DANCING and EMOTION

 

“We cannot make another person change his or her steps,

to an old dance, but if we change our own steps,

the dance no longer can continue in the same

predictable pattern.”

_Harriet Lerner

It never ceases to amaze me how dance can create a shift and change on so many levels. I have experienced it changing the way I think, the way I feel, and even my outlook on life.

Over the last few decades, it has become part of common knowledge that the mind and body are connected and influence one another. We know that when we are feeling low, it is possible to change our endogenous mood simply by using uplifting music and setting the body into dance. Extreme forms of depression create catatonic states where movement is almost impossible. Trauma creates dissociation from the body as a person retreats into an overactive and negative mental state. These are extreme cases but sometimes even our everyday emotions can create a feedback loop of stuck-ness in us.

Emotion is visceral. Each one has a physical signature in our body. Change of heart rate and breath are two indications. But what is not so obvious is that our muscular and skeletal systems also fall into emotional holding patterns called invariants. The relationship between emotion and movement means that when we are in emotional contraction, holding the emotion, not only is our range of movement, and by implication our experience of life, limited but we can also cause injury to our body.

Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that all emotions are bad and that we need to ‘get rid’ of them as quickly as possible. This is not the case. Emotions are an integral part of our experience of life. The problems arise when emotions are blocked, that is we hold onto them, or emotions are suppressed, we don’t even allow them to surface. These are the situations that affect the body in a negative way.

Dance and music are an extremely powerful way to not only connect to what we are feeling but also to induce change. In the dance, we can immerse ourselves in a healthy relationship and experience whatever we are feeling – and that is powerful. But at the same time in the dance, by moving our body and releasing the invariant tensions of emotion we can also allow them to flow naturally when appropriate.

It is possible to know when we have felt and released emotion when our body relaxes and we have peace of mind. Biodanza which has a well-researched methodology has a class structure that facilitates this process. Dance can connect us to a healthy relationship to what we are feeling, simply through appropriate music and movement. This is conscious dance at its best.

_Christos Daskalakos