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The Moving Cycle: A Second Generation Dance/Movement Therapy Form

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Abstract

In the early 1980s, Christine Caldwell began developing a form of dance/movement therapy (DMT) she named the Moving Cycle. Premised on the notion that movement principles themselves could form the theoretical base and clinical strategies of healing, she began teaching this form to students at Naropa University in the 1980s, where training continues to this day. This article introduces the history as well as the theory and practice of this second generation form of DMT, and compares it to traditional forms of DMT. The article also centralizes the Moving Cycle’s valuing of precise movement sequencing, movement continuums, social justice, and the mapping of biological processes onto psychological states.

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Notes

  1. She founded the BA program in Dance/Movement Therapy at Naropa in 1982, and the MA program in 1984. In 1990 the department was split into two majors, body psychology and dance/movement therapy.

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Correspondence to Christine Caldwell.

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Caldwell, C. The Moving Cycle: A Second Generation Dance/Movement Therapy Form. Am J Dance Ther 38, 245–258 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-016-9220-6

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