Using Dance/Movement Therapy and Laban Movement Analysis to Build a Better Model of Rehabilitation for Chronic Pain

This paper aims to explore the physical and psychological symptoms of chronic pain, the current treatments for chronic pain, and the use of Dance/Movement Therapy with Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals to build a better rehabilitation model that integrates the treatment of both the physical and psychological symptoms of chronic pain for long-term treatment. Currently, chronic pain is medically managed by separating the physical and psychological symptoms, creating an oversimplified and fragmented treatment process. Many medical and alternative treatments are reliant on pharmaceuticals and do not integrate the treatment of physical and psychological symptoms, rendering the current chronic pain treatment unsuccessful. Dance/Movement Therapy with Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals accomplishes the integration of observation, assessment, and intervention of both physical and psychological symptoms, bridging together the different therapeutic strategies which are fragmented within the traditional medical model to provide a holistic rehabilitation process. This paper introduces a better model of rehabilitation for chronic pain centered on Dance/Movement Therapy with Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals

Spatial Motion Doodles: Sketching Animation in VR Using Hand Gestures and Laban Motion Analysis

International audienceWe present a method for easily drafting expressive character animation by playing with instrumented rigid objects. We parse the input 6D trajectories (position and orientation over time)-called spatial motion doodles-into sequences of actions and convert them into detailed character animations using a dataset of parameterized motion clips which are automatically fitted to the doodles in terms of global trajectory and timing. Moreover, we capture the expres-siveness of user-manipulation by analyzing Laban effort qualities in the input spatial motion doodles and transferring them to the synthetic motions we generate. We validate the ease of use of our system and the expressiveness of the resulting animations through a series of user studies, showing the interest of our approach for interactive digital storytelling applications dedicated to children and non-expert users, as well as for providing fast drafting tools for animators

Exploring the Affective Loop

Research in psychology and neurology shows that both body and mind are involved when experiencing emotions (Damasio 1994, Davidson et al. 2003). People are also very physical when they try to communicate their emotions. Somewhere in between beings consciously and unconsciously aware of it ourselves, we produce both verbal and physical signs to make other people understand how we feel. Simultaneously, this production of signs involves us in a stronger personal experience of the emotions we express. Emotions are also communicated in the digital world, but there is little focus on users' personal as well as physical experience of emotions in the available digital media. In order to explore whether and how we can expand existing media, we have designed, implemented and evaluated /eMoto/, a mobile service for sending affective messages to others. With eMoto, we explicitly aim to address both cognitive and physical experiences of human emotions. Through combining affective gestures for input with affective expressions that make use of colors, shapes and animations for the background of messages, the interaction "pulls" the user into an /affective loop/. In this thesis we define what we mean by affective loop and present a user-centered design approach expressed through four design principles inspired by previous work within Human Computer Interaction (HCI) but adjusted to our purposes; /embodiment/ (Dourish 2001) as a means to address how people communicate emotions in real life, /flow/ (Csikszentmihalyi 1990) to reach a state of involvement that goes further than the current context, /ambiguity/ of the designed expressions (Gaver et al. 2003) to allow for open-ended interpretation by the end-users instead of simplistic, one-emotion one-expression pairs and /natural but designed expressions/ to address people's natural couplings between cognitively and physically experienced emotions. We also present results from an end-user study of eMoto that indicates that subjects got both physically and emotionally involved in the interaction and that the designed "openness" and ambiguity of the expressions, was appreciated and understood by our subjects. Through the user study, we identified four potential design problems that have to be tackled in order to achieve an affective loop effect; the extent to which users' /feel in control/ of the interaction, /harmony and coherence/ between cognitive and physical expressions/,/ /timing/ of expressions and feedback in a communicational setting, and effects of users' /personality/ on their emotional expressions and experiences of the interaction

Choreographic and Somatic Approaches for the Development of Expressive Robotic Systems

As robotic systems are moved out of factory work cells into human-facing environments questions of choreography become central to their design, placement, and application. With a human viewer or counterpart present, a system will automatically be interpreted within context, style of movement, and form factor by human beings as animate elements of their environment. The interpretation by this human counterpart is critical to the success of the system's integration: knobs on the system need to make sense to a human counterpart; an artificial agent should have a way of notifying a human counterpart of a change in system state, possibly through motion profiles; and the motion of a human counterpart may have important contextual clues for task completion. Thus, professional choreographers, dance practitioners, and movement analysts are critical to research in robotics. They have design methods for movement that align with human audience perception, can identify simplified features of movement for human-robot interaction goals, and have detailed knowledge of the capacity of human movement. This article provides approaches employed by one research lab, specific impacts on technical and artistic projects within, and principles that may guide future such work. The background section reports on choreography, somatic perspectives, improvisation, the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System, and robotics. From this context methods including embodied exercises, writing prompts, and community building activities have been developed to facilitate interdisciplinary research. The results of this work is presented as an overview of a smattering of projects in areas like high-level motion planning, software development for rapid prototyping of movement, artistic output, and user studies that help understand how people interpret movement. Finally, guiding principles for other groups to adopt are posited.Comment: Under review at MDPI Arts Special Issue "The Machine as Artist (for the 21st Century)" http://www.mdpi.com/journal/arts/special_issues/Machine_Artis

