Trudi Schoop & Blanche Evan ~ by Lyndal Pope

TRUDI SCHOOP

&

BLANCHE EVAN

Which two dance therapy pioneers are you attracted to; what in their practice and ideas attracts you?

Trudi Schoop

“People are not really deeply involved in life”. People do need to feel almost as if they have one chance to live[1], even if it is for a moment each day.

· Humor & objectifying or externalising inner conflicts

· Using herself actively

· Exaggerated posture/ alignment exercises, split body exaggeration

· Rhythm and repetition – build a strong expressive movement vocabulary

· Temporarily joining the inner fantasy

I was first attracted to Schoop from reading ‘An interview with Trudi Schoop’[2] because of her described zestful spirit[3]. A woman that is direct, energetic and with a joy for living I could easily identify with. As I read on I enjoyed identifying with the little things; dancing around when I was little in a big room with record player and having fears affect the way we acted & thought. I remember one night when I went to the toilet when I was little, I was always scared to walk to this part of the house, whilst in the toilet I heard a noise which frightened me to the core, literally. I screamed and froze in huddled stance. Both my mother and father had to pry my arms open as I was so frozen with fear they could barely move me. I still remember it till this day.

Coming from a dance/drama background myself I too can identify and recognise the benefit of using the self actively to demonstrate the physical expression of feelings & ideas[4]. I believe that another human can respond well to witnessing a true emotion or feeling from another, just as a good actor[5] can do. For me it was a major reason I moved from dancing jazz ballet to studying contemporary dance. The emotion and story that can be evoked from this form of dance was far more rewarding for me than a purely ‘dance for entertainment’ value. From witnessing an emotion on stage whether it be acting or a raw, true contemporary dance performance I myself have experienced how it can provoke emotions from within oneself purely from recognising its universality and identifying with this. This is all very similar to Schoops’ way of working.

Schoop often used herself as a model to explore emotions so that her patients could see an outwardly physical manifestation of what they may be feeling. She then used humor, which often worked for her. I liked her courageousness and as she said in interview, not too be afraid[6]. Another tool that attracts me to Schoop is her use of rhythms ie. Gong in the video. Once the clients emotion emerges she then uses a repetitive rhythm to give the emotion some control. Lastly I am captures by the idea of entering the patient’s fantasy to try and see it from their point of view, so often it is looked at and frowned upon. This is a progressive way of bridging the gap between psychotic and ‘normal’ realities.

Blanche Evan

‘Re-educate neurotic urban adults to their natural expressive body rhythms[7]’.

My interest in Blanche Evan arose from her work with the neurotic urban adult[8]. I wish to work with this demographic myself in the future, however challenging it may be. I warm to the idea of creative dance breaking the crust[9], I can see how this could be beneficial in combination with dance therapy, having engaged in creative dance myself. Dance improvisation is a very important tool especially with children. I also having worked with teaching children dance, recognise that creative dance is better received by children than being taught dance technique. Children most definitely can express themselves in free dance, both physically & emotionally.

Alignment of the Spine; I found this point interesting for myself especially. I had major problems with my spine some years ago, and was told by a chiropractor that my spine was in 2^nd stage degeneration. She actually scared me with computer-generated pictures of how damaged my spine was and was going to be. I refused to take on her advice and pursued my study in dance. I managed my spine on my own; I now get no pain at all. I think this ‘Functional Technique’ would be difficult to tackle and I don’t know if I fully agree with what Blanche was trying to do here.

I enjoyed the ‘Projective technique’, which we explored in class. That day in particular I could very easily identify emotion with a theme. We followed the theme of water. I chose to begin with vapour, building into a bludging cloud, which came to a downpour of heavy rain, this turned to a violent ocean storm… stillness. Light mist on my face, touch to amplify the emotion. Blanche also uses a technique that I like; throwing out incomplete sentences & allowing clients to respond with spontaneity of associations w corresponding movements, Marcia Leventhal uses a similar technique. Immediate reaction.

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[1] Wallock, Susan Frieder (1983) ‘An interview with Trudi Schoop’, American Journal of Dance Therapy, vol 6, p6.

[2] Op cit. pp.5-16

[3] Op cit. p.6

[4] Levy, Fran J., Dance Movement Therapy, A Healing Art, 1988, Chp.5, Trudi Schoop, p 79.

[5] Op cit. p.79

[6] Wallock, Susan Frieder (1983), p 14.

[7] Levy, Fran J., Dance Movement Therapy, A Healing Art, 1988, Chp.2, Blanche Evan, p 49.

[8] Op cit. p.33

[9] Op cit. p.34