint of despondency or depression, the first question you would be met with might be, “When did you stop dancing?” Maybe this is the question we need to ask to our society as a whole: “When did we stop dancing in unison?” The answer would be in the 1960’s, the same time we saw the sexual revolution exploding in society. In many respects dancing, being both physical and often intimate could be seen as a socially acceptable form of sexual expression. The Sixties was about freedom, and throwing off the shackles of tradition and institution. People at that time ceased being interested in following established convention and wanted to be free to explore themselves and express their uniqueness. The rebellion against social conformity resulted in a rejection of communal, synchronised dance. Humans tend to go to extremes before we settle into balance. Perhaps that is where we are right now. Many of us have found and celebrated our individuality but lost a sense of connection and belonging. Fortunately there’s no reason we have to choose one or the other.

Now that we are once again starting to recognise and appreciate the importance of community for our sense of well being, and seeing an increase in the evidence that demonstrates that dance has the ability to help us bond with our fellow humans, perhaps we will see a resurgence in large-scale, inclusive, synchronic global dance trends that takes us beyond the somewhat shallow and limited ‘La Macarena’ and ‘Gangnam Style’.

Dance, which can be primal or highly refined, interpretive or choreographed, messy or polished, has always been an important tool for forging towards, and reconnecting with the deeper aspects of being. As we re-member the importance of honouring both our uniqueness and our relationship to humanity as a whole, dance may be seen once more as that powerful, natural, and healthy activity that is central to our being and has the capacity to connect us to our external world, our internal world and that sacred space where everything meets.

44 Art

Bridging the gap MARGERY D. ROSEN

T

he distance from your feet to your brain may seem a long way, but it's one that's easily bridged for those who just get up and dance. Besides giving you a great cardio boost, dance improves balance, coordination and flexibility. It's also a weight-bearing exercise, like jogging, walking, skiing, climbing stairs or skipping rope.

These impact-producing activities all help you build bones and slow bone loss, especially in the legs, hips and lower spine. Ballroom dances (think waltz, tango, foxtrot, salsa, cha-cha and swing) also work all the major muscle groups and build stamina. A small 2011 study (just 38 participants) in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine focused on adults with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors that is also associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment.

The study found that older adults with metabolic syndrome who met twice weekly for six months to dance the cha-cha improved their memory and cognitive performance on a variety of tests, while there were no signs of improvement among those in the control group who didn't take part in the dancing.

A 2005 study by researchers at McGill University in Montreal compared two groups of older adults: One group danced the tango twice a week, the other simply walked. After 10 weeks, both groups did better on several cognitive tests. But the dancers outperformed the walkers on multitasking tests and saw additional gains in their coordination and balance.

Dance 45

THE POWER OF

MOVEMENT

Movement and healing go hand-in hand. Yet for some of us, it’s easier for us to move in a yoga class than it is to move on the dance floor.

Natasha Blank, the founder of Get Your Dance On talks to us about all this good stuff and more!

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Art 47

48 Dance

I

took my first dance class when I was 10, and I started doing yoga around 14 or 15 to be more flexible for dance. My tap dancing math teacher was the one who convinced me to go. After a four year break from both in 2003, a friend took me to Bikram (which I now refer to as the gateway drug to yoga), and I went to Burning Man for the first time. The playa brought me back to dance in a new way - no more ballet bars, fluorescent lights, or pink tights - just me, the music, the desert, and an atmosphere made for self-expression.

How did the idea for Get Your Dance On come about?

Brooklyn Bowl asked if we wanted to do some kind of dance thing before they opened on Saturday mornings in December 2009. The first one was 10am in the middle of a snowstorm, and 9 people

showed up. But I was a year out of school, developing my Integrative Health Counseling Practice and needed to do something connected to dance, so I kept doing it.

As an Integrative Health Counselor and Reiki Master how have you seen dance/movement heal and affect people?

I would never have believed in the power of movement as much as I do now if I hadn't experienced it first hand. I originally got into holistic healing because I had all sorts of weird health issues.

I studied nutritional healing endlessly, became a Reiki Master and had some pretty profound healing experiences through both, but I didn't fully heal until I started dancing again - and things really shifted when I began studying Gabrielle Roth's 5Rhythms.

I've seen free form dance practices like 5Rhythms help heal eating disorders, digestive problems, physical injuries, chronic tension, thyroid problems - it

catalyzes change in the way we relate to ourselves and the world.

We cannot truly move freely unless we break through the blocked and dysfunctional patterns that hold us back every day. Movement brings us back into a fully integrated place, and that's the most healing place we can be.

How are yoga and dance related / what are the similarities? Why do you think the two are so powerful when combined?

