Paper short abstract:

This study explores the benefits of dance for women recovering from cancer and considers how such benefits relate to individual wellbeing. The study details what it is in the dance practice that is effective in this context, and contributes new knowledge to be used in both dance and health sectors.

Paper long abstract:

This study explores the benefits of dance for women recovering from cancer and considers how such benefits relate to individual wellbeing. Previous dance and health research aligns closely with wellbeing associations, yet few explorations exist involving dance, cancer and wellbeing. Many cancer survivors suffer prolonged side effects after treatment, though research reveals that some side effects can be alleviated through participating in physical activities and other movement forms. The aim of this research was to capture the possible impact that community dance could have during cancer recovery, and present in depth accounts of participants' experiences. Participants volunteered to be part of a six week project, comprising eleven dance and movement sessions. Supported by a contextual framework concerning cancer survivorship, dance, health and wellbeing, this research elicited qualitative results via holistic and interpretative analysis. Interview data from the testimonies of participants revealed five areas of significance that were beneficial; Positivity, Relationships, Self Expression, Managing Challenges and Accomplishment, Reinvent Yourself and Openness. The benefits corresponded with notions of individual wellbeing, and indicated a specific overlap with the psychological PERMA model of wellbeing. The findings hold important implications as to how dance can improve cancer survivors' sense of wellbeing. The study details what it is in community dance practice that is effective in this context, and contributes new knowledge to be used in both dance and health sectors.

Paper short abstract:

I explore relations between immunostimulating therapies to treat autoimmunity and of the 'parts therapy' to treat psychological wounds. My aim is to identify and understand movements (performative, institutional, and psycho-organic) for one's journey of self-regeneration through these therapies.

Paper long abstract:

Autoimmunity and psychological wounds are often characterized as a battle against oneself: autoimmunity as the reduction of one's immune system's capacity to recognize own and strange cells (the 'self' from 'non-self'), while in many ways psychological wounds are seen as implying self-sabotage. The 'disease' is a part of the person itself (its immune system and/or a neurosis) and, hence, it is classified as chronic by established biomedicine and psychology. However, in opposition to conventional approaches, immunostimulant therapies and Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS/parts-therapy) see these parts of the person as the key to tackle their suffering and seek to recommit them to the individual. Given that, I aim to identify and understand movements (e.g. performative, institutional, and psycho-organic) for one's journey of self-regeneration through these therapies.

Comparatively, I discuss how the collaboration between physicians, in Brazil, and psychotherapists, in USA and Germany, and their respective patients to promote immunostimulants and IFS imply changing processes of established immunological and psychological socialities. Likewise, I consider studies that have pointed out causal relations between emotional abuse during childhood, psychological wounds and autoimmunity. Inspired by somatic approaches, health professionals are perceiving these conditions less as predisposed by genetic dysfunctions than as part of intergenerational stories that unfold cyclically. That points to the construction of the person as a process that embodies and reinvents multiple elements of the entwined 'healthy' and 'toxic' environments through and between which one moves and grows (family, education system, neighbourhood, etc.).

Paper short abstract:

This paper is a presentation of results from a mixed-methods study of elderly Argentine tango dancers in London, specifically investigating how they use the improvised dance form in terms of addressing their mental and physical health.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents results from a mixed-methods study of mainly middle- aged and older Argentine tango dancers in London, specifically investigating how they use this improvised dance form in terms of addressing their mental and physical health. 'Mentally and Physically Improvised' - the mainly older dancers were assessed by questionnaire and detailed and semi-structured interview, aided by prior observer/participant engagement with the majority of dancers in classes delivered and assisted by the authors. Results attest to the significance of the dancing in their lives from the challenges of learning the dance to moving within the close tango embrace. This potentially life-changing leisure activity benefits practitioners in terms of physical health (balance, general fitness, flexibility) and mental health (confidence, mental outlook, sociality).

Our study that shows that the tango participants invested significantly in terms of time and money in their leisure activity: many attending multiple classes, milongas and other events, sometimes travelling overseas. Not uncommonly tango became incorporated within the identity of the dancer, and used by some as an informal therapy strategy for the mind and the body. Recurrent themes also included tango as a strategy for dealing with loss; a means of re-connecting with a more youthful and/or attractive self; a private arena where everyday worries and stresses could be escaped; and as a source of supportive personal relationships. In some cases tango was communicated as redemptive, enabling personal transformation. In sum, this improvised art form shows how movement can be a powerful form of medication.

