Integral Dance
Integral Dance (được tạo bởi Alexander Girshon) là một điệu nhảy hướng tới sự trọn vẹn hơn. Nó giúp duy trì kết nối sâu sắc với chính mình (ở cấp độ cơ thể và ý thức), kết nối chúng ta với người khác theo một cách đặc biệt, giúp cảm nhận sự thuộc về của chúng ta với thế giới (với thiên nhiên và nghệ thuật), và với một điều gì đó vĩ đại hơn mà khó diễn tả bằng lời (cấp độ tâm linh). Hơn nữa, những kết nối này mang tính năng động.
“Integral Dance ra đời từ mong muốn hiện thực hóa điệu nhảy như một con đường dẫn đến sự trọn vẹn, và từ sự hiểu biết rằng con đường đó còn hơn cả liệu pháp. Tôi thích câu nói: Liệu pháp tốt sẽ có hồi kết, nhưng điệu nhảy thì bất tận.”
"Theo tôi, mục tiêu trị liệu là có mục đích, phù hợp với hoàn cảnh, được xác định rõ ràng — nhưng khiêu vũ có thể đồng hành cùng toàn bộ cuộc sống con người."
“Một điệu nhảy có thể đồng hành cùng toàn bộ cuộc đời con người, với tất cả những gì nó chứa đựng — đó chính là Integral Dance.”
— A. Girshon
Các nguyên tắc cốt lõi của Integral Dance
1. Thân thể và ý thức không thể tách rời
Mọi biểu hiện của một người sống, bất kể họ thể hiện bản thân như thế nào, luôn có sự hiện diện của cơ thể. Mọi thứ chúng ta trải nghiệm, suy nghĩ và quyết định đều được thể hiện qua cơ thể. Não bộ là một phần của cơ thể — đây là một sự hiểu biết đơn giản nhưng thiết yếu.
Khi một người tự giới thiệu bản thân, kể câu chuyện của mình, hoặc bày tỏ cảm xúc, chúng ta luôn quan sát cách điều đó thể hiện ra ở cấp độ ngôn ngữ cơ thể — thông qua biểu cảm khuôn mặt, những cử chỉ nhỏ, sự thay đổi tư thế, sự thay đổi trương lực cơ, hoặc ngữ điệu giọng nói.
2. Con người là một quá trình, không phải là một vật thể
Điều cần thiết là phải nhìn nhận một người như một quá trình đa chiều đang phát triển.
The first conclusion from this principle: every situation that exists here and now has a certain history — a person has gone through particular stages, phases, and episodes of development. The second conclusion: this situation will continue, this story is not finished.
In a certain sense, this coincides with the existential understanding of a person as an unfinished project.
We ask: What continues to move? What continues to change? What process is unfolding?
3. In everything, one can see a dance and partners for movement
This third principle arises from the previous question: What is this process? And here we arrive at dance.
If we understand dance as a multidimensional, coordinated process, it becomes important to find the appropriate place for any experience.
For example: “This situation doesn’t suit me because some part of me is not in the place where I could accept it.”
Or: “The position I’m in limits me and doesn’t allow me to embrace what is happening.”
From a holistic, integral point of view, we cannot discard anything. In this sense, we understand dance in a truly broad way, and we can consider any situation in life as a dance, and its participants as partners in movement.
Four Levels of Integration in Integral Dance
Dance with oneself
The core values of Integral Dance are freedom, creativity, wholeness, and care (first and foremost — self-care).
Listening to one’s own rhythm, listening to one’s deep desire, listening to one’s authenticity — these are the qualities a person learns.
And naturally, when a person learns to care for themselves, they begin to build relationships with others in a qualitatively different way.
True self-care is the ability to be free and to create.
Dance with another
At the most basic level, every person has a deep sense of being: “I exist, and I have the right to exist.”
I exist, and that is enough.
From here — if I exist, I can feel, and I can act. I have the right to feel and the right to act.
The next circle of integration is connection with the Other.
There can be no integration that is purely individual.
It cannot be that I am whole by myself, but in relationship with others I immediately lose this state.
If a person is truly whole, this extends to the quality of their relationships with others — in which, if one wishes, one can always see partners for movement.
Dance with the world
This means that I have my own place in the world, and I am at peace with it — my place in society, in culture, and in nature.
It means that I have a certain connection with nature — one that feels right for me.
These can be very simple things: for example, a person enjoys walking in the park and intuitively knows when it’s time to go there.
Or perhaps they feel a deep connection with a certain element or force of nature.
Connection with the world also manifests as connection with culture — in the sense that I truly understand which culture influences me, which culture I belong to, and why my tastes and preferences are what they are.
This is what integration means: what I do in society corresponds to my inner sense of self, and there is no strong contradiction between them.
There may be compromises or crises that I go through, but strategically I am in my right place in this world.
Dance with eternity
Most people who practice dance note that at times they encounter an inner experience that is difficult to express in words — as if part of it cannot be verbalized and lies beyond our consciousness.
If a person has experienced a powerful, vivid state through dance, it needs to be integrated — to find its place and meaning.
What place does it occupy? Where can it be of use, and what nourishes it in return?
Integral Dance provides space for this sacred side of the dance experience, creating a field for calm and clear understanding — where it leads and why it is needed.
Main Tools of Integral Dance
- Integral Dance-Movement Therapy
- Integral Somatics
- Integral Performance and Improvisation
- Dance as a Spiritual Practice
The foundation of Integral Dance is built upon several different schools of improvisation and improvisational performance on one hand, and body-centered therapy on the other. Dance therapy itself treats movement as a language of communication between therapist and client. Establishing non-verbal therapeutic relationships is the essence of classical dance therapy.
Another cornerstone of Integral Dance is Authentic Movement. Interestingly, Authentic Movement is both a separate discipline and, at the same time, already carries a sense of integrality. It can serve as a therapeutic tool, it can be a personal practice—sometimes for stress management, sometimes to support creativity, sometimes to address personal challenges, and sometimes simply because the process itself is valuable. It is also a spiritual practice. At least in the form practiced by Janet Adler, the Discipline of Authentic Movement is a modern mystical practice. Both aspects—the therapeutic and the spiritual—are explored in A. Girshon’s book Stories Told by the Body.
A significant body of knowledge emerged after classical dance-movement therapy, particularly in the 1970s–1990s, through somatic techniques. These, on one hand, share much with dance-movement approaches but are positioned under a different label. Somatic therapists often have separate professional associations, use somewhat different tools, and draw on a distinct knowledge base. Yet the foundations and goals are very similar. The somatic approach has significantly enriched the understanding of dance, movement, and human development. It also integrates well with discoveries in neuroscience—a field that must be incorporated today. Naturally, dance therapy and psychotherapy in general strive to understand and integrate this knowledge, relating it to practical therapeutic techniques.
Additionally, there are practices not focused on creativity or therapy per se, but rather on dance as ritual or prayer—dance as a form of spiritual practice.
Thus, Integral Dance draws on many foundations: improvisation, therapy itself, authentic movement, dance as a spiritual practice, and somatic or body-oriented approaches. Integral Dance is a process that helps us understand how all these elements relate to one another. By combining these forms of knowledge, we can more clearly and accurately—and most importantly, while staying connected to ourselves and our intentions—use Integral Dance for self-discovery, personal development, and enhancing our engagement with life.