They both have the potential to bring us home to ourselves. They create the space in our minds necessary to bring us back in touch with the natural intelligence of our bodies, and ultimately with each other and the planet. Yoga is amazing because it systematically threads our minds back into our physicality, and works our attention in very specific ways.

I love doing yoga before dancing because I'm already fully in my body, and I can get on the dance floor and just go. Letting loose in the dance takes the integration

achieved in yoga a step further, because we're no longer being told how to move - the natural intelligence that lives in us is moving us.

You've mentioned DJ Freq Nasty and his thoughts on music / yoga / dance and enjoying both sober -- can you elaborate? For someone reading this who's not used to dancing sans alcohol -- any tips?

I love this question. There is a huge culture around using substances to facilitate peak experiences on the dance floor - which can actually be quite a gateway for people to experience levels of interconnectedness and bliss they didn't know existed. What often happens, thought, is that we get attached to those substances and project the power we have to reach peak states onto them.

It is our birthright to know ecstasy, serenity, wholeness, unbridled joy.

Those feelings come naturally when we let go of our inhibitions, and allow the freedom that is our true nature to ride us beyond our

beliefs about how good, beautiful, successful, or lovable we are.

Getting there while sober takes a willingness to push your edge, to face how uncomfortable you are with yourself. And at the same time, a willingness to have your ideas turned upside down when you discover how amazing it feels to move freely, just as you are.

There are also plenty of ways to get into the groove without waking up with a hangover. Rhythm and bass have a direct and potent effect on our brainwaves, bringing us into different kinds of fun trance states.

Get Your Dance On's drum crew Da Riddim Inya works with rhythm very consciously to get our dancers centered in themselves and connected to each other - literally.

Their brain waves are entrained with the drums, so everyone is having this incredible shared experience.

And of course, finding the right place to dance is huge. Your sober dancing experiments probably won't be much fun in a club playing top 40 dance hits while

most people are standing around in high heels. This is the biggest reason I created Get Your Dance On. It has pre-party Yoga SoundScapes with guest DJs and musicians, different rooms with different styles of music, the Didge Project's Chill Space, acupuncture, saunas and showers after you've worked up a sweat, plus plenty of coconut water, kombucha, elixirs, and raw chocolate to fuel you all night. It's an atmosphere where everyone is free to shed their inhibitions and have a blast, dance, chill, and connect with a vibrant community.

What's next for Get Your Dance On? What are you working on?

Right now I'm focusing on our community in NYC. We've done events in LA, San Fransisco, Burning Man, and both Tahoe and Vermont Wanderlust Festivals and they've been great, but the most rewarding part of all of it is building something really special here in New York. So I'm working on different ways to do that more and better.

50 Dance

Converting to dance V

alerie Perdue, 55, was diagnosed at age 42 with Sjögren’s syndrome, a chronic autoimmune disease that left her exhausted to the point of immobility and in debilitating pain. “The doctor told me, basically, I wasn’t going to get well,” says Perdue.

Then a friend introduced her to a modern dance class. Although she only had the strength to watch, she “was so emotionally moved by its beauty,” she kept going, and eventually was able to participate: First she’d just breathe deeply, and move her arms while seated, then could stand for longer periods during the class.

After many years of dogged practice, Perdue says, “I became physically stronger, mentally clearer.

It was so transformative and healing to me.” Perdue is a convert to the church of dance – which some people consider a cure for much of what ails us. It may not be the answer to every health crisis, but there’s no doubt that it can benefit the body and mind in many ways.

Some of the physical effects are obvious: dance can – among other things — boost cardiovascular health and bone strength (because it’s weight-bearing exercise), as well as improve balance and flexibility. But there’s evidence it does much more. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine investigated the effect leisure activities had on the risk of dementia in the elderly. Researchers found that frequent dancing was the only physical activity of the 9

studied that appeared to lower the participants’ risk of dementia considerably. The lead author of the study, Joe Verghese, a professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, says he’s not sure why dancing had such a unique effect, but surmises that, “unlike many other physical activities, dancing also involves significant mental effort and social interactions.”

Both intellectual and social stimulation have been shown to reduce the risk of getting dementia.

Dance seems to help Parkinson’s patients as well, says Citlali LopezOrtiz, a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

She volunteers as a dance teacher for a class of Parkinson’s patients twice a week. “The focus is on helping them find new ways of moving and to improve the speed at which they move,” she says.

Lopez-Ortiz introduces slow, balletlike movements, sometimes taking the class to see the Joffrey Ballet for inspiration. With time, her students often become more mobile, and more confident. (She was thrilled when a student sent her an email telling her that for the first time in two or three years he was able to run for the bus.)

