The Marian Chace Foundation Bookmark Project

The MCF Bookmark Project was developed in 2010 to recognize individual dance/movement therapists who have contributed to the dance/movement therapy profession.

Initially, we identified seven prominent dance/movement therapists. We provided each with a different quote and requested that they respond with their own reflective statement related to dance movement therapy.

Each year for seven years the process was repeated as those previously selected paid the honor forward to dance/movement therapists of their choice to continue to share their own meaningful responses.

We believed that this process would highlight the legacy each of these individuals has made to our profession as well as encourage recognition of our mentors and teachers.

We recommend using their reflective statements to create connection, interaction, and communication both within our community as well as in the world at large.

We hope that you will be inspired to also mentor, nourish, and stimulate our profession.

When citing the dance/movement therapy quotes we recommend this format:

Author, year, https://adta.org/MCF_Bookmark_Project

Movement Reflections

Movement Reflections is a limited edition book created by the Marian Chace Foundation to commemorate ADTA’s 50th Anniversary. 

It includes: 

  • Over 50 photographs representing the early years of the DMT profession
  • Over 50 inspiring quotes reprinted from the MCF’s 7 year bookmark project
  • Over 50 pages on which readers can write their own reflections

 


2010     2011     2012     2013     2014     2015     2016 

2010

To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak … Hopi Indian saying

Moving with another is to truly see them….dance therapy offers the unique gift of movement that reveals meaning while words often give only a glimpse …

Miriam Roskin Berger

——-

Dance is movement, and movement is life … Ludmilla Chiriaeff

Dance Therapy brings vitality and life to those whose expression and ability to communicate have been muted …

Elissa White

——-

Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made … Ted Shawn

As the dance therapist mirrors her patients’ movements they get to see their own intentions and the meanings inherent in those intentions ….

Claire Schmais

——-

Everything in the universe has rhythm.  Everything dances … Maya Angelou 

The Dance Therapy path weaves inward and outward~ plumbing personal rhythms, muscularity and narrative; navigating the challenging terrain of natural and human-made worlds …

Iris Rifkin-Gainer

——-

Dance is the hidden language of the soul … Martha Graham

The roots of dance therapy can be traced to earliest human history, when disease was seen as a loss of soul, and dance was an intrinsic part of the healing ritual …

Joan Chodorow

——–

I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what is too deep to find for words … Ruth St. Denis 

Spontaneous body movement exploration reflects and expresses movement of the psyche. Bodily consciousness affirms and supports the ego’s ownership and integration of previously unconscious riches! … 

Debby Thomas

——

Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul’s weather to all who can read it … Martha Graham

Moving metaphors and metaphors that move…Such is the essence of living …

Beth Kalish


2011

(For 2011, 2010 recipients identified seven dance/movement therapists and provided a quote for each)

Miriam Roskin Berger chose Judith Bunney

I see dance being used as communication between body and soul to express what is too deep to find for words … Ruth St. Denis

Profound connections are formed as we share ourselves through dance, becoming the basis for transformation and transcendence. – dance therapy truly is beyond and above words … Judith Bunney

———-

Elissa White chose Danielle Fraenkel   

Without dance, we risk loneliness and anomie … Barbara Ehrenreich 

Through dance therapy we come upon stepping-stones to connection and rhythms that encourage relational bonds … Danielle Fraenkel

———-

Claire Schmais chose Nana Koch

Our reality is shaped by the patterns of our bodily movement, the contours of our spatial and temporal orientation, and the form of our interaction with objects … Mark Johnson

The spark of life started with a movement! Dance therapists use these sparks to help ignite feelings in those whose light has dimmed … Nana Koch

———-

Iris Rifkin-Gainer chose Marcia Leventhal

Nothing happens until something moves … Albert Einstein
Igniting our life force, dance therapy moves us towards harmony with our soul’s essence, offering enlightenment and unity with nature and humanity … Marcia Leventhal

———

Joan Chodorow chose Tina Stromsted

If you cannot find it in your own body, where will you go in search of it? … The Upanishads

The body is the dwelling place of the soul.  Dance Therapy awakens the living body, and gives the soul a home in the world … Tina Stromsted

