Robert Frank's first degree was achieved in ballet dancing. Starting in 1987 he graduated at the Hungarian Dance Academy. After graduating he won a scholarship and spent a year at the Elmhurst Ballet School in England. He then studied psychology at Debrecen University. During that time he visited the United States to study Dance Therapy with the major instructors in America. From 2004 he has worked at the Jahn Ferenc Hospital 111 in the Psychiatry Department where he uses Dance Therapy with psychotic and neurotic patients. From 2006 he has been a member of the Education, Research and Practice Committee at the Hungarian Dance Movement Association. He has used Dance Therapy with several groups with either cancer or epileptic illnesses at places such as the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology. Today he is the only one using Dance Therapy in clinical settings in Hungary
Dance/Movement Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the use of
movement as the medium of change. While the complex relationships between mind
and body have long been recognized and studied, there has been limited exploration in
modern western cultures on using the body as a healing force for emotional distress.
Eastern cultures have more extensively examined this relationship. Many movement
forms such as Tai Chi are meant for meditation and self-growth. The mind-body is seen
as a system that must function in ease and harmony. Disruptions of the flow and unity
indicate the presence of psychological and physical stress and conflict. Dance therapy is
based upon such assumptions, built upon psychological and physiological concepts
whit the strong belief in the psychic-physical relationship.
Dance Therapy as profession
The impetus to professionalizing dance as a therapeutic modality occurred after Word
War II, as the need for new therapeutic forms arose to meet the demands of the many
psychological sufferers. Various group modalities were used experimentally and evolved
as valid techniques. At this time Marian Chase was teaching and performing in
Washington D.C. She was a member of the well known Danishaw dance group. She
observed in her teaching that students who had no intention of becoming professional
dancers, kept returning for dance classes. She carefully took note of their individual
movement communications and began to heard their separate motivations and
psychological needs. It led to future understanding of why dance rather than
technique orientated, several psychiatrist became aware of her skills and began to send
patients. Whit her recognition of her special skills, she was invited to work at St.
Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington D.C., using dance as therapy.
Psychological and
Physiological Concepts
The body itself is a source of memory, response, and learning. Learning about the self is
closely allied whit the understanding of how our body response to the many conflicts
and stresses in daily life Dance Therapy provides a structure which allows development
of a sense of the body and through movement, makes use of the muscular and visceral
responses related to emotion and emotional memory. This process allows an
opportunity for cathartic release and expression of feelings which perhaps have been
blocked or disguised.
Every emotional illness is characterized by a degree of paralysis of body movement,
specifically those movements of the body that express feeling. These movements which
come from within as opposed to voluntary movements directed by the conscious mind
are summed up in the expression, the motility of the body.
The reduction of body motility is a measure of the severity of emotional illness.