Paper short abstract:

This research paper reveals the ongoing activity of the Birth and the Arts project, an investigation that aims to assess a necessity and function for a programme of expressive arts-based intervention within antenatal support systems for parents at risk of preterm birth.

Paper long abstract:

Although there is evidence which supports the restorative benefits of interactions with multi-modal arts activities to address and improve parental outlook, few studies have addressed the potential of this endeavour to transpose thoughts and feelings about these experiences into language that nurtures validation, improved assimilation, and the development of clearer articulation of thoughts and feelings.

This research paper reveals the thinking behind such an endeavour. It will excavate the ongoing activity of the Birth and the Arts project which investigates what a programme of dance, art and creative writing intervention might look like, assessing its necessity, and function within the antenatal support system for parents at risk of preterm birth.

This paper will identify ways in which dance, art and creative writing supports parental understandings of the experience of prematurity and Neonatal Intensive Care. Discussion will fall to the usefulness of such an endeavour to ameliorate the symptoms of distress that pose disturbance to the development of parental-infant interaction and relationship, and instead, positions such an intervention at the heart of positive affirmations of the parental role and authority in the care and development of the infant.

The paper will culminate in a detailed outline of the function and ability of dance, art and creative writing to offer empowerment and agency by equipping parents with insights into prematurity, the physiology of birth, and ways in which one can [re]gain authority through the power of choice, and acts of assimilation and validation.

Paper short abstract:

While many movement/dance therapies exist and find their way within specific cultural surroundings, fundamentally, these therapies draw upon the functional neurology of movement as a gateway to moving, feeling and thinking, and attempt to maintain or restore normal relations among these functions.

Paper long abstract:

The human brain contains several layers that have evolved through time and whose task has remained the same: survival. To guarantee survival the brain uses three main functional systems: a motorsystem, an association system and a motivational system. As these are intertwined at all levels, changing one will unavoidably change the others. 

The same systems are used in learning, which is also involved in optimising our chances of survival. Dancing, as other forms of practical learning, is based in the emotional layers of the brain, the basal ganglia and lymbic structures. Optimal functioning and synchronization of these circuits (e.g. the motor cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuit; mCBGT) represents a healthy status.

Dysfunctional synchronisation can be seen for example in Parkinsons's disease resulting in symptoms concerning motor function, but also disturbances of thinking, mood, executive function and personality.

Dance therapy, by using a combination of goal directed voluntary action, automated behaviour and synchronization to internal or external rhythms, makes use of the fundamental interconnectedness of these circuits. This is shown, for instance, in the fact that, in dance, movement has an associative and motivational quality; also in that if motivation is frustrated, as in depression, movement is frustrated as well, as are its associations.

While simple motor movement, as in walking, has a purposeful quality that gives it direction, dance movement also creates emotional associations and motivation. Hence, movement in dance can and should be used in therapy. It's basic neurology!

Paper short abstract:

Presenting a Somatics Toolkit for Ethnographers, in this session I focus on those aspects that actively draw on our bodies' resources for mental and emotional support during our challenging work as researchers in (medical) anthropology.

Paper long abstract:

As medical anthropologists we immerse ourselves in practices of health and (un)wellbeing of others, but how often do we actively take care of ourselves as researchers?

Together with Dr. Ben Spatz from the University of Huddersfield, I am developing a Somatics Toolkit for Ethnographers that facilitates an embodied approach to all parts of (ethnographic) research. This includes engaging with concrete research activities such literature review, fieldwork, analysis and dissemination through the (moving) body, but also utilising the body's resources for mental and emotional support of ourselves as researchers. It is the latter strand of the toolkit that I will focus on during this experiential presentation.

As researcher and movement practitioner I combine insights from somatics, health and wellbeing studies, and approaches to the art of living. How do we look after ourselves in an increasingly challenging work environment, while remaining passionate about what we are doing? How can we reconnect with what is meaningful to us? How can we draw on the treasures of our body-in-movement?

In this interactive session I will briefly introduce the project and some of its background, and then share a taster of some processes and practices that we are developing for the toolkit. We might, for example, work with supporting self-care; navigating emotions (in and after the field!); decision making and problem solving; or dealing with tension towards or within your data. As the time for the session is limited, I dearly invite your reflections, considerations, suggestions and feedback through other means afterwards.