Dance as a curative exercise isn’t a new phenomenon. The dance therapy movement was born decades ago when Marian Chace first introduced dance to psychiatric patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC in the 1940s.

She taught a class called “Dance for Communication” to World War II vets, offering them a way to

convey feelings that – especially for psychologically traumatized patients — can be difficult to verbalize. Chace eventually helped found the American Dance Therapy Association in 1966. Dance/ movement therapy focuses on dancing’s psychological benefits and its ability to encourage emotional connections. Today, dance is used in treatments for everything from eating disorders to autism to depression.

Christina Devereaux, spokesperson for the American Dance Therapy Association, explains, “We really believe in the body/mind connection, and dance is a way for people to use what’s happening inside them and express it in an external, expansive way.” She compares it to talk therapy, where patients use discussion to explore feelings and alleviate psychological discomfort or pain. But in addition to using words, Devereaux says, dance therapists “help people develop a physical vocabulary” to do much the same thing.

Perdue, the Sjögren’s patient, says she believes firmly in dance as way of “connecting ourselves to our bodies in elemental ways,” which leads to improved body alignment, enhanced mood, boosted confidence, and many more physical- and mental-health benefits. She continues to dance at least twice a week, favoring modern, tap or ballet. She still has a chronic condition, but says she has less fatigue, and much more strength and she’s positive it’s because of dance.

Dance 51

“Dance is a way of connecting ourselves to our bodies in an elemental way�

52 Dance

HOOP DANCER PHOTO SOURCED

Dance 53

FINDING A CIRCLE O

utward Spiral is the concept that there are cycles in life, and any place along that circular path is an opportunity to step out of the clearly defined (well trodden) path. Taking steps outside of the familiar circle takes you out of the continuous loop and begins to create an ever-expanding outward spiral.

After a break up I found a circle that helped me get through it - figuratively and literally. At the time I was living in Chapel Hill, NC and I went to a local festival called Shakori Hills. There, at this music festival, I saw some amazing women dancing beautifully with hoops.

I had never seen anything like it! They were so graceful, and even magical the way they seemed to simply will the hoop around their bodies. It was as if they were so connected with the movement of this magical orb, that they had become one with it!

I wasn’t brave enough to try hooping there at the festival, but the seed had been planted.

It inspired me to seek out an adult-size dance hoop to learn with. I was also led by an online source to Weaver Street Market. The Weave (as it came to be known to me later) was a co-op grocery store with a cafe inside. The best part of the The Weave was the beautiful park area in the front lawn with mature trees for shade, picnic tables and benches to eat your food, have coffee or just enjoy the company of good people.

hoop from these great spinners and started to feel like I found a place where I finally belonged. I never felt so connected to a group of people that I hardly knew. They were so welcoming, and collaboration seemed to be at the foundation of their art.

Once I was connected to the group of Carrboro hoopers, everything began to magically fall into place.

I began noticing cycles and patterns I’d never seen before. It was obvious that I was on the right path! It felt as if the gears had finally locked into place and were ready to roll. There are too many synchronicities to list -- basically, it felt as if the Guides were cheering me on. By Autumn 2008, at the very same festival I had first been inspired to pick up the hoop, I met the love of my life.

He was a drummer traveling with a band from Sarasota, Florida. We dated longdistance for as long as we could, but by Autumn 2009 I moved to Florida.

“I began noticing cycles and patterns I’d never seen before”

Every Thursday evening and Sunday morning they had live music out on the lawn and this had, over time, become a regular hooper hang-out. It was a tradition for the hoop dancers to dance to the live music on the side lawn.

There was even a “hoop tree” where it was customary to put “personal hoops” you didn’t want to share up in the tree. The general rule was, if a hoop was on the ground, it was there for anyone to play with. After only one visit to the lawn, I befriended a kind woman named Julia Hartsell. This began a long friendship and apprenticeship of sorts. She taught me how to make hoops, and most importantly, how to build a community of hoopers.

I met many amazingly talented hoopers at The Weave; Beth Lavinder, Jonathan Baxter, Vivian Spiral, Ann Humphreys, Bonnie MacDougal, and many more.

I began to pick up so many ways to move with my

Since moving to Sarasota 8 years ago I have established not only regular classes but an amazing group of regular students, many of whom I call my closest friends. I am still amazed to see how this seemingly insignificant children’s toy can transform people’s lives!

But, to be fair, it is much more than that. Yes, the ‘toy’ is novel, but there is something magical about the spiraling movements that seem to be able to smooth down the rough edges of a harsh reality. Most beneficial of all, is the connection to authentic people. With the absence of competition comes collaboration. Collaboration is one of the fundamental foundations to building community, and belonging to a community is clearly a significant ingredient to finding happiness.

