Who Do You Want To Be?

What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a question that circles us as children. It is as if they should know, they already know “who” they are, and what life will be like. But why don’t we ask children who do you want to be? Because so much of what you do makes you who you are. Most of us are constantly changing our interests, passions, and even the sense of who we are; we are shaped by what we do, who we work with, what we can do with the resources and opportunities we have. It wasn’t until last year during my time abroad that I asked myself and found who I wanted to be. With ongoing experiences, this may change, but I can say that I have picked my first major professional passion: dance therapy

“The Table Where We Met,” was the dance piece that changed my world of dance. This  was a piece that incorporated movements of a style of dance called Tanztheater, influenced by Modern Dance. The meaning and purpose of dance had morphed for me. This style of dance and project gave the class a purpose. Amy Sullivan, the director of the Somatic Movement and Dance program at Stony Brook University, suggested that I take a class in Performance Topics where the group of eleven would be working on a project called “The Table Where We Met.” Since I have attended Stony Brook University I learned how much bigger this world is and everything it has to offer. I entered a Health Science Major on the Physician’s Assistant track but it was during my sophomore year of college that everything changed, with my first dance class at Stony Brook.

The dance piece incorporated a white table and a chair for each person. The table was supposed to represent an obstacle that we wanted to overcome. Each member danced around, underneath, and/or on top of the table. I wanted to further understand my classmates and what they were trying to communicate through their body language and movements. I had an immense desire to understand myself even more deeply to further understand those around me. I learned a different purpose for dance, this therapeutic side of it all.

The summer following the dance class I decided to test the Health Science field waters. I became one of thirty volunteers at Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens selected to work in the Emergency Room. It was here that I got to closely work with nurses, Physician’s Assistants, doctors, orderlies, and surgeons for seven to eight hours a day five days a week. My curiosity led me to want more. I was no longer just filling the cabinets with medical supplies but I was “shadowing” nurses and Physician’s Assistants.My summer in the ER was quite an eventful one, but it was around this time that I had been reconsidering the career track I had selected. I didn’t want dance just to be a hobby. I wanted to share what I had learned from this class with more people.

I decided to declare dance minor and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. The week following my major change it was almost as if the universe gave me a sign, a confirmation declaring that I had made the right decision. A Dance Movement Therapist (DMT) had been asked to hold a workshop centered around her work during my Improvisation course. I had minimal knowledge of what the field consisted of. I was interested before but it was then during this class that I knew I wanted to learn more. According to the American Dance Therapy Association Dance Movement Therapy “is the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, cognitive, physical and social integration of the individual.” I had understood what Psychotherapy had done for me in furthering the integration of these areas, but I had never felt so rejuvenated and aware of myself until this mini-session/class presentation of what the work involved.

 1 2

After class I spoke with Somatic Movement/Dance Therapist Bonnie McGlynn about the work and where I could get started. Bonnie shortly after became my mentor. We met a couple of times during the summer. Bonnie asked me why I wanted to continue my studies in DMT, to which I shared my personal experience with the practice and other forms of therapy. I recalled the improvement in some of the client-experience she had shared with the class and some of the feedback I heard from research. I felt moved by the work and wanted to help others undergo the positive benefits of DMT.

Fall semester of 2014 was awaiting and new adventures would come along with it. Engrossed and enthralled by the culture of Spain, I took off to study abroad, which started out as a semester and ended up lasting a full academic year. Barcelona, Spain was very rich in these holistic practices of therapy. Bonnie had told me about her adventures abroad and all that the lessons she experienced that contributed to her work. While abroad I attended dance classes at a Modern Dance studio called NunArt. The teacher Laura had a very similar style that I had been practicing at Stony Brook. Much of the work was intentional.

In my last year at Stony Brook University, I am continuing with my studies and working on obtaining an internship in DMT related work. By working directly with a DMT I could learn how to recognize students’ movement patterns, how to create appropriate movement interventions that improve the components that relate directly with the healing and wellness of individuals (Young, 141). The elements learned in Dance analysis courses during my Undergraduate career could be applied.

