PY 677 - Observation and Assessment of Movement 1

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This course will introduce prospective dance therapists to the knowledge of pre-efforts (defenses and learning style), efforts (coping style and ego strength), shaping in directions (defenses, boundaries, and learning), and shaping in planes (complex relationships). These ideas will be examined through the frameworks of Laban’s concept of effort, Lamb’s concept of shape, Irmgard Bartenieff’s Fundamentals, the Kestenberg Movement Profile, Greenotation, and Bird Whistle. Students will learn and develop skills for observing, documenting, describing, and assessing movement and understand how to use these skills as diagnostic treatment tools for body-oriented psychotherapy. Students will begin developing self-awareness of her/his movement preferences and possible influences upon the therapeutic process and create a movement profile that will be used to do a self-evaluation. Students will also examine cultural considerations in movement assessment. A dance therapist’s foundation in observation and assessment of movement is central to his/her ability to offer sound therapeutic interventions, which are based upon the observed movement and its relationship to the clients’ overall development.