Movement as medicine
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Movement as medicine- how can dance movement help in the treatment of some medical conditions, including neurological ones.
Credit:
Emma Warren, Photo: Camilla Greenwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.Β Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Movement as medicine
Movement as medicine- how can dance movement help in the treatment of some neurological conditions, including ADHD and dyspraxia.
βFive, six, seven, eight!β Itβs a Wednesday night at an adult contemporary dance class at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in south London. Iβm aΒ lifelong dancer, but this was not my usual habitat: Iβd been going to nightclubs and dark basements since my mid-teens and spent a professional lifetime writing about dance music, whether that was house and techno, or drum βnβ bass and grime.
I could confidently find my spot on the dance floor in any situation, whether that was a live jazz jam in south London or a Wednesday night in a dive bar in SΓ£o Paulo, where DJ Nuts played rare Brazilian seven-inches to a crowd who knew all the words β and all the moves β to all the songs. Iβd class myself as a decent dancer with an above-decent experience of the dance floor.
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It came as a surprise, then, that I was terrible at contemporary dance. I couldnβt pick up the steps, and whole sections of movement slipped out of my head as soon as weβd learned them. I turned right when we were supposed to turn left and I spent most of the first year finishing dance phrases facing the opposite direction to the rest of the class.
Iβd improvise whole sections in the middle until I could find the steps again, my memory blanking out instructions like an out-of-control βdeleteβ button. Not matter how hard I tried, I could not absorb the teacherβs instructions.
What is Movement as Medicine?
Movement as medicine refers to the tendency of active people to have healthier muscles and flexibility than inactive people. The motto, movement as medicine, captures in three words evidence in numerous peer-reviewed research studies that physical movement, including dance, can help prevent some diseases, reduce the symptoms of others, and even reverse some chronic illnesses.
This was extremely annoying, especially given my fluency and confidence in the dark corners of a club. Iβd joke in the changing rooms β my legs are dyslexic! β but deep down it was frustrating and embarrassing.Β Sometimes Iβd find a flow, though, and this was joyful. It kept me coming back week in, week out, for nearly two years.
Eventually, I realized that the problem wasnβt βdyslexic legsβ. The problem was that I have many symptoms of dyspraxia, something that commonly occurs in people like me who have a diagnosis of neurofibromatosis, the most common of the rare neurological disorders.
"I turned right when we were supposed to turn left and I spent most of the first year finishing dance phrases facing the opposite direction to the rest of the class."
Credit:Emma Warren, Photo: Camilla Greenwell. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Clumsiness and chromosome 17
Iβve always been pretty clumsy, especially under stress. I canβt do even simple maths in my head and my poor sense of direction is a source of comedy to my friends. Iβve always been better at improvising than following instructions.Β Β A 2017 study of 159 children with this neurogenetic disorderΒ found serious motor problems in 61 percent of the children studied, often alongside ADHD andΒ autism spectrum disorder.
My clumsiness wasnβt me: it was chromosome 17, where the genetic mutation for neurofibromatosis sits. βDevelopmental motor problems are frequently overlooked in clinical practice, yet they can have a considerable impact on childrenβs lives,β wrote the studyβs authors, pointing to evidence that early motor intervention (like, perhaps, a dance class) can have a beneficial effect. They noted a 2009 study showing that in ADHD, motor-affected children receiving physiotherapy presented less frequently with emotional and behavioral problems.
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Read more:Β Dance movement therapy with children
"Iβd joke in the changing rooms β my legs are dyslexic! β but deep down it was frustrating and embarrassing."
Credit:Emma Warren, Photo: Camilla Greenwell. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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There was a specific reason I found it so hard to learn steps. Verbal instructions are difficult for neurodivergent dancers because dyspraxia affects how we process information. Dr. Julian Ahmed is a consultant in audiovestibular medicine at Portsmouthβs Queen Alexandra Hospital.
βAuditory processing disorder has a huge crossover with dyspraxia and dyslexia. These will often co-occur with ADHD or autism,β he says. βIn simple terms, information from our eyes and muscles doesnβt match up or get integrated into the coordination center of the brain. We know what we want to do, but the body doesnβt obey.β
βTechnique classes are hard on my brain,β says CEO of integrated dance company CroΓ Glan and fellow dyspraxic Tara Brandle, who trained at Laban in the 1980s, and like me, was an avid clubber. In learning new dances, she relies heavily on muscle memory. βI donβt try and visualize moves; I just trust that my reptile brain knows whatβs coming up.β
βIf they start going βleft arm rises up and swings down, drop onto your right foot and swivelββ¦ Iβm just lost,β she says. βMy head is spinning and I start to feel irritated, panicky. I canβt take it all in.β These days she can easily recognize neurodivergent kinfolk when sheβs teaching a class. βItβs this mad mixture,β she says, βof being a good dancer but not being able to remember steps.β
"Verbal instructions are difficult for neurodivergent dancers because dyspraxia affects how we process information."
Credit:Emma Warren, Photo: Camilla Greenwell. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Evidence for movement as medicine
Thereβs emerging evidence support movement as medicine says Dr. Ahmed, citing Dr. Edward βNedβ Hallowellβs NY Times bestsellerΒ βDelivered From Distractionβ, that complex integration activity like dance or martial arts can have lasting effects, above and beyond becoming a better dancer. βThese activities start to get things back into sync,β he says.
Dr. Ahmedβs interest in movement as medicinΒ isnβt entirely clinical: he was diagnosed withΒ ADHDΒ at age 38.Β Knowing what he knows about complex integration activity, he decided to self-medicate with movement as medicine through skateboarding and by taking up jive, because he figured that the spins, manipulation, and fast legwork required by the dance style would help re-sync his signals.
βI know with hindsight that the periods I did a lot better with my ADHD symptoms were when I was going raving, dancing all night,β he says. βAfter that, I did martial arts. These were coping strategies that worked. Where Iβve destabilized is when I changed jobs, had to start commuting, couldnβt keep stuff up.β
His experience of using movement as medicine chimed with mine. Iβm pretty sure Iβd have shown up in the 61 percent of people with motor issues in the neurofibromatosis study if theyβd studied me pre-dance. Iβm also pretty sure that Iβd have slipped out of that category if they repeated the tests after a year at Laban.
I was still a beginner, but I no longer finished all the phrases facing the wrong way. My legs became less βdyslexicβ and the rest of me followed β I am better at planning and organization and Iβm more acquainted with my lefts and rights. Iβm still pretty bad at directions but, hey, itβs dancing, not magic.
Movement as medicineΒ photography byΒ Camilla Greenwell
Emma Warren
Emma Warren is the author of βMake Some Spaceβ, which she wrote and published in 2019. A companion pamphlet, βDocument Your Cultureβ, is out on 31 August 2020. She is working on a new book about dancing.
Caption:
Movement as medicine refers to the tendency of active people to have healthier muscles and flexibility than inactive people.