This Circle brought me to my authentic self. The path brought me to my husband, and our combined creative forces manifested the most amazing daughter. I am so happy in this life that I currently live. I do not know where I would be without it, but I do know that hoop dance came into my life exactly when I needed it.

Perhaps hoop dance is or isn’t the missing piece for you. However, I hope that my story encourages you to seek out novel experiences and engaging with people who inspire you. It can make a world of difference.

54 Dance

POOL SIDE

Dance 55

CITY STAGE Italian photographer Federica Dall'Orso, based in New York City, has created a magnificent series of dancers portraits, called Street Stage.

Through this collection of photographs, she creates a unique contrast between the urbanity of the city and the poetry and beauty of the art of dance.

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FREE

Dance 57

SUBWAY WALKS

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BALLET

Art 59

IN THE STREET

60

BALLERINA 2

Dance 61

STREET DANCER

Theatre 63

Role play Getting to grips with drama therapy from a first hand experience DORLEE

N

oel McDermott is a licensed drama therapist and psychotherapist from England.

Noel has 15 years of experience in working with individuals of all ages overcome anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, loss, loneliness, and childhood abuse.

I studied to the post-graduate level in drama therapy 15 years ago. Prior to that I had been a professional actor and director working in community arts, and arts in health – using the arts to educate, inform and lead to change.

Additionally, I had been a senior manager in Social Services, working in both children and adults services. I have practiced as a drama therapist and psychotherapist in health, education and social services settings.

Now I work exclusively in private practice. I am registered (licensed) with the UK Health Professions Council.

What drew you into the mental health field?

The main influences on my moving into mental health were witnessing enormous need in my community arts work and in my other roles in social services and health.

Additionally, I saw how empowering and positive were therapy interventions via the arts therapies. Finally, I was drawn into the training due to my own mental health and well-being needs.

What led you decide to develop specialties in art and drama therapy?

Training in drama therapy was a natural choice for me because of my background in theatre. Over the years, I have expanded my practice into more generic psychotherapy and counseling approaches. My connection with the arts goes back to my childhood, which was very troubled. But school and

theatre, as well as other arts, helped me maintain some health, creativity and resilience as a child in the face of trauma.

The arts did it naturally in a sense, at school, without the need for a specialist therapist.

Although these days, I would advocate for more preventative mental health work with kids in schools.

Could you describe for the layperson what drama therapy is?

Drama therapy is the intentional use of the healing aspects of play, drama and theatre with a person’s problems. Drama therapy works with these forms and helps people develop new insights into old problems, strategies for dealing with current issues, metaphors to give meaning, within an action-oriented therapy. This is maybe one of the differences from traditional talking approaches. Typically. a drama therapist will want people to move things, try them out, give it a go, play around with something and so on. It incorporates practical life skills such as breathing properly, learning lines and rehearsing, developing scripts with psychological insight and developmental growth.

64 Theatre

How do you feel that drama therapy extends the ability of what you are able to do with a client?

I feel the art form lends itself naturally to real world situations through for example role play and then transforming those real world events into metaphor (the language of our inner world) through other drama forms such as mask work, body work, dream enactment and so on It can in this way provide a very accessible bridge between inner and outer realities and allow for a dialogue between the two. This happens in other forms as well but I sense that drama’s ability to enact events and then transform into real time tips it for me.

Can you share a mini case example of how you have worked with an unidentified or fictional client through drama therapy?

I remember work with a client who had experienced massive daily trauma growing up: parental violence, alcoholism, chaos, political violence, racism, poverty and neglect. In a group session, we used an Inuit story about the choosing of a new shaman for the village. In the story the old Shaman choose the new one, who is then taken by spirits to an underworld and ritually tortured and broken by bad spirits. Then is remade by good spirits and brought back to the village. This experience transforms the chosen one into the healer for the village. By enacting the story and playing the chosen one, the client was able to embody his/her tortuous and broken childhood as a possibility (of in the story becoming a healer) rather than a prison sentence. The client was then able to extend this into his/her life and begin to reframe how he/she related to the world and begin to look for opportunities to change, transform and grow.

Have refugees you’ve worked with been able to move on from those atrocities committed thanks to your drama therapy?