——–

Debby Thomas chose Dianne Dulicai

The spontaneous gesture is the True Self in action.  Only the True Self can be creative and only the True Self can feel real … D.W. Winnicott

Spontaneous gestures of your client are clues to dance/movement therapists and with creativity we have the freedom necessary to do our work well. Take care lest we miss them … Dianne Dulicai

——–

Beth Kalish chose Linni Deihl

The current play of body-mind relationships as “pop-psych” party games is like fluff brushed off the woven fabrics of serious body movement studies … Irmgard Bartenieff

Body empathy … our way to connect … we mirror, we reflect, we feel in the deepest part of ourselves, on a cellular level, what our clients communicate … Linni Deihl


2012

(For 2012, 2011 recipients identified seven dance/movement therapists and provided a quote for each)

Judith Bunney chose Irma Dosamantes-Beaudry

The Body is a Clear Place … Erick Hawkins

Whether in motion or stillness, while moving alone or with others, the body is an instrument of consciousness-registering and revealing the personal meanings contained in the mover’s experience … Irma Dosamantes-Beaudry

———

Danielle Fraenkel chose Lora Wilson Mau

Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy … Jacques d’Amboise

Rhythm unites. By facilitating shared rhythmic body action, dance/movement therapists foster connection – an immediate, embodied connection that can break through even the profoundest isolation … Lora Wilson Mau

——-

Nana Koch chose Tina Erfer

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique … Martha Graham

Who we are resides not just in our minds, but in our bodies. Through dance/movement therapy, we become more of who we really are … Tina Erfer

———

Marcia Leventhal chose Susan Sandel

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful……………………..Agnes DeMille 

Moving together in dance/movement therapy promotes a sense of validation and mutual support which become the springboard for increased self-esteem, control and empowerment………………………….Susan L. Sandel

——— 

Tina Stromsted chose Cynthia F. Berrol

There is that in us which has moved from the very beginning; it is that which can liberate us … Mary Starks Whitehouse 

Inherent in all living creatures throughout the ages, rhythmic movement has pulsated through the core of our beings; outwardly manifested, it magically transforms into dance … Cynthia F. Berrol

——–

Dianne Dulicai chose Ellen Shelley Hill

Creativity rests on a merging of intuition and reason … Jonas Salk

Dance/movement therapy is a creative process which calls both therapist and client to enter, sense value in, and bring form to often inchoate experiences … Ellen Schelly Hill

———

Linni Deihl chose Joan Lewin

Body empathy…..our way to connect…..we mirror, we reflect, we feel in the deepest part of ourselves, on a cellular level, what our clients communicate … Linni Deihl

Body empathy, our emotional positioning system, makes attunement possible.  It underlies empathic imitation, in movement, sound and touch, which comprises basic human attachment and connection … Joan Lewin


2013

(For 2013, 2012 recipients identified seven dance/movement therapists and provided a quote for each)

Irma Dosamantes-Beaudry chose Pamela Fairweather

Dance as a work of art may be described as the expression of man’s inner feelings transformed by imagination and given form through the medium of movement … Alma M. Hawkins

From the inner impulse of the creative spirit emerges a healing dance through which symbolic meaning can be derived … Pamela Fairweather

———-

Lora Wilson Mau chose Donna Newman Bluestein

All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living … Martha Graham

The ability to open and dance with life’s ebbs and flows today is the best preparation for tomorrow … Donna Newman-Bluestein

———

Tina Erfer chose Tricia Capello

To dance, put your hand on your heart, and listen to the sound of your soul … Eugene Louis (“Luigi”) Faccuito

Put your hand in mine and dance with me. We will share our heartbeat rhythms and move as one … Patricia (Tricia) Capello

——–

Susan Sandel chose Susan Loman

I always demand a certain vibrancy, an inner vitality that communicates through the viscera, not the mind…The senses must be reached before the mind … Donald McKayle

Dance/movement therapy awakens our Bodies through the senses, helps us unlock the gates of the Mind, and frees our Spirit to dance with joy … Susan Loman

———-

Cynthia Berrol chose Linda Aaron-Cort

The kinesthetic sense can be awakened by using any and all kinds of movement . . . It becomes conscious . . only when the subjective connection is found … Mary Whitehouse

