Alternative Therapy
Movement Balances, Reinvigorates & Replenishes the Soul:
Dance as a Healing Modality
November 2019
Even if you are not someone who has been formally trained in dance, you are likely someone who dances to blow off steam, find joy, or simply to express emotions that you can’t express verbally. If so, you know that dance is a feel-good activity.
You may find it surprising, though, that dance has been used widely as an alternative therapy to heal those suffering from physical or emotional trauma since the second half of the 20th century.
In her blog space titled “History of Dance Movement and Therapy,” published by the University of Oregon, Emily Sexton chronicles the history of dance/movement therapy. The history of dance as psychotherapy was first recorded by Carl Gustav Jung in 1916, but his original paper remained unpublished until 1957. In 1947, Marian Chace was considered the first full-time dance therapist in the U.S., and, in 1966, she became the first president of the American Dance Therapy Association which advocates nationally and internationally for the development and expansion of dance therapy training and services.
You may find it surprising, though, that dance has been used widely as an alternative therapy to heal those suffering from physical or emotional trauma since the second half of the 20th century.
In her blog space titled “History of Dance Movement and Therapy,” published by the University of Oregon, Emily Sexton chronicles the history of dance/movement therapy. The history of dance as psychotherapy was first recorded by Carl Gustav Jung in 1916, but his original paper remained unpublished until 1957. In 1947, Marian Chace was considered the first full-time dance therapist in the U.S., and, in 1966, she became the first president of the American Dance Therapy Association which advocates nationally and internationally for the development and expansion of dance therapy training and services.
According to the American Dance Therapy Association, “Dance/movement therapy (DMT) is defined as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, for the purpose of improving health and well-being.”
Dance therapy is used as a successful healing modality for survivors of trauma and abuse as well as those looking for an alternative method to decrease stress, anxiety and hopelessness.
Many dance therapists teach and/or practice other energy-centered therapies, such as yoga, Qigong or sound therapy.
Dance therapy is used as a successful healing modality for survivors of trauma and abuse as well as those looking for an alternative method to decrease stress, anxiety and hopelessness.
Many dance therapists teach and/or practice other energy-centered therapies, such as yoga, Qigong or sound therapy.
Myrna Beth Haskell, executive editor, visited Gigi Oppenheimer, a dancer and healer, at her dance studio (the space aptly deemed her sacred sanctuary) in Millbrook, NY to discuss how dance has helped her to personally heal and how she now shares her gifts and knowledge with others.
Your journey as a dancer has brought you full circle. Can you start from the beginning?
I started dancing when I was three. I was painfully shy, so my mother enrolled me in ballet to get me out of my shell. Early on, I took a combination of classes in ballet, tap and jazz. I later joined Estelle and Alfonso’s, [Estelle & Alfonso Performing Arts Complex was located in Fishkill, NY] and trained in Russian ballet.*
When I got out of school, I moved to New York City and was taking dance classes there. But I was a country girl in the big city, and I felt out of place, so my attendance waned. I had joined a Vaishnava temple, where I studied and dedicated my life in devotional service to God. During this time, I began to suffer from chronic fatigue which lasted for 14 years. It wasn’t until later in those years that I started dancing again.
I moved back upstate [Upstate New York] because of my illness. When I look back on all of this now, I realize that I didn’t understand that I was an empath.** I took on others’ emotions and feelings and would literally absorb their issues.
My return to dance changed my life. I came to realize that it is as essential to my well-being as air and water. In time, I finally understood that I could use dance in conjunction with my acute sensitivity to energy to help others.
*Russian ballet is known for its impeccable precision, ease of execution and attention to detail with instruction meticulously conducted in a particular order.
**An empath feels and absorbs other people’s emotions and/or physical symptoms because of their high sensitivities.
When you started dancing again, did you go back to your roots or dabble in other styles?
When I returned to dance, I first worked with a woman who had a modern background. Then I explored classical Indian dance. Later, I studied Hawaiian Hula dancing. [Each of these dances is rooted in culture and spiritual practices.]
Today, I dance a fusion of forms that have created my vocabulary of movement – ballet, jazz, modern, hula, Indian, and my own self-expressive style.
Your journey as a dancer has brought you full circle. Can you start from the beginning?
I started dancing when I was three. I was painfully shy, so my mother enrolled me in ballet to get me out of my shell. Early on, I took a combination of classes in ballet, tap and jazz. I later joined Estelle and Alfonso’s, [Estelle & Alfonso Performing Arts Complex was located in Fishkill, NY] and trained in Russian ballet.*
When I got out of school, I moved to New York City and was taking dance classes there. But I was a country girl in the big city, and I felt out of place, so my attendance waned. I had joined a Vaishnava temple, where I studied and dedicated my life in devotional service to God. During this time, I began to suffer from chronic fatigue which lasted for 14 years. It wasn’t until later in those years that I started dancing again.
I moved back upstate [Upstate New York] because of my illness. When I look back on all of this now, I realize that I didn’t understand that I was an empath.** I took on others’ emotions and feelings and would literally absorb their issues.
My return to dance changed my life. I came to realize that it is as essential to my well-being as air and water. In time, I finally understood that I could use dance in conjunction with my acute sensitivity to energy to help others.
*Russian ballet is known for its impeccable precision, ease of execution and attention to detail with instruction meticulously conducted in a particular order.
**An empath feels and absorbs other people’s emotions and/or physical symptoms because of their high sensitivities.
When you started dancing again, did you go back to your roots or dabble in other styles?
When I returned to dance, I first worked with a woman who had a modern background. Then I explored classical Indian dance. Later, I studied Hawaiian Hula dancing. [Each of these dances is rooted in culture and spiritual practices.]
Today, I dance a fusion of forms that have created my vocabulary of movement – ballet, jazz, modern, hula, Indian, and my own self-expressive style.
Gigi Oppenheimer
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What is it about dance that makes it such a successful therapeutic choice in healing a person physically, psychologically and emotionally?
Dance offers gentle, joyful relief and remedy. Its inner workings as a healing agent are multi-layered, acting upon several levels and principles simultaneously. Dance moves to heal from the inside out and the outside in. The self-expressive nature of dance is healing in its own right. It releases burdens and opens the door to bring every aspect of oneself into alignment. Dance also:
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Tell me about your healing dance classes and other services.
I have a variety of intuitive healing services, but the majority of them are movement-based.
There are different ways I work with clients in classes and private sessions. There is a passive style where the client relaxes, and I dance and move around the person as I help balance and transfer positive energy. There is also a guided style of movement where the client follows my movement but has the opportunity for self-expression. Lastly, the interactive and responsive style can be incorporated into what I call “Change the Dance of Life,” where I represent an element that someone wants to heal, and I intuitively guide the person to move in relation to it in order to embody transformation. This style can also be used with “Change the Dance of Love,” in which I guide two or more people through what they want to heal in their relationship.
In some classes, we start with a 30 minute healing dance practice that I’ve channeled. It’s a basic set sequence. It is meant to clear, ground, and center energy while toning and improving flexibility. It’s a total body-mind-spirit exercise.
Once members of a class start to connect, we can begin to develop relationships. We sit in a circle to start, and from that emerges what we would like to accomplish through movement for the day.
We are often dancing stress away, and part of the class is to reflect on the movement. There is an energetic shift that is carried with the students when they leave. We literally step out of old patterns and re-choreograph how we move through life.
I have clients – mature women who have been coming for quite a while – who consider it their therapy now. With this group, we listen to where we are in the moment…it’s very intuitive.
I also provide intuitive readings without movement that offer a deep, spiritual connection to guide and encourage, and I offer guided meditation. I provide mantra healing, which is spiritual healing through sacred sound. In these healing classes, I chant…although, sometimes I will dance during a mantra healing as well.
The bottom line is that it’s a nurturing experience. Whether it’s through dance, mantra or meditation, I make a personal connection with the client to share what is in my repertoire that may support their well-being.
What is an energy healing dance treatment?
There are two parts: The first is reading someone’s energy and the second is the healing phase. At times, the client is not moving, but receives energy channeled through my movement as a conduit.
I provide intuitive-empathic energy healing. Through the movement I receive information to help the client address specific issues or for his/her overall well-being. I often work through chakras [energy centers that are located in different spots along the spine] to restore balance, applying my physical movement to shift these subtle energies within and around them. This treatment clears negative thoughts and revitalizes the client – it has a soothing effect.
You are also a bhakti yogi. Could you explain?
Bhakti means devotion. The practice of yoga provides the link to self. There’s a process of initiation – different levels you seek along the way to understanding.
My experience as a bhakti yogi enhances all the services I provide.
Note: Bhakti yoga, like any other forms of yoga, is a path to self-realization, to having an experience of oneness with everything. (yogajournal.com)
Where do you find sanctuary? (#WheresYourSanctuary)
I find deepest sanctuary from within…in my heart…through my relationship with God as my friend. I also find sanctuary through grace and dancing from that inner-most place.
I have a variety of intuitive healing services, but the majority of them are movement-based.
There are different ways I work with clients in classes and private sessions. There is a passive style where the client relaxes, and I dance and move around the person as I help balance and transfer positive energy. There is also a guided style of movement where the client follows my movement but has the opportunity for self-expression. Lastly, the interactive and responsive style can be incorporated into what I call “Change the Dance of Life,” where I represent an element that someone wants to heal, and I intuitively guide the person to move in relation to it in order to embody transformation. This style can also be used with “Change the Dance of Love,” in which I guide two or more people through what they want to heal in their relationship.
In some classes, we start with a 30 minute healing dance practice that I’ve channeled. It’s a basic set sequence. It is meant to clear, ground, and center energy while toning and improving flexibility. It’s a total body-mind-spirit exercise.
Once members of a class start to connect, we can begin to develop relationships. We sit in a circle to start, and from that emerges what we would like to accomplish through movement for the day.
We are often dancing stress away, and part of the class is to reflect on the movement. There is an energetic shift that is carried with the students when they leave. We literally step out of old patterns and re-choreograph how we move through life.
I have clients – mature women who have been coming for quite a while – who consider it their therapy now. With this group, we listen to where we are in the moment…it’s very intuitive.
I also provide intuitive readings without movement that offer a deep, spiritual connection to guide and encourage, and I offer guided meditation. I provide mantra healing, which is spiritual healing through sacred sound. In these healing classes, I chant…although, sometimes I will dance during a mantra healing as well.
The bottom line is that it’s a nurturing experience. Whether it’s through dance, mantra or meditation, I make a personal connection with the client to share what is in my repertoire that may support their well-being.
What is an energy healing dance treatment?
There are two parts: The first is reading someone’s energy and the second is the healing phase. At times, the client is not moving, but receives energy channeled through my movement as a conduit.
I provide intuitive-empathic energy healing. Through the movement I receive information to help the client address specific issues or for his/her overall well-being. I often work through chakras [energy centers that are located in different spots along the spine] to restore balance, applying my physical movement to shift these subtle energies within and around them. This treatment clears negative thoughts and revitalizes the client – it has a soothing effect.
You are also a bhakti yogi. Could you explain?
Bhakti means devotion. The practice of yoga provides the link to self. There’s a process of initiation – different levels you seek along the way to understanding.
My experience as a bhakti yogi enhances all the services I provide.
Note: Bhakti yoga, like any other forms of yoga, is a path to self-realization, to having an experience of oneness with everything. (yogajournal.com)
Where do you find sanctuary? (#WheresYourSanctuary)
I find deepest sanctuary from within…in my heart…through my relationship with God as my friend. I also find sanctuary through grace and dancing from that inner-most place.
About Gigi:
Gigi Oppenheimer, owner of White Lotus Grace, has been a lifelong dancer and is a naturally intuitive healer with over 30 years of spiritual study, assimilation and teaching experience.
She was introduced to dance at the age of three as a means of healing her excessively painful shyness. Dance became an elixir of joy for her, and throughout her childhood and adolescence, she studied and performed several different styles of dance with a focus on ballet. She danced pre-professionally with the Mid Hudson Ballet Company in many adjudicated festivals and other venues.
At the age of 17, she moved to New York City to reside in a Vaishnava temple, and for seven years, she studied the devotional wisdom of the Vedas [ancient Indian scriptures], chanting sacred mantras and dedicating herself in a spirit of service to Divinity.
Gigi immersed herself in dance again during a pivotal time when she was recovering from a chronic illness and grief. She found that dance was the catalyst that initiated her healing process. Guidance came from within to show her how to move and dance through it in order to be healed and spiritually uplifted. She was driven to share this experience with others who could similarly benefit.
During this time of reinvention, Gigi discovered that she was an empath – someone able to receive information and energy intuitively and empathically, enabling her to help others to heal and move forward. Her deep passion for the profoundly joyful power of movement, meditation, and healing inspires her to work with clients (individually and in small groups) to create a healing experience that is personally comforting and supportive.
Gigi is also an author of two works: Grace: Moving in Divine Alignment and a new project that she is currently completing, Moving By Faith - A Course of Embodying Inner Trust.
Follow Gigi on FACEBOOK, TWITTER and INSTAGRAM.
Gigi Oppenheimer, owner of White Lotus Grace, has been a lifelong dancer and is a naturally intuitive healer with over 30 years of spiritual study, assimilation and teaching experience.
She was introduced to dance at the age of three as a means of healing her excessively painful shyness. Dance became an elixir of joy for her, and throughout her childhood and adolescence, she studied and performed several different styles of dance with a focus on ballet. She danced pre-professionally with the Mid Hudson Ballet Company in many adjudicated festivals and other venues.
At the age of 17, she moved to New York City to reside in a Vaishnava temple, and for seven years, she studied the devotional wisdom of the Vedas [ancient Indian scriptures], chanting sacred mantras and dedicating herself in a spirit of service to Divinity.
Gigi immersed herself in dance again during a pivotal time when she was recovering from a chronic illness and grief. She found that dance was the catalyst that initiated her healing process. Guidance came from within to show her how to move and dance through it in order to be healed and spiritually uplifted. She was driven to share this experience with others who could similarly benefit.
During this time of reinvention, Gigi discovered that she was an empath – someone able to receive information and energy intuitively and empathically, enabling her to help others to heal and move forward. Her deep passion for the profoundly joyful power of movement, meditation, and healing inspires her to work with clients (individually and in small groups) to create a healing experience that is personally comforting and supportive.
Gigi is also an author of two works: Grace: Moving in Divine Alignment and a new project that she is currently completing, Moving By Faith - A Course of Embodying Inner Trust.
Follow Gigi on FACEBOOK, TWITTER and INSTAGRAM.
Additional Resources:
American Dance Therapy Association
Dance as Alternative Medicine in Culture and Psychotherapy
Structured Dance as a Healing Modality for Women (Marilyn Stringer, Ph.D.)
American Dance Therapy Association
Dance as Alternative Medicine in Culture and Psychotherapy
Structured Dance as a Healing Modality for Women (Marilyn Stringer, Ph.D.)
