Affective change in dance therapy

Abstract

Dance therapists assume that feelings change in dance therapy, but no published research has been found to support this notion. Therefore, two pilot studies were designed to compare the effects of participation in a dance therapy group versus a control group and versus a T-group. The subjects in the first experiment were female student nurses; in the second, they were female occupational therapy students. A Feelings Questionnaire to measure affect was completed before and after each group met. Data for each experiment were analyzed by Multivariate Analysis of Variance covarying for the prescores. Significant results were found for the following factor scores in both experiments: Erotized Affection, Anxious, and Somatic Distress. In addition, the first experiment found significant changes for the Depressed factor; the second experiment found significant changes for Confident and Inhibited factor scores. The clinical relevance of these findings and indications for further research are discussed.