Dance/Movement Therapy for Competitive Dancers: A Community Engagement Project

Young dancers often struggle to portray emotions and connect to meaningful choreography on a deep level. From September to April of this year, I have been applying dance/movement therapy theories and techniques to a competition dance class hoping to improve each dancer’s ability to emotionally execute a piece and improve the studios scores. I have worked toward meeting the adolescent pro-social needs through restructuring a dance class and encouraging self-esteem to be built through arts-based experientials. I did this by using several methods from dance/movement therapy theorists and applying them to a dance class that meets once a week for one hour. In addition to the dance/movement therapy theories, I used Laban Movement Analysis and the Bartenieff fundamentals to improve self-awareness. The dancers in this class are Caucasian, females between the ages of 9 and 18. The dancers explored their emotional connection to this dance through drawing, journaling, body explorations and improvisations led by prompts. I learned that dance movement therapy can easily be applied to a dance class and will improve the dancer’s connection to a piece tremendously. At the studio’s first dance competition of the season, all three judges commented on the dancer’s emotions, story-telling and commitment to the message, indicating that dance/movement therapy theories and techniques can help improve the dancer’s emotional execution

A study of the literature pertaining to kinesthesia and movement with special emphasis on the application of these to the teaching of sport skills

Kinesthesia can be briefly defined as the "muscle sense". However, this does not reveal the many and varied aspects encompassed by this sense sometimes labelled the "sixth sense". Wiebe (72) says that the functions of kinesthesia -- co-ordination, skill development, posture, body control, balance, and pressure discrimination--are all important in teaching physical education (72, p. 222)

Jungian personality types and inner attitudes: A pilot comparative study

This comparative design study attempts to find a connection by examining and comparing certain Jungian personality types, in particular sensing and intuiting, as applied in the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator which is based on Carl Jung's psychological type theory, with aspects of movement known as inner attitudes. The study used five female first year Dance/Movement Therapy students, who were comfortable and familiar with movement and creating movement through the use of imagery. They were given the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a self report, objective test used for personality assessment followed by a videotaped movement assessment using imagery that focuses on the observation of inner attitudes which are reflective of aspects of personality. The tapes were viewed and rated by three dance/movement therapists who were instructed to look for the predominant inner attitude seen in each movement phrase. The information received from the raters were then compared to the outcomes of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as well as the preferred image selected by the participant. The results show that there possibly could be a link between Jungian personality types and aspects of movement as well as discovering a possible link between conscious and unconscious choices. This is seen in the participants conscious choice differing from their behavior reflected by unconscious mechanisms. The implications of this study provide further insight into the phenomenon known as personality.M.A., Dance-Movement Therapy -- Drexel University, 200

Dancing Calgon: Embodied Research through Motif Notation

This embodiment study is presented in video from the qualitative analysis of two dancers’ experiences with dancing and writing using Motif Notation as they engaged in the practice of learning a dance from video. They interpreted their scores, revised the notation, and performed for accuracy. Through the dancers’ voices, movement, and Motif Notation scores, the study captures dancers’ experiences of how score writing can inform embodiment of an unfamiliar dance style. The dancers shared their self-discovery processes of using intellect to deepen embodiment—and embodiment to deepen intellect. The study with these two dancers revealed that (1) Motif Notation deepens cognitive, social-emotional, and psychomotor learning, and (2) notating while learning movement supports the concept of a dancer as a “researcher,” one who investigates in order to clarify meaning and improve embodiment. This study is IRB approved

Restoring The Body\u27s Ability To Connect: Using Principles Of Contact Improvisation In Dance/Movement Therapy To Process Interpersonal Trauma

Survivors of interpersonal trauma face unique and pervasive challenges following repetitive emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that misuses the social contract of trust in human relationship. The impact of abuse is revealed through the vehicle of trauma, the body, seen through lasting effects such as disassociation, hypervigilance, and difficulty expressing oneself. In an abusive relationship, control is monopolized, and the survivor’s agency is diminished. To restore a survivor’s trust in their body, the relational dance form of contact improvisation is proposed as a relevant tool to be examined in dance/movement therapy. A theoretical analysis of contact improvisation principles and dance/movement therapy is outlined to safely, progressively, and contextually restore resources to survivors of trauma. Guidelines to enhance connection to oneself and to others are carefully explored to guide embodiment, repair the use of touch, and develop equitable relationships