Editors’ Note

The American Dance Therapy Association conference was held in Salt Lake City, Utah in October 2018. It opened with a traditionally warm welcome by the conference committee, later followed by workshops, lectures and panels that were (in our words as we experienced and witnessed the conference events) provoking, loving, guiding, truthful, authentic, and growth promoting experiences. Our dance/movement therapy community is growing, being pushed to grow more, learning, embracing—and there are times where our community is also in conflict, hurting each other, engaging in challenging yet so important conversations about inclusion, power, justice, equity and tradition.

The editors believe that this is a time in our profession to remind ourselves the wisdom that we impart on our clients: growth comes from what we perceive as discomfort or a need for something to change. We cannot avoid discomfort or ignore calls for change as a community and still grow. We believe that the challenges that we encounter come from places of shared intent: to do better, to be better, to lead with actions that match our intentions.

The editors are proud to carry on the journal tradition of bringing our readers important elements of the ADTA conference though our approach is unusual this year. With permission, we have reserved the critically important Marian Chace Foundation Lecture offered by Christine Caldwell and other equally important lectures, workshop presentations and events from the 2018 conferences as foundations for our special topics issue on social justice that will be published in December 2019. As usual, we have included Patricia Capello’s synthesis of the International Panel on trauma and restoration as well as the Research and Thesis Poster Session abstracts compiled and edited by the coordinators, Jennifer Tantia and Cecelia Fontensei. Both include valuable and otherwise challenging to find in the literature innovations in dance/movement therapy.

Articles include narratives and new research as well as thought provoking presentations of theory. Ilene Serlin and Marcia Leventhal’s summary of their own rich histories as dance/movement therapists and identifications for future growth spark examinations and reflections on our own professional development paths. Narratives and research on dance/movement therapy with autism spectrum disorder, treatment for trauma survivors, child sexual abuse and chronic pain offer varied contributions to the body of knowledge about dance/movement therapy with different populations. Jaclyn Biondo’s illuminating challenge to seek creative potential in the still moments of movement potentially opens new avenues for creative growth for dance/movement therapists and creative opportunity for our clients. We are also excited to offer five book reviews, coordinated by our book and materials reviews editor, Fran Levy. Each review provides insights on how the texts are relevant to dance/movement therapy practice, body of knowledge or education.

We would like to conclude our welcome to this issue with a short series of photographs offered by Ande Welling (captured by her husband, Mike Lawrence) during the opening ceremony in Utah. The powerful visual images remind us to move with the world around us and engage with the unique and varied landscape of place.

With gratitude, compassion, appreciation and intention toward continued growth—

Laura and Susan

“Using the diverse landscape of Utah as our guide and inspiration, we wish to welcome and invite people to arrive, as we explore ways of listening, responding, and engaging in a dialogue with ourselves, others, and the landscapes in between” (Ande Welling, Opening Ceremony, ADTA International Conference 2019).

Spiral Jetty: The Spiral Jetty invites me into the internal space of myself. Landing in my bones, space streams outward through my periphery. Buoyant, free, jumping, spreading, spiraling in and out—my edges dance with the lines, edges, and spaciousness of this nature scape. As I engage with the salt crystal crusted earth, the sky-expressive, serene, and startling reaches for my fingertips, the mountains and lake surround and contain. I listen and respond, conversing with all the space inward, outward, and beyond.

Zion: Paradox and opposites… as I listen, I find my opposites meeting the opposites of this space—fast/slow, upside down/right side up/smooth and flowing/hard and bound, giant wholeness/tiny individual pieces. Our dialogue is playful, risky, childlike, unstable, careful, full of wonder, shifting perspectives with each movement. As I move and explore, I see the earth shift and each time my eyes open, I receive a new picture, a new place to be; these spontaneous images, changing moment by moment ask me to listen and see the landscape within me, to be with and acknowledge the changes in my own structure, shape, emotion, and sensation.

Wisdom Tree: A mixture of colors, textures, stone slabs, sandstone—so much natural diversity in one space. This tree speaks to me, asking me to connect, curve, soften, and be held. She wraps around me, pulling me closely into the grooves of her body. I melt. Here I am aware of natural order, chaos and destruction, flora and fauna coexisting in a place where somehow, it all fits together. Here, all of my parts and pieces soften; I feel the welcoming of my wholeness, the wholeness of this nature scape. This space asks me to surrender, to trust, to be present, to awaken.

Layers and edges: The layers ask me to listen—sky, treetops, trunks, roots as they spread beneath me; the rocks, slabs, boulders, pebbles; water—splashes above the surface, the body of water, the moisture seeping into the creek bed underneath. Here I am aware of my own layers—skin, muscles, organs, bones, cells. Our layers dance together, guided by fluctuations in pressure, meeting edges, disconnecting and moving through awkward and precarious points of contact, trusting we will find our way back together, to begin the dance again.