We Dance from the Moment Our Feet Touch the Earth

This is the title of Sharon Chaiklin's chapter in the book she edited with Hilda Wengrower and just out from Routledge, The Art and Science of Dance/Movement Therapy. If you want to purchase this book from Amazon, you can go to the ADTA website and click on SUPPORT ADTA BY SHOPPING AMAZON.COM! and a percentage of the purchase price is donated to the American Dance Therapy Association.

And you will want to purchase this book if you are at all interested in dance/movement therapy. This is from the very first chapter,

"Movement and breath signify the start of life. They precede language and thought. Gesture immediately emerges as the means for expressing the human need for communication. This has been true over the span of human history. Havelock Ellis writes, 'If we are indifferent to the art of dancing, we have failed to understand, not merely the supreme manifestation of physical life, but also the supreme symbol of spiritual life' (Ellis, 1923, p. 36)."

The book offers basic concepts of dance/movement therapy (DMT), the path from theory to practice, including the use of DMT with people with eating disorders, dementia, acquired brain trauma, early childhood treatment, and family therapy. This is one gem of a book.