E- COURSE DANCEFULNESS -PL

Dancing Solutions to Conflict

Center of Kinesthetic Education

New York, United States of America  

• Impact local level

• Transferability

• Innovative practice

This practice is used in conflict resolution processes in school. The ability to creatively resolve conflict supports excellence in communication and fosters a positive classroom/studio climate. Despite the fact that school violence continues to be high, many schools fail to teach conflict management, social-emotional skills, or community building to all educators. 

This research-based article shares a dance strategy that leads toward peaceable behaviour using somatic explorations.

Dance is used to identify problems from bullying to gun violence and to find solutions. The author’s Dynamic EmbodimentTM approach to somatic education provides skill-building for stress reduction, enhanced understanding of body cues and opportunities for the practice of embodied socio-emotional development and conflict resolution. The approach includes a unique progression she has developed to enhance human tolerance, connection, and understanding of issues, feelings, cultures, and values when under stress. 

Even though this practice comes from a school setting, which means that it was not initially intended for adult learners, it provides good examples of exercises to include in Dancefulness curricula. 

• High-school and college students

• Teachers

This practice involves teacher modelling activities and tools to include in dancing lessons for problem-solving or skills development. 

“CAPS” is a traditional negotiating tool for problem situations and a movement model. CAPS stands for Cool down, Agree to solve the problem, Points of view, and Solve the problem.

• COOL DOWN—BREATHE deeply and fully, emphasizing the exhale

• AGREE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM—BOW to your partner or contestant before engaging in dissecting the conflict or any negotiations (verbally or through dance).

• POINTS OF VIEW—DANCE YOUR STORY This can involve still pictures, tableaus, or movement dialogue you set up.

• SOLVE THE PROBLEM—CREATE A DANCE TOGETHER

Somatic awareness increases bodily sensitivity by enhancing awareness of both sensation and of movement. Individuals become more self-aware and in theory more self-regulating - better able to change directions in the course of escalating tensions, self-soothe, and get calm instead of lashing out and hurting others verbally or nonverbally.

The process of exploring new responses is central to somatic education; physical habits are studied and new behaviours are explored.

Somatic education is effective in eliciting new responses because it awakens awareness and helps to break old patterns such as impulsiveness and angry outbursts. Conflict induces stress. Somatic education provides relief from stress and teaches mindfulness while in action. Somatic activities and somatic dance provide opportunities to respond to the stimuli and to begin to calm down, deescalating the situation versus escalating it. Somatic dance experiences can actually help an individual to perceive a trigger before it happens, or much sooner in the cycle, and open up the range of potential responses to the trigger.

• Martha Eddy CMA, RSMT, EdD (2016) Dancing Solutions to Conflict:

Field-Tested Somatic Dance for Peace, Journal of Dance Education, 16:3, 99-111, DOI:

10.1080/15290824.2015.1115867

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15290824.2015.1115867