Attention, imagination, and acceptance guide us as we witness each emerging dance; movement reveals the essence of who we are, inviting both embodied awareness and soulful expression … Linda Aaron-Cort

———–

Ellen Schelly Hill chose Meg Chang

In every living human system, from cell to global organization—-survival, maturation, and transformation depend on discriminating and integrating difference … Yvonne Agazarian

Sensing, tensing, vigilance! You aren’t like me. Yet…feeling your weight pulsing into spaceundefinedah, now synchronous. OH! That’s how you dance that smile, that tear, that wisdom? … Meg Chang

———–

Joan Lewin chose Bonnie Bernstein

Self expression in dance is not an emotional state… It is the transmutation of emotion into motion. It is the activity of dance in poetic form … Blanche Evan

Encouraging expressive freedom, creative dance exploration and psycho-physical improvisation opens new pathways that uncover, release and transform. The DANCE brings healing, empowerment and life change … Bonnie Bernstein

 


2014

(For 2014, 2013 recipients identified seven dance/movement therapists and provided a quote for each)

Pamela Fairweather chose Christina Devereaux

By acknowledging that body and spirit are inexorably intertwined, DMT can reconcile seemingly incompatible polarities (body and mind, male and female, sacred and profane) … Irma Dosamantes-Beaudry

Paradoxically, when we dance, our psyche is mobilized through the freedom of symbolic expression and unresolved divisions within the self can become integrated as one mind-body-spirit … Christina Devereaux

———–

Donna Newman Bluestein chose Nancy Beardall

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking … Agnes de Mille

Inhaling, exhaling and expanding, moving through space, inner and outer sense of embodiment and expression undefined to dance is to be fully alive in the moment … Nancy Beardall

———–

Tricia Capello chose Nancy Koprak

Dance has always had the potential to do just that, practice for living, a reflection, an illumination, an exploration, and a rehearsal of, and for, life … Miriam Roskin Berger

Dance with me and let us explore our bodies and minds. Let us take our imaginations to the stars … Nancy Koprak

———–

Susan Loman chose Suzanne Hastie

To those who can become as open-minded as children the dance has a tremendous power: it is a spiritual touchstone…….Martha Graham

Uninhibited, barefooted, at home in our bodies, dance reveals our stories, expresses our truth, and connects us to our spiritual essence … Suzanne Hastie

———–

Linda Aaron-Cort chose Patrizia Pallaro

Dance is an opening up, a submission to the dear, unwilled forces of human life … Agnes de Mille

Dance/movement therapy is to be receptive to unconscious emergent symbolic content in movement, holding on and making sense of it, then giving it back … Patrizia Pallaro

Meg Chang chose Kalila Homann

Every act of knowing brings forth a world…all doing is knowing, and all knowing is doing … Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela

Consciousness is a matrix of knowings. The cellular symphony of the body, infused with hues of emotion and memory, informs each moment in the dance of life … Kalila Homann

———–

Bonnie Bernstein chose Anne Krantz

Creative dance breaks the crust. Dance therapy leads to unraveling the knots to diagnosis, and to active life, brain, habit change … Blanche Evan

Creative dance ~ the art of expression of vitality in action, time and space. Dance therapy ~ the practice of recovering your true self to engage in life’s totality … Anne Krantz


2015

2015 Bookmarks

Patrizia Pallaro Chose Irina Biryukova

QUOTE: “The living organism has its own modes of expressing movement which simply cannot be comprehended with words – alone.” … Wilhelm Reich

“Вased on kinesthetic empathy and movement observation skills dance-movement therapy provides vision and refined tools to perceive, embody, and articulate spoken and unspoken meanings in communication.“ … Irina Biryukova

Christina Devereaux chose Joan Wittig

QUOTE: “Attunement is a kinesthetic and emotional sensing of others…metaphorically being in their skin, and going beyond empathy to create a two-person experience of connectedness…” … Richard G. Erskine

“We meet in the movement. I see you, you see me. Our hearts, our senses, our thoughts meet. In our movement, we set each other free.” … Joan Wittig

