Dance - as non-formal education method for personal development of youngsters
Our need as human beings for finding alternative solutions for healing and self-reconnecting, made us, over the years, to redescover the healing through dance. The studies have shown that the personality comes to the surface throgh dance, through the corporal posture, through the frecvency and the range of the movements. All these are clues that shows us the way people can express conscious and unconsciuos emotions and can eliberate themselves from negative tensions and stress.
What are the contributions of dance-therapy in the personal development process of youngsters?
- Contributes to the development of cognitive skills and emotional maturity.
- Contributes to the increase of body awareness, by displaying healthy self-images
- In communication and/or networking difficulties, in non-verbal communication with those around as well as with our own body
- For the people who wants to have a better control of their body and their movements; for people who, following limb amputation or certain diseases, need to rediscover their body, to accept it in its new form and to establish a new relationship with it; for people who need self-reconnection
- Promotes and integrates emotional stability, anger management, etc.
- Promotes a non-judicative physical and emotional environment, by respecting everyone’s individuality
- Gradually decreases and eliminates the feelings of isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression, anger, sadness.
What is this toolkit and how can be used by youth workers?
This toolkit has been create to provide an intervention program through dance and other expressive techniques, addressed to young people in order to increase their well-being, their self-confidence, socialization and social inclusion. The kit is addressed to youth workers who use expressive methods in their work, as well as dance and other art specialists who want to use this universal language for therapeutic or personal development purposes.
This toolkit is made of different parts:
1. A theoretical part, which includes: art therapy as a therapeutic method in working with young people and its benefits in improving self-esteem and youth independence; a short introduction about dance therapy in the countries of the partners of the project: Romania, Italy and Spain and also, a short description of using dance as a non-formal education method, through specific activities.
2. A practical and methodological part, which includes: specific curricula for dance and movement workshops, work methodologies, tips for the facilitators, adapted versions for different target groups, lists with materials for each workshop, playlist music lists, testimonials from participants and youth workers who used this kit in the testing phase.
How did we did it? Dance Workshops
Videos
Workshop 1
Workshop 2
Workshop 3
Workshop 4
Workshop 5
Workshop 6
Workshops 7&8
Exercises (video)
Energy and the group
The steps story
Dancing my totemic animal
Testimonials of trainers
"The most extraordinary and unexpected aspect was certainly how much easy the emotions, of different kind, come up and that involved us trainers too; it was surprising to see how, just through the movement, the participants left free rein to the emotional storm, that accompanied them during this journey which, for many of them, represented a starting point for reflections and change. As a trainer, I think that the greatest goal was the chance to be spectators of this path, which, although brief, was characterized by so much intensity and participation". Mariella Xavier - Trainer
"It was a first-time experience for me, an experience I had a lot to learn. It made to me a great pleasure to run these workshops, although it was not easy. It's not easy to remove emotions from people, because you're empathizing with them without wanting. I have seen all the participants, evolution, bigger or slower, slower or faster, but it is a certainty that music and dance change us all without exception. I met beautiful, energetic young people, each with a luggage of greater or lesser experience, but all receptive and open. By the end they all understood that dance is not just rhythm and movement, dance is also emotion, love, empathy and life". Virgil Tăbuș - Trainer
Testimonials of observers
"The evolution of each of the participants in the testing phase of the Love, Life and Dance Project has been significant. At first most of them were insecure and embarrassed to show their feelings through their bodily movements. This situation changed after the second workshop, showing more self-confidence, more communicative and concentrated and more involved with the group and with the project". Roberto Carlos López - Observer
“It was surprised to find that in only two days people ceased to be strangers to each others and became a collective able to cooperate efficiently. Participants built a confident environment allowing each individual to further understand one’s self and develop analysis skills in relation to others. It seems to be an interesting tool to strengthen valuable abilities both in personal and in professional life". Alice Kerninon - Observer
"As an observer It was an inedited experience for me, an experiment that challenged my intuitive abilities, the capacity to discover and understand a person through his behavioral manifestations, in this case the dance. I have discovered how difficult it is to understand or evaluate a person in the absence of words, where nothing was concrete, but to discover the emotions, experiences, and expressiveness of that person, only by associating some movements with facial expressions, with intention or interaction with others. It was an engaging workshop where I understood how complex the human being is, both with herself and with the others". Camelia Nicoleta - Observer
Testimonials of participants
"As an active participant, I went through the stages and exercises that gave me the opportunity to express myself openly, without barriers, to find myself and at the same time in relation to the others because, although I was aware of myself, I did not felt judged. We have been induced to be free to act as we feel, and I have not shown the need for self-censorship for a second. I experienced a unique experience in which I felt free to express myself, to be myself, and I also experienced strong emotions, manifestation and release of stagnant energies, some of them unconscious up to that moment. All this in a friendly, warm, welcoming and friendly atmosphere, because I am convinced that no matter what feelings or resentments we would feel, it was the perfect framework for their manifestation and solving. I was delighted and happy with everything I experienced and I would repeat the experience anytime". Frigioiu Ștefania- Participant
"For me dance is like a dance that I love, that I never tried to do but I loved these two days because I thought that because of my disability I could not do it and I loved it. I have discovered a new thing and I am very happy. This project has meant me above all to meet many new people, young people (which is what I needed), interact with more people... Learn new things that I did not know you can do even if you are a person with a disability". Mario Palenzuela - Participant
“This workshop reminded me how much it is necessary to remove a strictly egocentric thought to, instead, open up to understanding and acceptance of emotions different from our own. It is surprising to discover how others can feel discomfort in situations that you have faced with naturalness, or how they can demonstrate calm and security in moments you have lived with great agitation. It was a renunciation of the usual compulsive and binding control without suppressing or refusing fears and discomforts, but welcoming them and learning to give them expression". Sofia d’Arpa - Participant