I managed services for refugees in social services for many years here in the UK. I have worked with some directly clinically and I have provided others with links into other services. Yet others, I am referring to work from other clinicians. So I am giving you an amalgam of all of that. In terms of moving on, I wouldn’t say any of them magically healed from any one intervention. It’s just too complicated to suggest that. I feel that what happened was that people were able to repair elements of the damage and then move on to repair other elements through others means. So the drama therapy helped bring back meaning, some fun, ability to tolerate another person, ability to be in a group. The clinical psychologists used CBT to deal with flashbacks, startle responses, etc. The psychiatrists helped with anti-depressants, the priests and Imams etc helped with faith and so on. The possibility of the arts and drama is that it taps into powerful transcultural forces. But it can’t heal the damage of a whole society on its own; that would be omnipotent thinking đ&#x;˜‰ It has its place though in getting people back in touch with creativity, play, laughter‌

bridge between inner and outer realities.

It can provide a very accessible

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66 Theatre

Sharing his story

Theatre 67

J

aiveer is 7 years old and has Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He attends a mainstream school that has a specialist unit for children with ASD. A Roundabout dramatherapist works in the school 2 days a week running dramatherapy sessions for groups and individuals.

Jaiveer was referred to individual dramatherapy by his class teacher because he was becoming stressed at school.

She felt that he had poor peer relationships, sometimes hitting out at children and adults and he often withdrew from the class needing one to one support. She spoke to his parents about the referral and they were invited to come to school to meet with the dramatherapist to talk about Jaiveer and to hear about what dramatherapy might be able to offer him.

and sounds. Jaiveer appeared to look forward to his weekly session and as his confidence grew the TA withdrew. The sessions focused on supporting Jaiveer to develop confidence to express himself through words, sounds and movement.

Jaiveer was encouraged to identify his feelings and to recognise feelings expressed by others. Jaiveer and the dramatherapist created a series of stories using puppets that centred on two characters created

by Jaiveer – a dog and his owner a boy named ‘Jay’. These friends had many adventures together and were able to share their feelings.

As Jaiveer continued to attend dramatherapy his teacher commented that he appeared to have more interest in playing with his peers and was more tolerant of being in a group in class. He appeared happier in himself and more confident in expressing his needs.

His parents also commented that his behaviour had improved at home. Jaiveer attended sessions for two school terms.

He appeared happier in himself and more confident in expressing his needs.

The dramatherapist then observed Jaiveer in class and subsequently invited him to come and meet her in the dramatherapy room. Jaiveer came along with a Teaching Assistant (TA) to support him with meeting a new adult.

Together, Jaiveer, the dramatherapist and the TA explored the room and some of the dramatherapy materials. Jaiveer really liked the different pieces of coloured fabric and in particular a large piece of lycra which he was able to pull and stretch and wrap himself in.

The TA and the dramatherapist offered to pull Jaiveer around the room while he lay on the lycra and this developed into a short story about a magical adventure on a flying carpet. Jaiveer listened intently and laughed at the movements and sounds accompanying the story. At the end of the session the dramatherapist asked Jaiveer if he would like to come again the next week and he enthusiastically said ‘Yes’.

For the next couple of weeks Jaiveer attended the sessions with his TA. Alongside story work Jaiveer was invited to think about his week and express his feelings using feeling cards

PHOTO: SOURCED

‘Jaiveer has quite complex needs related to emotions and how he is perceived by others. He really benefitted from 1:1 sessions where he could explore issues that were significant to him without any peer pressure. His anxiety levels have definitely reduced since his work with the dramatherapist.’ Jaiveer’s Teacher ‘It has helped him explore his emotions, calm down and communicate. He also enjoys talking about the story and the characters they invent and act out. Also the Dramatherapists were always willing to include any current problems in their sessions.

68 Theatre

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS JEN ROUSE

I

have never found writing to be cathartic, but I have always found it to be mine — a form of creating that has never left or been taken from me. And, for that, I am certainly grateful. I did not, however, grow up thinking in words. I grew up thinking in sensory detail —color, texture, light, scent, and sound. I felt everything around me bombarding me with beauty. And, more often than not, pain.

I was too many times described as overly sensitive.

During my childhood and early teens, I created more visual art than written work, but, around the age of 16, I became pretty serious about writing poetry. The confessional poets inspired me, and learning about Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde, reading their work and hearing them speak, transformed my thinking about how being a lesbian and a poet might be a necessary combination in a political realm that needed strong, inclusive voices. It would take almost 30 years for me to write my way into that realization.

Now, so many years removed from that formative self, I understand that I just pay attention to all that is around me at a frequency to which very few choose access.

More often than not, the intensity of writing often sneaks up on me, whips my brain into a frenzy, and tackles me with a kind of force from which I struggle to recover.

This means I am not able to write all of the time. It also means I am not someone quick to cower in the face of challenging work or relationships. Consequently, my most recent and best-received writing has centered on the exploration of women — specifically Frida Kahlo and Anne Sexton — who led deeply complicated artistic and (rarely) private lives. Both women were unflinching in their

highly charged self-portraits, crafting work that turned the personal into the performative, their intimate truths into shared open wounds. Though these women were certainly not always admirable in their behavior, following and studying the trajectory of their creative lives (and early deaths) has inspired a new kind of fierceness — a sharp, engaged, and energized voice — in my own work.

