Dance for Health at Colby College

Jessie Laurita-Spanglet taught a new course called “Dance for Health” in Colby College’s Theatre and Dance program.

How can movement shift our experience of illness or pain? Is it possible to quantify the effects that dance can have on a person’s health and well-being? These will be our guiding questions as we explore how dance can be a tool for transformation and a vehicle for finding joy and creativity in the lives of those living with illness. This course focuses on the field of dance for health and will explore three different methods that bring dance into the sphere of health and well-being. Our primary focus will be on the IMPROVment® method, which uses verbal prompts to elicit unique improvisational movements and which is currently being tested in an NIH-funded randomized clinical trial. As a culminating project, students design their own program that brings dance into a healthcare environment.