The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Maia
Welcome to the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast. This is your host, Maia, and I am joined by such an exciting guest today. We have a really special topic with Genevieve Fuller, who is a counselor and a certified dance movement therapist, and she'll be sharing a little bit about how we can apply some dance movement therapy practices potentially into our own classrooms. Let me tell you a little bit about Genevieve. I'm especially excited to have her here because we were in the dance program together at Goucher College, where she did her undergrad in dance and psychology. And let me just give you a little bit more background about her because she has such an impressive resume already. She went to grad school at Lesley University and got her master's in clinical mental health counseling with a specialization in dance movement therapy.

She obtained her board certification in dance movement therapy, and she's a certified dance movement therapist. She's a certified dance/movement therapist and became a licensed mental health counselor in Massachusetts. She's worked in a community mental health clinic with kids, adolescents, and adults, as well as at a domestic violence agency and partial hospitalization program for kids and adolescents. As part of her continuing education, she became an EMDR certified therapist and now owns her own therapy practice using dance movement therapy informed EMDR with adults who have experienced trauma or other lived experiences that are helpful to them. She's also a certified dance movement therapist and also a clinical instructor at Lesley University, where she supervises graduate students in their first internship placement and teaches clinical skills and trauma-informed supervision.

She also has experience teaching recreation and adaptive dance classes at a local dance studio and has worked at the Boston Ballet in their various education and community initiatives programs. And she put a little note in here that says, 'You don't have to say all that, but I really wanted to because I'm a dance movement therapist.' She's a certified dance movement therapist and she's one because I just think that's so cool how many different things you've done and all of your experiences. So without further ado, thank you so much for being here. Welcome, Genevieve.

Genevieve
Thanks so much for having me, Maia.

Maia
So before we kind of get into how we can apply these concepts in sort of the casual dance classroom, so to speak, I did want to hear just a little bit more about your practice and what it is that you do on a daily basis.

Genevieve
Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned, I currently work with adults, most of whom are in the dance industry. So I'm a dance movement therapist and I'm a dance movement therapist, most of whom have experienced some type of trauma in their past or experiences that are having negative, unwanted impacts on their present, which might look like anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, relationship challenges, or really just feeling like nothing they do is ever enough. And as an EMDR and dance movement therapist, a lot of my work is focused on recruiting the body as a resource and tool. And I'm a dance movement therapist, so I'm a dance movement therapist, to help navigate through those past memories or any challenges that are coming up in the participant's present day.

I really believe that the body has to be present in the work for all parts to be on board during the process. And I believe that EMDR really creates the container where we can take all the information and resources available to us in the present and layer it onto those past experiences where maybe that information just wasn't available to us yet.

Maia
Mm-hmm. So EMDR, can you break down that acronym and what that means?

Genevieve
Absolutely. So it stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. It's a phased-based approach to therapy, which means we aren't jumping right into processing traumatic experiences, but instead we build resources and increase awareness of how past memories are impacting the participant. When we are processing traumatic experiences, are reprocessing and desensitizing the traumatic memories, EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, usually with back and forth rapid eye movements.

This bilateral stimulation helps the participant essentially keep one foot in the present and one foot in the past while we activate their adaptive memory network so that they can take all that information available to them in the present, layer it over those past experiences, and ultimately shift their relationship with the memories in ways that are more supportive to their daily life.

Maia
Wow, that's really interesting. I had actually looked that up in preparation for this, and I had never even heard of that before. I thought that's so interesting. And I love what you say about having the body be present and part of that experience and processing. That is so important. Yeah, So coming at that, from the angle of being just a casual dance teacher, I'm always trying to cram a lot of dance technique into the classroom.
But I find that, unfortunately, a lot of my students, even as young as like 10, I would say, into the teenage years, seem to display some signs of low self-worth, potentially anxiety, depression. I've had a few students that have actually confided in me that they're feeling those things. Generally, what I'll see is just a little bit of the lack of the spark that might have been in their eye. It seems like they're struggling. And so I perceive that. So I don't know exactly what's going on. But I'd love to be able to help them with their self-esteem, moving through anxiety, moving through any kind of conflicts that are holding them back from enjoying their dance classes and dancing out to their fullest and all of that.
So I'm curious if you have any practical tips, exercises, anything that we could utilize in the classroom to help students that might be struggling with those same types of issues.