But let me tell you, if I seem restless about it all, that’s the truth — I am. And I’ve spent most of my life being terrified of this feeling, so I don’t share it lightly. Because being restless means slamming through boundaries, plumbing the depths, flirting with the moon, getting into ridiculous, and possibly delicious, but, most likely only ridiculous, trouble — all of these things that strong women often do to make good art. Right?! Right. I don’t believe we ever really silence this self. Maybe we push her away. Play dead for a while. If one is lucky — and I am quite lucky — one has friends who know to come around every so often and pull this part of us into the light — with some supervision, of course.

Many of these same friends have helped me find a new way of bringing my work forward in the mix. I’ve written poetry for most of my life, but it’s only in the last few years that I have pursued playwriting. Watching other artists shape and breathe a different kind of beauty into the beings of my plays has been a moving experience for me. One of those plays — Conjure: A Cycle in Three Parts — will be fully mounted this Autmn (directed by Janeve West and produced by Jane Pini of SPT Theatre Co). Conjure has deep meaning — to be bound together by an oath, to plot or exorcize, to feel an obligation and connection to memory and spirit.

The women in this play are fierce and loyal creatures.

Their interactions embody all of the definitions of conjure — they are bound together (loyalty to the hive in Honey Song), they break and split apart in

Theatre 69

e in moments loss and acts of art/creation (The Three Fridas), they engag crave a kind they and Girl), ingbird of exorcism from suffering (Humm How these lves. themse and other, each earth, the to of reconnection part of each to women grapple with being creators/artists is critical reject and ce embra they how g, Conjure. And within these acts of creatin piece. each in s theme major e becom belief and the boundaries of love ntly batting In two weeks I will be 44 years old. I am uncertain. I am consta am writing I But next. comes what idea no the questions around. I have sideshow and es church in snakes : snakes of kinds all about — a new play in your you stop will that attractions, and, of course, there’s the kind of snake snake of kind The heart. by path that tracks just when you think you know all so aren’t snakes These pray. and breath your catch that will make you it will that but — go different, are they? I love not knowing how this play will it. write to d neede I as much as it go. And maybe someone else will need it that Not ce. differen nt importa but small a make Maybe it will somehow it. on g countin will make us all feel better. But that it will make us think. I’m

70 Art

MASCULINITY THROUGH DANCE CHELSEA HAITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH DE VILLIERS

INTLANGANO

Art 71

“The group’s objective is “to create a world where society can move together, move through dance or in a movement for some sort of transformation”

72 Theatre

S

ix men gather outside the Rhodes University Drama Department. It’s a Saturday morning and a few of the guys are slightly hungover. However, before their director, Nomcebisi Moyikwa, arrives they begin practicing, stomping and clapping, checking patterns with one another as their bodies beat out the familiar South African rhythm of gumboot dancing.

NOMCEBISI MOYIKWA SHARES A LAUGH WITH PARTICIPANTS DURING A PERFORMANCE

Theatre 73

PHYSICALITY IS IMPORTANT IN THE PROCESS OF UNDERSTANDING HOW MEN RELATE TO DANCE.

Nomcebisi Moyikwa, the director of the Intlangano project, speaks to Artbeat about the power of dance in social transformation. Sitting outside the Rhodes University Drama department, her words are complimented by the clapping and stamping of the six dancers involved in the project. To imagined rhythms and their own beat, the men begin to practice their gumboot dancing. From left to right, the dancers are Damian van Selm, Smangaliso Ngwena, Masixole Heshu, Mlondiwethu MD Dubazane, Rafé Green and Likhaya Jack. The project forms part of Moyikwa’s 2012 Honours in Applied Theatre. This year she has chosen to focus of ‘the art of breathing’, and encourages her performers to be fully immersed in the experience that dance affords.

On 30 May, the men will dance through the streets of Grahamstown from Nombulelo High School to Rhodes’ campus, engaging whomever they pass in their dancing. This will not be the first dance-march the men have undertaken but it will be less publicized than the first. This is so as to allow the participants to gauge the reactions of the unwitting public to their dance invasion.

“Last year it was mainly about disturbing the different ideas of masculinities,” Moyikwa said. This year the group’s aim is to discuss the ‘art of breathing’, a concept that Moyikwa said came out of the participants’

discussions about the #RhodesMustFall #RhodesSoWhite movement. The group’s objective is “to create a world where society can move together, move through dance or in a movement for some sort of transformation”.

