Do you want to improve contacts with the environment? Having difficulty showing affection? Dancing can help you with this. But there is no way to learn steps and figures. It is about choreotherapy, i.e. dance therapy.

The goal ofchoreotherapyis notdancein itself, but to come to feelings that cannot be verbalized. Therefore, it does not contain precise movement directions or tedious exercises for step sequences.

Choreotherapy as a way to relieve stress and tension

- When I was little, I heard that in order to have the correct posture, I had to flex my buttocks. So I tied up - at school, at home, in the yard - remembers 40-year-old Beata. - I was still in control. When I grow up, even more: to be a good wife, mother, lover with a flat belly and a firm bum. I didn't let anyone touch my perfect hairstyle. When my husband or children wanted to hug each other, I screamed: watch your hair! - he lists. As this constantly tense body began to refuse to obey, there was pain, as if it was covered with an invisible filter that causes discomfort to touch. When the marriage was falling apart, Beata asked herself: why? After all, she tried so! The answer came at night. - I dreamed of my father. I could clearly see his posture and, brutal as it sounds, he was as tight as if he was holding a pile, 'he explains. The image of her father led her to her own tortured body. She decided to do something with him. She chose jogging, fitness … - The instructor shouted what and how to do, so I had to try and control if I was doing something right. This was not what I wanted - he explains. She accidentally came acrosschoreotherapy . "The name itself struck me as threatening," he admits. - I didn't need therapy, I needed to relax! - This is a frequent reaction to the slogan "choreotherapy". Therapy, which is something wrong with me - notes Agnieszka Szczepańczyk, choreotherapist. - One should not be influenced by it, because there is something in each of us that can be adjusted and harmonized. The same applies to the prefix choreo-, because choreotherapy is not a form of dance, it is rather a form of movement, based on the expression and improvisation that are characteristic of contemporary dance. It uses, among others circle dances, gyrokinesis, Body Mind Centering, relaxation techniques. - The time of the year may be the inspiration for the workshops. We use it in autumn or wintersalsa, funky, hot, energizing dances from the Caribbean and Africa. These are not steps that need to be learned and perfectly repeated or imitated, because here every move is good - explain choreotherapists Marta Kawczyńska and Samanta Zarzycka.

Effects of choreotherapy classes

While dancing in class, we experience the feeling of unity that comes from being in a group, the satisfaction that comes from being able to dance together, and the joy that movement gives. - Many ladies rediscover their femininity, dare to move their hips sensually - they open up, play like children - says Samanta Zarzycka. This is how Beata remembers her participation in the workshops. - I never laughed like during these classes. It was a discovery for me that happiness can fill every cell of the body, that laughter can be so unfettered, so real. It was amazing to dance in a circle with other women, hold hands, spin - says Beata about her experiences.

Reactions during classes may be different, especially to the former. Agnieszka Szczepańczyk noticed two basic ones. The first is the reaction of people who come to classes because they love movement and dancing, but have problems with being in a group. They open more easily and are helped by their natural expression. There are also people who just sit and watch during the first meetings.

- I do not force or teach anyone during classes. Every reaction or movement is appropriate, even when we are doing the same exercise, everyone can repeat it as much as he can or wants. There is no such thing as an assessment of correctness - explains the choreotherapist. It is up to the teacher to create a safe atmosphere. - If this is the case, incredibly positive energy begins to flow between the members of the group. A crazy, spontaneous dance begins, nobody controls anything, people play like children, set up patterns. There are sudden outbursts of emotions, screams, screams - says Marta Kawczyńska.

Participation in the workshops allows you to feel at ease, without any coercion. It is like an escape from a boring reality. "The fact that you can't dance doesn't really matter!" The body runs by itself, suddenly it turns out that you are making a movement that you have never done in your life, you move well, you know what part of your body you have, and this gives you great confidence - says Samanta Zarzycka. There are definitely more women than men participating in the classes. - It is difficult to come, open up, rely on feelings, and not on competition - says Agnieszka Szczepańczyk. It is also difficult because in our culture, unlike traditional or Balkan ones, men do not dance with each other. But if they decide toparticipation in workshops, they treat these classes as an element of personal development. - They are educated, intelligent people who do something for themselves, because they like it, because they want to, because as boys they dreamed of dancing, but they couldn't. They are by no means effeminate - he emphasizes.

Everyone can benefit from choreotherapy

Elderly and even disabled people also attend classes. Agnieszka Szczepańczyk remembers a 60-year-old woman who was confined to a wheelchair for 5 years due to various ailments. - Participation in the classes was a liberation for her because she loved movement. For us who looked at her, she only sat in a wheelchair, because all her work was done inside. And this is what choreotherapy is based on. It is working with the interior through working with the body - she emphasizes. Each of the participants of the classes aims at their own goal, which is most often the ability to set limits and overcome stress. It is often easier to show your limitations than to express them. - Sometimes you feel bad after the class because you realize something. If we decide to take the next step, sometimes it is enough for the sun to shine. It's a space where you can express everything, not necessarily verbally. Needless to say, emotions can be shown, anger can be shouted out, explains Agnieszka Szczepańczyk. In the third class, evaluation is usually excluded, participants allow themselves to be spontaneous. They stop judging themselves and others. They don't wonder what they look like. Laughter and tears appear. - No matter what they do, it is beautiful because it is true - she emphasizes. If there is embarrassment, no desire or no mood, you can always say "stop." But the group and the leaders support and give a sense of security if we want to go a step further. Before she started choreotherapy, Marta Kawczyńska was an amateur dancer of jazz. Improvisation and contact with other dancers play an important role in it. Dancing changed her life. - I recovered because the dance integrates the psyche with the body, I have gained self-confidence, I found out that XL size people can also dance - she lists. This change resulted in the decision to study at the DMT Institute and complete a 4-year coaching training.

Classes like therapy

Choreotherapy is not only a therapeutic dance that will help you make friends with your own body. The second trend is dance and movement psychotherapy (DMT). - The starting point of choreotherapy is the assumption that dance is a metaphor for life, and by entering into movement, we show life - explains Zuzanna Pędzich from the Independance Center for Dance and Movement Therapy.

Movement is therefore treated like language in psychotherapy. Thanks to observation, analysis of movement and linking it with featurespersonality can be helped, among others people with whom verbal contact is difficult, e.g. schizophrenics or autistic children. This method helps people with disturbed body image, i.e. suffering from anorexia, bulimia, and those who have suffered from violence in the past.

- Illness or such experiences translate into movement. This is evident in the case of depressed patients who have shallow breathing, do not want to move, or children with ADHD whose expression is almost uncontrolled, and movement is not directed, explains Zuzanna Pędzich. This form of therapy can also be used by people who do not control their aggression (e.g. parents who beat their children), because dancing gives a sense of control over the body. Dancing also helps bereaved people. - In the past, every family event was associated with dancing, because it helps to overcome anxiety. For example, part of the mourning rituals was a processional dance which became joyful after 3 days. It helped relatives not to freeze in mourning and not be alone - explains Zuzanna Pędzich. Often her patients are bereaved people who still did not survive her and complain of loneliness. Dancing in a group helps them come back to life.

Where to sign up for choreotherapy?

Individual therapy costs PLN 90-100 per week, one-time choreotherapy workshop - PLN 40-50. Before signing up for a therapy or workshop, it is worth checking if the trainers have completed DMT training. It is an English abbreviation for dance movement therapy, which was replaced in 2009 with the acronym DMP - dance movement psychotherapy. Currently, both abbreviations are used interchangeably.

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