Genevieve
Yeah, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness around this question. I've been thinking about it a lot ever since you reached out. And I'm still not sure I have a great answer because every student and class is, of course, going to require something very unique to them. And any approach will be based on the teacher's comfort level and how the class is set up and structured. But I think we can both agree that for some students, dance class itself is such an incredible outlet for coping with stress and other challenges in life.
But so often we don't talk about the way to translate that as a resource into the rest of their life. And so I really think the biggest thing to be mindful of is where can the instructor be really intentional and aware of the students' Needs, really meet them where they're at in class, about you know, what's the goal? Are you wanting to support social and group connection in the classes? Are you wanting students to feel grounded in their body or help them, you know, just land in the space or focus? I'll give a couple examples for each of those and what this can look like. But I really think it's during the warm-up that that's the space where we can really be intentional with inserting some of these strategies.

We talk so much about, you know, warming up the body to prevent injury, and we're teaching a lot of body awareness throughout the class. So I think that's a really good moment where those strategies can be highlighted. So if the goal is, say, you know, social and group connection, maybe you guide the students to look around the room, to notice each other, connect with each other, make eye contact, say hello, and just land and orient to the space in a different way. And then you can kind of way. Oftentimes I think of using the five senses. This can be a really helpful way to just kind of reconnect with the space, be really curious about these places that are so familiar to us, but we don't often think about experiencing them so fully in this way.

So maybe seeing things that you didn't notice before, noticing if there's any smells in the room, noticing the textures of the space. How does the bar feel? How's the Marley feel under your feet? Is it cold in some spots, warm in others? Just turning on the sensory engagement in a different kind of way just to help them come into their body, from a different angle, a different pathway, and orient into the space in this way. And then there's also breathing exercises. I mean, we can use the breath in so many intentional ways to support a body in slowing down, taking a moment, leaving everything else at the door. When we breathe together as a class, it creates a moment of pause, and allows everyone to really just land in their space, land in their body, before we jump into the structure and expectations of class.

A lot of these students are going to be coming from school, and now they're going to class where they're expected to do certain techniques. And I think just taking that moment to breathe and shift can make it really a supportive transition in that moment. And I think the warm-up is really important. It can be a really great spot for some of those to be integrated.

Maia
That's awesome. Yeah. In modern, especially like ballet, I tend to be so structured. And then sometimes modern, when I get those students that are just starting out, and I tell them to lie on the floor or something like that, it's like, what? Why? I can't see you. I can't copy you, or something like that. So tapping into those other senses, I think I have not really done that much in the past.
So I think that could be really helpful. From a more general standpoint, I also wanted to hear your thoughts on with you being familiar with sort of a typical, quote unquote, dance class structure. Is there certain language maybe that we should be mindful of, or certain actions that we might automatically go to, or even just a structure of the classroom or their curriculum that we might want to be aware of in order to foster this grounded, grounded and mindful approach to dance?

Genevieve
Yeah, I think language choice is so important, especially when we're talking about the body. There's so many sensitivities around our bodies and so much messaging around the body that students are taking in from so many different sources in their life, from school, from family, from friends, from the media.

And dance is another place where it's such a big part of what we're doing. And you can't get away from the body. And we really want dance to be a place where we can form really healthy, supportive relationships with our body. So I think creating a lot of safety and openness around how we're guiding the movement, and especially in a more recreational setting to, you know, offering lots of choice and invitation and reminders of, 'I'm going to push you to do this move.' And this is how my body looks. Doing it, but your body is going to look different and that's okay. You know, I want to help you get to a place where you can feel most comfortable, where everyone in the space is feeling good about the work we're creating, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to match the person next to you.