The group moves into the rehearsal room where shoes come off, inhibitions are abandoned and music fills the space. In the golden light of the room, the dancers display a passion for movement, rhythm and something that must be magical. The Intlangano project uses dance to merge worlds and create dialogues between people from different backgrounds. Through music and motion, the dancers imagine a world where barriers are broken and transformation seems to be a reality.

The Gatherings or Intlangano project was born out of Moyikwa’s 2012 Honours in Applied Theatre. The current focus of the project is on the process of constructing theatre; something the Moyikwa feels is not usually available to the audience.

“I was interested in the way that learning how to make theatre gave people life skills,” she said, explaining how the project has become a community exchange programme in which 11 men from Rhodes University and Grahamstown East explore social issues through dance. “Within that ‘making’ a dialogue is happening

74 Theatre

between people from different backgrounds,” she said, speaking about the collaboration between Rhodes students and gumboot and isipantsula dancers from the township. “For me the idea is to merge the two worlds,” she explained.

Van Selm and Green practice a choreographed dance of twisting limbs and impassioned movements as Moyikwa closely watches every movement. Dubazane, who introduces himself as MD, pours his energy into every jump, stomp and spin that the dance involves.

Ngwena reaches within himself and brings a powerful serenity into his movements as the lyrics of Nkosi Sikelela iAfrica float through the air.

Music and laughter compete to fill the room, and Heshu’s smile captures the magic of the moment.

There is something spectacular about the dancers’ feet as they stomp and fly and leap to the music and the group’s heartbeat. The group forms a circle around Jack, jumping and turning in synchronized movements and emotions. No doubt, the Intlangano project is taking dance to heights where barriers are broken by harmonised breaths and the pulse of music in movement.

The new dances that will be performed in the coming weeks explore the historical importance of gumboot dancing as a form of communication and protest under

the apartheid regime. “We see these dances being done over and over but people are not paying attention to what they mean,” Moyikwa said.

“We try to fatigue the body to get the visceral responses to the dances that have been taught to us,” she said, explaining the physically taxing dance-march the men will undertake. Moyika works as a performer and facilitator in the First Physical Theatre Company and is the founder and director of the Intlangano. The dancers featured in the video are Damian van Selm, Mlondiwethu Dubazane, Masixole Heshu, Smangaliso Ngwena, Rafé Green and Likhaya Jack.w

SMANGALISO NGWENYA MLONDIWETHU DUBAZANE LIKHAYA JACK AND MASIXOLE HESH PRACTICE SYNCHRONISING THEIR MOVEMENTS

Art 75

DAMIAN VAN SELM AND RAFE GREEN IN REHEARSAL

LIKHAYA JACK LISTENS AS DIRECTOR MOYIKWA SUGGESTS CHANGES TO THE SEQUENCE

KNOW THE

DIFFERENCE D

ue to the cathartic nature of dramatic artistic expression, drama itself tends to promote good mental health. However, drama therapy consists of more than just acting. Like art, music, and dance therapies, drama therapy uses the art form as a springboard for deeper, more meaningful work with participants.

Drama therapists guide people in therapy through a series of intentional activities that allow them to enact scenes representative of the way they want to live their lives. Participants may see drama therapy affect changes in their behaviour, emotional state, personal growth, and skill adaptation. Participants utilizing drama therapy are often able to improve their interpersonal relationship skills through active participation Drama therapy was born out of the realization that some life experiences and wounds are too painful to address through verbal

dialogue alone. Because drama uses metaphor to express emotion, it was a natural fit for a therapeutic framework. The originators of drama therapy took advantage of the psychological safety and distance that drama tends to provide. In the context of this safe therapeutic relationship, drama therapy allows a person to rely on both physical and verbal expression to work through difficult emotional issues.

professionals like Peter Slade, Carl Jung, T. D. Noble, Winifred Ward, Maxwell Jones, Gertrud Schattner, and Sue Jennings.

Drama therapy grew from Jacob L. Moreno's therapeutic approach called psychodrama, which uses guided dramatic action to address issues and concerns. Early drama therapy contributors include Nikolai Evreinov, Vladimir Iljne, Bertholt Brecht, Sandor Ferenczi, Neva Boyd, and Constantin Stanislavski. Other contributors, sharing influences from role theory, analytical psychology, and creative arts therapies, propelled the field from “theatre as therapy� to what we now call drama therapy.

Drama Therapy Objectives

They include theorists and

In 1979, the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA), then called the National Association for Drama Therapy, was established.

Today, NADTA provides education, advocacy, and accreditation for the field of drama therapy.

