How do you learn to trust your body?
THREE IN ONE
“Dance and movement therapy is an unfamiliar term to most people. How did you discover it?”
“I practiced academic folk dancing. In the early 1990s, when my stage career had ended, I decided I had to find something else in my life, since no one needed choreography teachers then. I was very interested in psychology and graduated from the Psychogenesis Institute of Kyiv’s Shevchenko University. There I learned about dance and movement therapy, mastered this method, and became one of Ukraine’s first dance therapists. This was in 1994. Information on this method was lacking, much as it is now, but we exchange experience with foreign specialists, in particular with those in England and Russia. Thus there are much more possibilities for developing this school. The aim of body-oriented dance therapy is to combine thoughts, feelings, and body in a single whole. It attracts people who realize the need for a reunion with their body.”
A DANCE THAT BRINGS YOU DOWN TO EARTH
“Why, of all dances, you have chosen a Spanish dance and not, for example, African or Indian?”
“Everyone chooses whatever is closest. I like Ukrainian, Gypsy, Arabic, Greek, and Jewish dances. Each dance helps you form your bodily image. Meanwhile, the Spaniards are very proud and independent. For this reason the Spanish dance most fully matches the concept of dance therapy. It seems to me that our women need to feel this Spanish pivot within. The Spanish dance gives you the feeling of safety and confidence. It brings the person down to earth, while other dances and dancing as a form of art in general are directed upward.”
“They say that Ukrainians’ character and attitude toward life makes them very similar to Spaniards. But you begin to doubt this, if you compare, for example, the flamenco and hopak.”
“All dances have common features, for dance is a form of self- expression. The dancer always tells something onstage. And it doesn’t matter which dance lexicon he uses. The information is conveyed through eurhythmics, group, couple, or solitary dances. The hopak is different from the flamenco in that the Ukrainian dance features more open and outwardly directed movements, while in the Spanish dance all energy is accumulated in the dancer. This dance doesn’t require a lot of stage space, but it needs a lot of internal and emotional space.”
A PERSON WITHOUT A SHELL
“What effect does dance and movement therapy have on the human body?”
“Wilhelm Reich and the body- oriented therapy school maintain that all mental traumas or processes are reflected in the human body. Stress, traumas, or emotional experiences result in muscle tension. According to Reich, the energy flowing through our bodies should move freely. Meanwhile, one has to shut in to endure a traumatizing event or situation. For example, when a person is offended and cannot answer in kind, as a rule, he clenches his fists and jaws, and starts to breathe faster. This is how the body reacts to a traumatic situation. Meanwhile, if a similar situation recurs or the emotional trauma is very deep, the body gets used to such a response, and its sensitivity threshold is lowered. First, dance therapy enables the person to understand how and why certain things happen in his body. Second, by means of special exercises it helps unblock the body or reduce the thickness of the protective shell. Reduce but not eliminate it altogether. We cannot live without our protective mechanisms: the muscle shell that we grow since day one. No person can be as open as a lotus flower in any situation. This is impossible and unnecessary. Otherwise, everything in this world would crush such a person. On the other hand, if a person is too impenetrable, he or she feels neither pain nor joy. Thus we have to peel off one layer at a time, but only to a certain point. Ideally, the body and psyche should be flexible and adequate.”
“YOU CAN’T FOCUS ON THE HOPAK ONLY”
“In your view, why are we so actively learning other peoples’ cultures? We’re so eager to click castanets, meditate with yoga, and perceive the differences between the Chinese and Japanese tea ceremonies. Don’t we lose what’s our own in doing all this?”
“We won’t lose anything if we perceive our own culture through perceiving other peoples and cultures. That I opened a Spanish dance studio doesn’t mean that we are losing Ukrainian dances. You can’t focus on the hopak only. Knowing other cultures doesn’t rule out love for one’s own culture but only enriches it. It seems to me that the interest in Eastern cultures throughout the world has been caused by the fact that people are tired of everything technological and miss live emotions that are fully represented in Eastern traditions.”
“How do you gauge the success of what you are doing?”
“By the level of satisfaction of my clients. For each of them this is a path of personal development. The extent to which everyone masters the art of dancing is individual. While some master the dance in two months, for others it takes two years to do so. But what matters most is the satisfaction from communication with your body and development of movement activity.”
“A PERSON INCAPABLE OF REACTING SPONTANEOUSLY IS DOOMED TO FAILURE”
“How would you describe a person before and after your classes?”
“Most often a person who comes to the class expects to be evaluated immediately. Unfortunately, our whole education system has been designed in such a way that no sooner do children come to school than they are assessed even before they are taught anything. For example, until I turned thirty I had been sure that I couldn’t paint, as they didn’t teach us much painting at school and convinced me that painting is the province of the chosen few. I didn’t even try to check if it was true. But once, speaking with an artist, I understood that anyone can paint. I put in some effort and allowed myself to paint. I haven’t become an artist, but still I paint and it gives me a great pleasure. This is a major step on the way to self-realization. The same goes for dancing. Granted, not everyone can become a ballet star. But do we have the right to deprive that person of the pleasure of dancing based on this assumption?
“A major principle of dance and movement therapy is the possibility to learn how to hear the signals of your body, follow them, and be able to relax when necessary. The body is wiser than the mind, because it is older. The body has its own memory, and many processes in it occur at the subconscious level. The direct relationship between all mental and physical processes has been proven at all levels. It is important to learn spontaneity and improvisation at the bodily level and live your life consciously. Bodily habits pass to the mental level. A person incapable of reacting spontaneously in a difficult situation is doomed to failure. Learning to trust your body is the most important.”
THE DAY’S REFERENCE
Svitlana LYPYNSKA is a native of Kherson and graduate of the Kyiv Institute of Culture named for Korniychuk (renamed the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts after the namesake’s Stalinism became less fashionable) and the Psychogenesis Institute. Her dance career started in 1975 as part of the Kherson-based Svitanok [Dawn] Ensemble. Later she danced in the Ukrayinochka Ensemble. A professional choreographer, she majors in academic folk dancing. Since 1994, she has been working as a dance and movement therapist, specializing in body-oriented tanatotherapy. Also she practices Gestalt therapy directed at the realization of thoughts, feelings, and senses.
