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Dance - General & Miscellaneous, Dance - History & Criticism, Stress & Anxiety Management - Self-Help, Clinical Psychology - General & Miscellaneous
Dancing For Health by Judith Lynne Hanna β€” book cover

Dancing For Health

by Judith Lynne Hanna
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Overview

Throughout history and in contemporary times, people worldwide have danced to cope with the stresses of life. But how has dance helped people resist, reduce, and escape stress? What is it about dance that makes it a healing art? What insights can we gain from learning about others' use of dance across cultures and eras? Dancing for Health addresses these questions and explains the cognitive, emotional and physical dimensions of dance in a spectrum of stress management approaches. Designed for anyone interested in health and healing, Dancing for Health offers lessons learned from the experiences of people of different cultures and historical periods, as well as current knowledge, on how to resist, reduce, and dance away stress in the disquieting times of the 21st century. Anthropologists and psychologists will benefit from the unique theoretical and ethnographic analysis of how dance affects communities and individuals, while dancers and therapists will take away practical lessons on improving their and their patients' quality of life.

Synopsis

Dancing for Health explains the cognitive, emotional, and physical dimensions of dance in a spectrum of stress management approaches. Designed for anyone interested in health and healing, this book offers lessons learned from the experiences of people of different cultures and historical periods, as well as current knowledge, on how to resist, reduce, and dance away stress in the disquieting times of the 21st century.

About the Author, Judith Lynne Hanna

Judith Lynne Hanna (Ph.D., Columbia University) is a senior research scholar in the Department of Dance at the University of Maryland, College Park.

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Editorials

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Hanna draws on her own experiences as a life-long student of dance, on anthropological research, and on her worldwide travels to demonstrate the role of dance as a healing art for all kinds of stress. Divided into three sectionsβ€”"Setting the Stage," "Historical and Non-Western Dance-Stress Relations," and "Western Dance-Stress Relations"β€”the book's 11 chapters explore dance as art, as entertainment, as therapeutic exercise, and as a competitive discipline. The author describes how numerous cultures have employed dance to deal with life crises, resolve conflicts, revitalize the past, and face the future. She also details the many physical and emotional pitfalls dancers encounter, for example issues surrounding body image. This well-written book will interest a broad audience, including health researchers, therapists, psychologists, dancers, and anthropologists.

Book Details

Published
July 1, 2006
Publisher
AltaMira Press
Pages
264
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780759108592

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