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Embodied Escapism: Liberation Within Incarceration
Get PDFMass incarceration in the United States disproportionately impacts Black people, poor people, and people with serious mental illnesses. The criminalization of poverty, systemic racism, and deinstitutionalization combine to create a nation in which significantly higher numbers of individuals with serious mental illnesses are receiving treatment in jails and prisons rather than psychiatric hospitals. While mental healthcare in jails and prisons has shown improvement in recent years, limited resources and negative public sentiment continue to restrict the effectiveness of mental healthcare for incarcerated individuals. There is a profound need for embodiment and empowerment in jails and prisons, and dance/movement therapy offers one avenue for integrated care. Dance/movement therapy research in jails and prisons is limited but promising, suggesting that the modality has potential for helping individuals transcend the harsh reality of incarceration. Following the framework of early dance/movement therapist Trudi Schoop, dance/movement therapists working with incarcerated individuals may facilitate joyful self-expression through the embodiment of fantasies, dreams, and desires. The experience of incarceration is antithetical to rehabilitation, but embodied escapism makes space for feelings of freedom
Heteronormativity: How Dance Movement Therapy Can Change the Narrative Around the Societal Norms and Expectations Created Around Sexuality and Gender
Get PDFHeteronormativity, defined as the societal norms and expectations around sexuality and gender has an immense impact on individuals who do not identify with the norms set in place. Heteronormativity is enforced from early childhood where eventually individuals who do not identify as “straight” or cisgender develop several mental health disorders due to feelings such as exclusion and invalidation. Both medical and mental health care becomes a barrier for these individuals because health care providers do not have the skills or tools necessary to treat LGBTQ individuals. The stigma created by society around the LGBTQ community has enforced a need to find ways to bridge the gap between the heterosexual cisgender community and LGBTQ individuals. The field of dance/movement therapy becomes important as one of the ways to address this gap that includes cultivating values of empathy, openness, understanding in the therapeutic space
Crossing Histories: Dance, Body, and Culture
No full textThis research focuses on the cross-cultural dancing body: the interrelationship between body and dance forms, as well as the body and culture. The first section will discuss the relationship between the body and culture in dance. The second section will describe my process of making the cross-cultural dance in the United States
The Lived Dynamism of Dance: Phenomenological and Existential Inquiry
No full textThis research considers dance as the aesthetic expression of the immediacy of the lived body. Dualism, or the divided body and soul, is examined as a severing of our primordial orientation in the world. Perspectives in phenomenology and existentialism depict the fallacy of dualism, and aim to overcome the hazards of objectification, predetermination, and literalization. This negation illuminates the possibility of the unbounded subjective sphere, and argues for a vibrant permeability of the conscious body, phenomena, and aesthetic intent. Engaging the work of phenomenologists Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I aim to express phenomenology’s vast potential for artistic deepening and flourishing. Building upon the work of dance scholars Sondra Horton Fraleigh and Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, phenomenology is framed as uniquely relevant to dance as embodied aesthetic meaning. Existentialism, namely Sartrean philosophy as a framework tethered to phenomenology, is acknowledged as a rich utility to those involved in artistic practices. The existential contention with freedom as the means to individuation and authenticity is rendered remarkably compatible with the artistic process. Conversing with the writing of Tom Cheetham, aesthetic expression aiming to ground subjective truth is characterized as a transcendent “leap” from the known to the unknown, and rests on the enactment of imagination through metaphor as an alchemical agent
Exploring the perspectives of genetics providers in Latin America on genetic counseling and the barriers to establishing the field in the region
No full textWhile the genetic counseling profession has been developed in many countries worldwide, it is not recognized as an independent profession in most Latin American (LATAM) countries. This region experiences a scarcity of trained genetic counselors, leading to the common practice of geneticists providing genetic counseling services. To date, no studies have investigated the perspectives of genetic professionals in LATAM regarding the development of the genetic counseling profession. This is of importance as their viewpoints are critical in informing the delivery of genetic counseling services in LATAM, particularly in response to the anticipated demand of precision medicine. By partnering with The Latin American Professional Society of Genetic Counseling (SPLAGen), this study aims to gain insight into the current state of genetic counseling and the challenges associated with its establishment in the region. Interviews were conducted in Spanish and English with 12 genetic professionals providing clinical genetic services in LATAM. Qualitative thematic analysis resulted in six major themes regarding the genetic counseling profession: (1) exposure, (2) understanding, (3) feelings, (4) barriers to its establishment, (5) solutions to its establishment, and (6) hopes for the future. The majority of participants learned about genetic counseling during case discussions in their genetics training and defined it as a multi-step and dynamic process. Although 90% of the medical geneticist participants expressed openness towards genetic counselors working independently, this was contingent on certain conditions. Additionally, the most recurrent obstacle to establishing the field was that non-genetics providers do not have a good understanding of genetics. Among the solutions that were proposed, development of academic programs was most prevalent. This research study was conducted with the hope of aiding initiatives to develop the genetic counseling profession in LATAM. Participants’ hopes for the future of the genetics field include greater access to genetic services, which reflects SPLAGen’s mission
Gone for a While
No full textA fictional story about two queer women living in Washington D.C. whose repressed desires for unconditional love trouble their family lives