We Will Remember Dancing: A Message From a Child Shoah Survivor to the Young 10/7 Survivors

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COMMENTARY

Dance is found all around the world as a medium of expression. In medicine, dance can also be a form of therapy, dance/movement therapy (DMT). Its uniqueness lies in allowing patients to use physical movements to improve mental health, in contrast to verbal expression in traditional talk therapy. Dance therapy is typically conducted in psychiatric hospitals, social facilities, or schools by trained professionals.¹ Dance therapy can be effective in helping patients work with trauma and build resilience.² This may indicate that dance therapy, and even dance alone, has many opportunities for being a powerful healing tool throughout an individual’s life cycle.

As dance utilizes motion rather than speech, DMT may be an effective treatment modality for young children dealing with trauma. For instance, DMT has been integrated into pediatric oncologic care, allowing children to process their medical experiences and finding control and connection to their bodies again.³ For children who are reconnecting with parents after separation or entering foster care, DMT also assists in creating the attachment bond between the child and parent. The DMT provides an opportunity for the child and parent to sense, mirror, and attune to each other as they form a secure attachment.⁴ Even after childhood, DMT may continue to be a tool for those who have lost their ability to use speech.

However, for those unable to access DMT, dancing itself may be just as effective. “MB,” a hidden child survivor of the Shoah (or Holocaust), recalls dance connecting her and her mother after the war. MB was born in Amsterdam in 1942. Her parents gave birth to her while in hiding, and MB stayed with them for 9 to10 months before being hidden with a couple in the countryside of Holland. In 1945, MB was reunited with her parents, where she would feel sad; MB missed the parents that had taken care of her for 3 years and had a new identity to embrace. MB’s mother, a professional pianist for ballet companies, having attempted everything, began to dance for MB. Surprisingly, the dance worked and assisted in reforming the connection between MB with her mother. Ever since, dance has been a part of MB’s life.

MB’s story provides a case where DMT was not specifically practiced, but dance played a role in creating a secure attachment for the child to their parent. For younger children, where language is harder to communicate with, dance can provide another path for children with trauma to express themselves and form connections with others. In addition to DMT continuing to be an option for children with trauma, dance itself should be further studied as a tool of healing in childhood.

MB mentions that there was always music around the house, and she would dance for her children and their friends. MB, her children, and her parents’ connection to dance and music shows its potential as an intergenerational coping mechanism. Trauma does not end at one generation, but is transmitted between generations.⁵ Dance may provide both parent and child a way to cope and connect with their lived and shared experiences. Furthermore, dance carries cultural components. Thus, dance acts as a cultural coping mechanism within families and groups as they recover their identities.

As the individual continues to grow and age, DMT continues to be an effective treatment modality in many aspects. First, trauma impacts the lifetime and has its effects in aging, such as in Holocaust survivors, where stages in life are impacted by their traumatic experience, or vice versa.⁶ DMT may be applied to assist them in identity reconstruction, recreating their self and story. Different body postures and movements have been associated with various verbal or emotional expressions. For example, upward motion, such as standing up, reflects stability and confidence, while downward motions, such as sloped shoulders, reflect restraint and reservation. These, with many other clusters of motion, work together in the process of identity reconstruction.⁷

Beside the dancing itself, the autobiographical, narrative therapy in which the patient shares with the therapist what dancing has meant to them earlier in life can be helpful with aging survivors of the Shoah. It may even be helpful with the October 7 survivors of the Hamas massacre of the Nova music and dance festival.⁸ In MB’s case, her memory of dancing may act as a buffer against the foreseeable trauma and grief of aging with its losses and retraumatization that are brought forward by news of the Hamas horrors of October 7 and reemergence of anti-Semitism. Thus, if DMT is practiced throughout adulthood, individuals with trauma can rethink their selves and connect to their present body, which may perhaps reduce the impacts of trauma throughout life.

Other than psychological benefits, DMT simultaneously keeps an individual physically active. This not only improves physical health as exercise releases endorphins, which are hormones that calms the mind and improves moods, but also further maximizes the effects of DMT; dance utilizes the cerebellum, a part of the brain known for motor control, but also contributes to traumatic autobiographical memories.^9,10 In older adults, DMT also improves coordination and balance, limiting falls.¹¹ For those with age-related neurological conditions, such as Parkinson disease, DMT is able to improve motor, social, and cognitive functions.¹² Again, this emphasizes DMT’s physical benefits, its way of connecting people socially, as seen with attachment in children, and its ability to perhaps rewire a part of the brain that stores trauma.

When asked what dance means and makes her feel, MB used words such as “spiritual,” “escape,” and “inspirational,” highlighting the ability of dance to allow one to freely express oneself. Throughout the life cycle, DMT allows children to work with their trauma or create secure attachments with their caregivers, allows adults to rediscover their sense of self through the art, and provides physical benefits to older patients. Even without structured DMT itself, dance is also impactful, as seen with MB.

Perhaps DMT could be an alternative therapy to be incorporated into care for individuals of all ages that may have experienced trauma, due to its versatility and multifaceted benefits. Perhaps dance may be researched as something individuals may utilize at home to achieve similar benefits as DMT. Furthermore, the epigenetics related to dance and trauma should be explored, particularly since trauma has been discovered to induce epigenetic changes.¹³ It may be of interest to investigate whether there are epigenetic effects from dancing that differ from talk or medication-based therapies.

Altogether, this art of dancing will allow many to express themselves beyond the verbal level and improve their quality of life.

Acknowledgement: With thanks to MB, a child survivor of the Shoah who continues to teach and inspire.

Ms Pan is an A.B. Candidate in Neuroscience at Harvard College. Dr Danieli is a clinical psychologist at a private practice. She is also the founder and Executive Director of the International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma and the senior representative to the United Nations, International Organization for Victim Assistance. Dr Bursztajn is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. He is also the President of the American Unit of the International Chair in Bioethics.

References

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