Читать книгу The Creative Arts in Counseling - Samuel Gladding T., Samuel T. Gladding - Страница 102

Dramatic activities that can be used as adjuncts to dance therapy have been outlined by D. R. Johnson and Eicher (1990). According to these practitioners, dramatic techniques are effective with adolescents in dance therapy because they mediate the threat of intimacy members of this population feel. Basically, the techniques work internally “by decreasing the ambiguity of emotional and feeling states” and externally “by providing a safer container for the aggressive drives stimulated by the intimate environment” (p. 163). Drama techniques such as labeling feelings, freezing action, and defining linear space can help unsure adolescents feel safe within themselves and secure with others.

Other successful dramatic activities include these exercises:

 Adverbs. One member of a group leaves the room and the others decide on an adverb (a word ending in -ly, e.g., warmly). When the member returns, they ask designated members to act out a task in a way that reflects the chosen adverb and try to guess what it is.

 Chair game. Group members decide on a famous person while one member of the group is gone. When that person returns, they are treated like the famous person by others in the group until they guess that person’s identity.

 Areas. The room is marked off into different feeling areas such as sad, bored, happy, and angry. Each member of the group spends time in these areas and tries to embody that emotion. Then members reassemble and talk about how each experience felt.

 Environments. The group breaks into two teams, and each creates an environment for the other, such as the surface of the moon or a tropical jungle. After going through or participating in the environment, the teams reassemble and talk about the experience and how it relates to their lives.

Overall, dramatic techniques such as these get adolescents moving in many directions and interacting with different people in novel ways. After they have participated in dance therapy experiences, adolescents usually are not intimidated and in fact may welcome opportunities to be more expressive and creative.