History of Dance Therapy

“Marian Chace was a modern dancer in Washington, D.C. who began teaching dance after ending her career with the Denishawn Dance Company in 1930. She noticed that some of her students were much more interested in the emotions they expressed in dancing than in the mechanics and technique of dance, and so she began to encourage this form of self-expression. Word spread of the dance students’ reported feelings of well-being after they mentally unburdened themselves through dance, and doctors became intrigued. They began to send their patients to Chace – many of whom were people with psychiatric illnesses” (Dance/Movement).

“Later, Chace became part of the staff of St. Elizabeth’s hospital in Washington D.C. and studied at the Washington School of Psychiatry” (Dance/Movement). St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. was one of the first hospitals that started using dance therapy with their patients. It first emerged at the hospital following World War II when soldiers were having severe emotional problems after returning home. It was a way for the soldiers to express what they were feeling, and a form of exercise for those who had lost a limb (Burger 139). “While at St. Elizabeth’s, Chace’s methods began to attract others, and, by the 1950’s, dance therapy became the subject of serious study at the facility.” Soon after the discovery of this new therapy, the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) was founded in 1966 to set professional standards for the training of dance therapists with Marian Chace as its first president (Dance/Movement).

“For over fifty years, Dance/Movement Therapists have been pioneers in the in-depth understanding of how the body and mind interact in health and in illness, be it an illness of the mind which is embodied or an illness of the body that impacts on mental functioning and spirit. Whether the issue is the will to live, a search for meaning or motility, or the ability to feel love for life, for dance/movement therapists healing has always meant mobilizing resources from that place within where body and mind are one” (Dance Therapy).

Informational Video from American Dance Therapy Association: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpQVYTBUko0