Dance as a Healing Art: Returning to Health Through Movement and Imagery [Paperback]

Anna Halprin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2000

. A book of wise and healing guidance from one of America's greatest dancers who personally embodies the potential of celebrating life after cancer. It serves as a guide to understanding the emotional processes of a health crisis, as well as giving clear guidelines for how to work with these insights-a vital resource for family members and friends, teachers, helpers, healers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A dancer who has worked for the past 15 years with people suffering from AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses, Halprin advocates dance therapy as a path to healing. From the start, her book makes the vital distinction between healing and curing: "To cure is to physically eliminate a disease.... To heal is to operate on many dimensions simultaneously, by aiming at attaining a state of emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health." Noting that a person may be cured without being healed and healed without being cured, Halprin makes it clear that her goal is not to cure or to dismiss Western medicine but to help heal her students. In Halprin's approach, which involves four components (sensation, movement, feelings/emotions, and imagery), basic movements are the starting point of personal expression as the dance is transformed into a person's life experience. By providing lesson plans, activities, and class objectives, Halprin's book serves more as a curriculum guide for teachers and health professionals than as a self-help guide for patients. Recommended for academic or college libraries that support dance and/or health curriculums. Hospital libraries might also find this text useful.DDebra Mitts, Glenview P.L., IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Anna Halprin's Dance As A Healing Art is a remarkable gift of herself to workshop leaders and people with cancer. -- Jean Shinoda Bolen MD, author of Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning

Anna Halprin's Dance As A Healing Art is a remarkable gift of herself to workshop leaders and people with cancer. Dance as authentic movement that can tap into deep emotions and archetypal images was the means Anna herself used to recover from her own recurrence of cancer twenty years ago. For the next two decades, she led workshops for people with cancer that were profound, healing experiences. Now, she has distilled wwat she learned and taught into acccessible chapters. She leads us in dance as a healing art and we can now follow her steps. -- Jean Shinoda Bolen MD

Dance As A Healing Art is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to find joy in living with an altered body. -- Rachel Naomi Remen MD, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Life Rhythm (March 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940795191
• ISBN-13: 978-0940795198
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant! A must-read book!, October 25, 2001

By 

"richard_fuller" (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance as a Healing Art: Returning to Health Through Movement and Imagery (Paperback)

In the area of dance and healing the name Anna Halprin, Ph.D. is a beacon of hope and strength. And, in the area of cancer support and education, Anna's name is legend. This prolific author, dancer and healer now brings us Dance as a Healing Art, which hows us the connection between dance and spirituality as a means to fight cancer, AIDS and other terminal illnesses.

Anna Halprin, now 80 years old and a cancer survivor herself, brings not only years of experience and training in her art and craft, she brings vast quantities of love and understanding. Dance as a Healing Art exposes the viability of movement as a"...vehicle for releasing feelings which are essential to the healing process. Repressed or incongruent emotions shut down the immune system, causing pain and illness" relates Dr. Halprin.

Dance as a Healing Art, by definition, is an effective guide to healing for both teacher as well as student. It is filled with lessons to facilitate understanding of getting in touch with yourself (or patient) both physically as well as emotionally and spiritually.

Anna Halprin re-defines ritual to refer "...to an artistic process by which people gather and unify themselves in order to confront the challenges of their existence". That, in turn, defines Dance as a Healing Art as a process that enables the person in a health crisis to reach within and apply their emotional and spiritual healing tools to help.

Dance as a Healing Art is a powerful book from a pioneer and innovator. Anna Halprin offers a healing modality that uplifts by implementing a healing process through movement and imagery. This is a book, in this reviewer's opinion, not only for the stricken, but for the well!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life enhancing reading for patients, family & care providers, June 4, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance as a Healing Art: Returning to Health Through Movement and Imagery (Paperback)

Dance As A Healing Art: Returning To Health With Movement & Imagery is based on Anna Halprin's many years of practical experience in collaborative programs incorporating modern American dance with treatment protocols for cancer and AIDS patients. Dance As A Healing Art is a vital, innovative resource and practical, effective guide for people involved with any kind of chronic health crisis, -- including terminal illnesses. As a cancer survivor herself, eighty year old Anna Halprin brings a genuine authenticity to her presentation, offering uplifting insights and the wisdom off a great creative artist, teacher, and facilitator for healing. Dance As A Healing Art is highly recommended, life enhancing reading for medical care providers, patients, and their families.