The primary goal of drama therapy is to provide people with a safe and secure experience that encourages the full expression of their emotional voice through playful, dramatic activity. The desired outcome of drama therapy is different for each participant, but the fundamental model is designed to promote healing and growth through the use of role playing and dramatic interactions. As a practice, drama therapy aims Drama therapy continues to gain ground as a treatment modality.

It can be used in a variety of settings, including schools, mental health clinics, prisons, hospitals, and community centres. This is not a complete list, though it contains some of the more common mental health issues drama therapy may be used to treat.

How Effective Is Drama Therapy?

Although drama therapy is considered a somewhat newer treatment approach, research has been conducted that supports its efficacy. A study published in the official journal of the NADTA, Drama Therapy Review, found drama therapy to be an effective treatment approach for children on the autism spectrum. The results showed significant improvement in social interaction as well as the reduction of autism-related externalizing behaviours such as hyperactivity and inattention.

European Psychiatry, the official journal of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), published a

study in 2009 that concluded drama therapy effectively reduced symptoms of social anxiety in its participants.

A qualitative case study published in Drama Therapy Review suggests that drama therapy techniques may work well in couples counselling. The couple in the case study reported positive progress as a result of their drama therapy work.

Drama Therapy Training The North American Drama Therapy Association oversees professional training criteria and procedures for certified drama therapists. In order to satisfy the requirements set forth by NADTA, one must become a Registered Drama Therapist (RDT). The RDT credential can be obtained by attending an accredited master’s program that provides education and training in psychology, theatre, and drama therapy.

The NADTA also offers an alternative training program for those who did not receive a master’s degree from

an NADTA-approved program.

Concerns and Limitations of Drama Therapy Available literature on drama therapy reports few limitations or concerns associated with the approach. However, as with most therapies, training is vital when it comes to proper delivery of techniques. It may be tempting for some clinicians to use “theater as therapy” or dramatic techniques in their treatment, but doing so without proper training and education can sometimes put people in therapy at risk. When engaging in drama therapy, people should consider finding a therapist with the Registered Drama Therapist certification.

Additionally, although drama therapy has demonstrated efficacy as an evidence-based treatment, more research is needed. However, as the field of drama therapy continues to grow.

78 Theatre

Rehab theatre R

obert, a man in his late forties, was a persistent gambler and his desire to change his life had led him to a 12 week rehabilitation programme which included a weekly drama therapy session.

Robert had spent his life in manual work and had never done drama before, nor did he wish to. Although apprehensive, his need to recover had made him determined to get the most from the programme. He was already confident in talking to the group, but acting and improvisation were outside his ‘safety zone’.

Robert had an adult son who had a drug problem and he found it difficult to be on the programme when he felt his son needed him. By chance, the group Robert attended contained a number of young men and it was identified that there was a potential risk of him becoming a father figure, and perhaps focusing on the younger ones in the group rather than dealing with his own issues.

The drama therapy sessions always started with warm up games which focused on the group working together. One such game involved most of the group members sitting

on chairs with one empty chair, then a single group member has to try to sit on the empty chair with the rest of the group aiming to prevent him by moving and swapping chairs. For the game to work the group has to tune into each other and work together to make sure the empty chair is never in reach of the opponent. This form of play really breaks down the barriers of what our perceived roles are, and the physical connection and chaos that ensues helps to create a sense of being ‘in it together’ and feeling equal with peers. Another warm-up game was a trust exercise where the group safely take care of one

Theatre 79

blindfolded individual, supporting them to cross the space. This exercise helped Robert to let go of his caring for others role and to accept the support and help of the rest of the men on his programme.

fairy tales, he and another group member chose to begin their enactment by going outside the works pace and skipping across the garden and into the “cottage in the woods”.

As the sessions progressed, Robert became more confident in improvisations and found himself taking on various roles. By stepping away from his usual safe persona, he experienced other perspectives and he seemed liberated by this new way of being. This was perhaps best illustrated when, in an exercise to modernise familiar stories and

The group worked with the story of “Theseus and the Minotaur”, and Robert was fascinated by the monster who he named as ‘created by others’, then punished for who he was. In a hot-seating exercise, where individuals sit in front of the group and answer questions as their character, Robert answered questions in the role of the Minotaur.

It was a very heart-felt and moving process and he said afterwards he had been very touched by the experience. It had reflected on his own start in life and some of the difficulties he had experienced in childhood.

Robert completed the programme successfully and said that he had arrived at the house as an empty shell, and that drawma therapy had really enabled him to discover who he was, and who he wanted to be.

“By stepping away from his usual safe persona, he experienced other perspectives and he seemed liberated by this new way of being.”

J.Lauren publications South Africa j.lauren@gmail.com

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