Dancing for health : conquering and preventing stress / Judith Lynne Hanna.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hanna, Judith Lynne.

Contributor:

Hanna, Judith Lynne.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dance--Psychological aspects.

Dance.

Stress (Psychology).

Dance therapy.

Physical Description:

vii, 256 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : AltaMira Press, [2006]

Summary:

Anthropologist Judith Lynne Hanna demonstrates the extraordinary role of dance as a healing art for all kinds of stress. Using examples from many different cultures and throughout history, she explains how dance is exercise plus aesthetic communication. While science shows the mind/body integration and benefits of exercise, Western and non-Western cultures have employed dance to come to terms with life crises, resolve conflict, revitalize the past, and face the future. Hanna reveals how individuals expel spider venom or shake off death or evil by using the power of dance to induce, resist, reduce, and escape stress. She shows how dance-stress connections are played out on theater stages, in the professional dance career, and in amateur dance. Her cases include her own personal experiences in dance and reveal the potential of dance as a key strategy in the arsenal against stress. This broader cultural perspective is an innovative approach to understanding meaning in movement. Hanna's book will be of great interest to anthropologists, dancers, health researchers, therapists, psychologists, and others interested in coping with stress and improving their quality of life through dance.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Evolution's Gifts 19

Chapter 2 Dance-Stress Coupling 37

Part II Historical and Non-Western Dance-Stress Relations 55

Chapter 3 Meeting the Gods and Demons 57

Chapter 4 Shaking Off Poison, Plague, Death, and Sin 67

Chapter 5 Coming to Terms with Life Crises 77

Chapter 6 Resolving Conflict 89

Chapter 7 Revitalizing the Past and Facing the Future 103

Part III Western Dance-Stress Relations 115

Chapter 8 "Playing" Onstage in Western Theatrical Dance 117

Chapter 9 A Dance Career in the West 139

Chapter 10 Amateur Dancing in the West 171

Chapter 11 Dance/Movement Therapy 185

Finale: Dance and Stress Resistance, Reduction, and Euphoria 207.

Notes:

Rev. ed. of: Dance and stress. New York : AMS Press, c1988.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-243) and index.

Related Work:

Hanna, Judith Lynne. Dance and stress.

ISBN:

0759108595

OCLC:

63703783

Publisher Number:

9780759108592