Anne Krantz chose Ilene Serlin

QUOTE: “The dance therapist must reorient… to the art of dance as a therapeutic tool… and yet… must continue to revere her art… as her mainspring of inspiration”. … Blanche Evan

“To revere our sacred calling as healers, dance therapists must practice the art and discipline of attuning, listening, and communicating more deeply with our bodies.” … Ilene Serlin

Suzanne Hastie chose Sabine Koch

QUOTE: “Nothing is more revealing than movement.” … Martha Graham

“Movement indicates our personal and relational needs, affect and skills. Shadow and light… dance reflects all explicit and implicit parts of our personality.” … Sabine Koch

Nancy Beardall chose Suzi Tortora

QUOTE: “At the still point, there the dance is.” … T. S. Eliot

“Quieting our minds … Deeply listening through our body we discover our true dance… For our bodies tell stories that speak of our experiences.” … Suzi Tortora

Kalila Homan chose Anna Kamea Kemble

QUOTE: “The imagination, in its ability to make something out of nothing, can turn a blank page into a poem, a roadblock into a portal, a depressive state into a labyrinth.” … Dennis McCarthy

“It all begins with an impulse, everpresent bodymind stirring toward creative expression. Receiving and trusting authentic sensations, we are led in the direction of wholeness.” … Hana Kamea Kemble

Nancy Koprak chose Judith Sternfeld

QUOTE: “From the microcosm of the atom to the magnitude of the great whirling bodies of matter in our heavens and beyond, there exists the ceaseless life-force of the UR energy.” … Trudi Schoop

“Dance/Movement Therapy physicalizes energy and gives it a visible form in the body. It can help the spirit transcend worlds using the body’s movement.” … Judith Sternfeld


2016

2016 Bookmarks 

Judith Sternfeld chose Karen Nevins-Goldman

QUOTE: “The most profound catalyst in dance therapy is rhythm…In dancing one surrenders to the rhythm of the music…Sensual pleasure of rhythm is therapeutic.” … Liljan Espenak

“Music helps us find our rhythm. Our breathing and moving body is a gateway to a significant and luscious relationship to our elemental self.” … Karen Nevins-Goldman

Irina Biryukova Chose Rosa Maria Govoni

QUOTE: “… a connection to the Self is vital. Without the therapist’s relationship to that which has the capacity to heal, to draw the polarized parts of the patient together, the work has an absence of depth, of soul, of embodied spirit.” … Penny Lewis

“In DMT we work to create a conscious holding environment that is healing for others and ourselves through which we can connect in our body mind soul psyche.” … Rosa Maria Govoni

Suzi Tortora Chose Amber Gray

QUOTE: “I’ve always believed that having a life you treat with respect and joy is the only honorable way to live.” … Norma Canner

“Dance invites us to embody the full humanity of our personhood; dance movement therapy creates the possibility that others can join us in our shared humanity.” … Amber Gray

Ilene Serlin chose Heather Hill

QUOTE: “Within the sacred circle we may evoke the healing capacity that unites the individual, the community, and the earth.” Neala Haze

“The dance space offers a vision of the best that we humans can be – exquisitely ourselves yet relational beings enriching the fabric of the whole.” … Heather Hill

Sabine Koch Chose Lori Baudino

QUOTE: “Existence is movement.” … Rudolf Laban

“Life experiences, illnesses, disorders exist in the body – so we must first support by expressing with the body. Movement for connection, integration, and resiliency.” … Lori Baudino

Hana Kamea Kemble Chose Rena Kornblum

QUOTE: “The average new mother learns from her infant and allows the infant to learn from her…. Through mutual attunement and harmonizing, the mother-child couple create the dual unity of the symbiotic relationship.” … Judith Kestenberg

“Rhythmic connection, touch, breath, these form the dance that connect the mother and child, likewise clinician and client, one person to another.” … Rena Kornblum

Joan Wittig chose Gabrielle Kaufman

QUOTE: “The immediate goal of the dance therapy session then is to break through the isolation of the individual patients with movement, and help them to be able to accept another person without fear….” … Arlynne Stark

“Helping an individual withstand, by standing with, a dance/movement therapist empowers her client to break through isolation and fear.” … Gabrielle Kaufman