It has been during my last year that I have realized the impact education has on a population and specifically on myself. After being out of classes for 6 months I am realizing the importance of applying yourself in class by actively participating and challenging oneself. Never stop asking yourself questions, never stop thinking outside of the box, and never stop looking further from what is being taught.

Many Postgraduate students expect their wishes to be answered and for careers to be handed to them, but there’s so much more that goes on past the classroom. So having that in mind what can taking what I’ve learned in the classroom and applying it to real world situations do for my Professional Development? It could help in internships and furthering my experience. By integrating these practices my Resume will only expand. What makes a Resume bold and distinctive? According to the article Resume Writing, if what you include is related to the job that you’re applying for. It is easy to write out the duties that were fulfilled during the internship, volunteer work, or job, but what did you actually learn?

Coming to realize my calling in the professional field wasn’t a smooth sailing ride. I had a few stops along the way before being introduced to Dance Movement Therapy. At age eleven when I was asked what I wanted to be I would immediately respond, “a teacher.” I would run around my house gathering supplies to hold lessons in “Classroom 312.” The bell would ring and in front of me sat my younger sister, Riley the big brown bear, Cookie, Kathy (a doll from Gap), and a couple of others from my teddy bear collection. I loved the process of working and teaching something new. My junior year of high school I gained interest in science, the world around us is made up of and how it all works. It was through this love for the sciences that I started to look into science and health-related careers. Around this time, I was volunteering at an Animal Shelter where I cared for homeless animals, many of which were sick and lacking the proper health care. I wanted to be a veterinarian. My parents would check in with me on the daily to see what plans for the future had changed. I looked at my father and told him that I wanted to be a veterinarian. Instead of directly telling me that it wasn’t the right fit my father proceeded to say, “Are you sure you would be able to put animals to sleep,” to which I immediately said no.

As short lived as the veterinarian aspirations lived I put some thought into it and considered being a Pediatrician. Along with volunteering at the Animal Shelter, I had also been working with kids with learning disabilities from an elementary school located right behind my high school, Saint Francis Preparatory. I had loved this experience and still knew that no matter what career I went into, I wanted to be making a change and helping someone improve their well-being. My senior year of high school approached quickly and before I knew it college applications had been sent out and I was sizing up for my graduation gown and cap. Stony Brook University was my number one. I knew that what was coming would come quickly and have nothing but change and growth to offer.

So now I ask myself once a week not so much what do you want to be, but who do you want to be? How do I want to live my life? I want to continue to contribute to the world. What values and beliefs matter to me? What do I want to teach others? I think the implementation of education and application needs to be incorporated earlier on in the academic career. Many of these questions could be answered.

I want to be that link for a person to find themselves through movement. Instead of having a patient sit and speak about their troubles, they will be provided with the necessary tools to explore their minds with their bodies. They will move into a new place within themselves and their self-exploration. Dance Movement Therapy and its healing potential continues to call me.

But the most important question is: Who do you want to be? A lot of this questions revolves around, how do you live? By understanding this I learn to understand others. With the use of Dance Movement Therapy people who have forgotten the secrets and wisdom the body contains will be reminded. I leave you with this quote so you can understand what dance does for many that was said by German Tanztheater choreographer Pina Bausch, “When I first began choreographing, I never thought of it as choreography but as expressing feelings. Though every piece is different, they are all trying to get at certain things that are difficult to put into words. In the work, everything belongs to everything else – the music, the set, the movement and whatever is said.” Let the movement tell you.

 

References

Young, L. Jessica. Bringing My Body of Knowledge as a Dance/Movement Therapy Educator. 7 November 2012. (141-158).

About Dance/Movement Therapy. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2015, from       http://www.adta.org/about_dmt

Cherwitz, R. & Sullivan A. C. Intellectual Entrepreneurship: A Vision for Graduate Education Article. 25 March 2010. (22 – 27).

Resume Writing. https://career.berkeley.edu/Guide/ResumeLetterWriting.pdf

Wenders, W. (Director). (2011). Pina [Motion picture on DVD]. USA: Hanway Films.