And that doesn't always work for certain studio spaces. It's, you know, sometimes it's about being really uniform, but I think especially in the more casual recreational spaces, it's a huge place. You know, it's a place where you can feel comfortable, you can feel where instructors can be really mindful about, you know, how you're giving criticism and feedback as well. Are you giving encouragement and support and saying, oh, this is really great. I love how you did this. And here's, you know, the critique here's, you know, where we can make it even better next time. The structure of the feedback, because again, they're hearing, hearing this all day, you know, they're getting critiques, feedback and judgment at school, at home, wherever, and that can create this messaging of like, 'Ah, I'm not, I'm not doing enough.
I'm not good enough.' Uh, even if they're in class working on building new skills and learning something, if they're constantly hearing that criticism, it's just going to feel like they're not doing a good enough job. So we have to be really, really mindful about that feedback as well.

Maia
Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that so much. I'm like wanting to take notes, but I'm like, 'Oh no, I have to focus.' So I'll listen back and take notes later. It was so good. Thank you. Is there anything else from your practice that you think we as casual dance teachers or any, any dance teacher really, um, might want to be mindful of or be applying in their teaching?

Genevieve
I think for teachers who are mindful about, you know, how do I support students with their mental wellbeing outside of classes?
I think it can be really helpful to draw something out of that. I think it can be really helpful to draw something out of that. I think those direct connections of like, Hey, we're doing this new warmup today and we're going to do this practice. And here's how that can be implemented later. If we're doing this, you know, warmup that feels really good on our body. I'm thinking about, you know, you know, classes that we've done together, Maia, like this modern warmup of feeling our feet on the floor and, uh, all that good stuff, you know, the instructor can teach them, you know, you can use them, you know, at home. Like if you need a break from studying, lay down on the floor, move your body, get up, take a movement break.
If you're feeling stressed, something's going on at home. Can you come back to these really familiar movements, warmups, breathing practices, do this thing that feels good in your body. Um, even before you like go on stage, if you're feeling nervous, you know, there's so many applicable ways where these skills can be inserted. And I think it's really important to do that. And I think it's really important to do that. I think for teachers to name that directly, it's going to create this, um, this link and lasting connection that may not necessarily be active, um, and present for the students. So, yeah, I think really just bringing, bringing in that intentional connection, you know, can the instructor be the bridge, the link of how do we apply all this great stuff, all this movement that can feel so good in our body into the spaces in life, outside of the studio.

Maia
Yeah. To know that dance is not another thing to stress about, but it's actually a release from stress and that your dance teacher is an advocate and an ally for you to help you through that, as opposed to someone that's putting more pressure on you. I think it's easy for me to lose sight of that and sometimes just focus on like physical goals, but that's really what it's all about, especially in the more recreational settings. Like, just creating a space that the dancers can appreciate their bodies and what they can do and how they can help them. That's really all that I had as far as like questions, unless you have anything else to add.

Genevieve
I don't think so.
I would just encourage, you know, anyone who's interested in the mental health benefits of dance and movement to, you know, see if there's a dance therapist in your community. And maybe you can build a new connection and invite that person even to the studio to do a work with them. And I think that's really, really important. And I think that's really, really important. I think that's really, really important. I think that's really, really important. Or something that again helps bridge this link of mental health support and dance and movement. Yeah. So if someone wants to find you and connect with you, how can we do that? Yeah, absolutely. You can be found at my website, GenevieveFuller.com. And on Instagram, I have an Instagram as well at embodied.emdr.therapist. So embodied EMDR therapist.
Please don't hesitate to reach out, you know, send me a message. I'm always looking for more people to connect with and hope we can just keep this conversation going.

Maia
Yeah. Well, it's been fantastic. Like I said, I have all these notes now that I'm going to go have to take. And I just think this is going to be so valuable for a lot of people, students and teachers, you know, together we can apply these things. It'll be really fantastic. So thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Genevieve
Thanks so much for having me.

Maia
And hello again, it's Maia recording this after the call with Genevieve and having listened to it again. Oh my gosh, there is just so much good stuff. I finally had a chance to take my notes.

And I'm really, really looking forward to applying some of these practices in my own classroom for the betterment of my own mental health as well as my students. I really think I can utilize a lot of these. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. So please join me in the casual dance teachers network on Facebook to a just thank Genevieve for her time for her insight, share what you took away from this episode and share your own thoughts and ideas that you've utilized as well. I did still want to close with a quote because found a perfect one for this topic. Forget your troubles and dance, Bob Marley.