Creative dance therapy

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Blanche Evan · 1940 · New York, USA

What it is

Who and when. Blanche Evan was a New York modern dancer, teacher and writer. She trained with Bird Larson (d. 1927), whose work inspired her Functional Technique. She took a summer 1934 workshop at the New York Wigman school (with Hanya Holm and Louise Kloepper) and attended the Graham school in…

Format

• No published phase model or session count for Evan's method is available in the sources used (Harris 2022; the Krantz, Ambra and Palafox abstracts). The only dose reported is Palafox's paediatric study: one-hour sessions, at least one per child, with the number set by availability, medical…
• Session components (the components are documented as noted; their order is the writer's synthesis):

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Phase B – Thematic improvisation. Physicalizing and dancing dreams or images on client-generated themes, plus moving spoken statements. Goals: give form to unexpressed feeling; link movement to biography; build insight. Move on when the client regulates within sessions (can slow, ground and come back) and can turn movement experience into words.
• Phase C – Working through. Deeper improvisation on significant life themes, only when Phase B criteria are stable and the client consents. Re-enacting traumatic events is not part of this guide (see 4.10). Goals: express previously held-back feeling; strengthen boundaries and agency in the body. Repeat Phase A work whenever regulation drops.
• Version followed: Blanche Evan's creative dance and "dance/movement/word" therapy, as documented in legitimately available sources: Harris (2022, open access) for her training, the start (1934) and principles of Functional Technique, the scene titles of her 1935 film and the growth of her children's creative dance into therapy; New York Public Library catalogue records of her writings, including her term…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Themes the client chooses are usually safer and more alive than themes the therapist imposes.
• The new stance appearing spontaneously in later sessions and in reported real-life behaviour.
• Make tasks observational before they ask for change. Never set exercise volume or weight-related targets.
• Fragmenting or confusion in body-memory work. If they appear, ground (4.15 closure steps) and move back to imagery.
• Shame about being heard; dizziness from over-breathing (slow it down); noise limits for neighbours or clinical settings.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.