Healing Dance is a holistic aquatic technique developed by Alexander George in 1993. It currently consists of eleven trainings. Eight of these teach techniques where the receiver remains on the surface of the water. The remaining three trainings are underwater, featuring a variety of dives with the receiver wearing a nose clip. The guiding philosophy of the work is that movement is “medicine” and in the experience of “received dance” the healing process in the body is activated. Students learn to create the sensation of lightness and weightlessness, generate a rhythmic field, and find the various “rhythms of awareness” for clients. Physical and emotional blockages are resolved in the polarity between freedom and safety. Advanced body mechanics are taught to create movements of greater subtlety and sensitivity. As the movement vocabulary expands, students become more confident in accompanying the self-generated movements of the client.
In 1990, while residing in Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California, Alexander George studied WATSU® from its founder, Harold Dull. After the course he began experimenting and improvising in the Harbin hot pool. Alexander was influenced not only by his professional background in ballet and Trager Work, but also by the ways in which the body and water interact in movement. After studying WaterDance in 1993 with Arjana Brunschwiler, a new spaciousness and three-dimensionality appeared in his movement explorations. By then, he had created a fluid, dance-like side branch of WATSU. Healing Dance, as Alexander’s pioneered technique is now called, has evolved from the pure joy of movement to its full therapeutic potential. Since 1999, Inika Spence-Whaley has collaborated closely with him in defining and growing the work into a distinct technique. Mary Theri Thomas joined the Healing Dance teaching team in 2003, having already made a significant contribution to its development. Since 2007, Kathrin George’s perspective as a physiotherapist, practitioner and teacher has advanced the technique enormously. The application of Christian Larsen’s Spiraldynamik teaching has brought further refinements.
Website: https://www.healingdance.org/