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American Journal of DanceTherapy 1984, Vol. 7,

An Interview with Alma Hawkins Marcia B. Leventhal, PhD, ADTR, CMA Associate Professor and Director, Graduate Dance Therapy Program, New York University and New York University's Dance Therapy Abroad, Stockholm, Sweden Dr. Hawkins is Professor Emeritus at the University of California where she was chairperson of the dance department from 1953 to 1974. She is a pioneer in the field of dance in higher education; under her guidance and vision, the dance department at the University of California, Los Angeles, was developed. Its offerings include performance, choreography, ethnology, education and therapy. Dr. Hawkins received her MA and EdD degrees from Teachers College at Columbia University. At this time she pondered the creative process as a determinant in individual development. She attributes her year of study of creativity under the direction of Harold Rugg with having greatly influenced the development of her work. At this time Dr. Hawkins was simultaneously studying modern dance and humanistic psychology. There are four tracks which developed concurrently for Dr. Hawkins during her studies at Columbia, and each could be said to have contributed to her eventual theoretical formulations in dance as a healing art. The subject areas encompass dance as the broad spectrum, the general arts experience, group process and dynamics, and counseling. Our initial interview began several years ago in New York City where Dr. Hawkins was meeting to help develop the Approval procedures for Graduate Programs for the American Dance Therapy Association. Subsequent meetings and discussions brought forth Dr. Hawkins' discussion of the "basic movement process." In her explanation, she offers us an opportunity to relate the aesthetic processes to the therapeutic processes, and to be able to distinguish between discrete dance/movement training and dance/movement as it becomes directed towards a healing modality. During our conversations, it became apparent how deeply involved Dr. Hawkins is in all of life's possibilities. She is a highly personable, supportive, calm woman, possessing a finely tuned intelligence, alive with curiosity. Requests for reprints should be sent to Marcia B. Leventhal, Associate Professor, Dance Therapy Program, New York University, 35 W. 4th St., Room 675, New York, New York 10003.

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Dr. Hawkins' conceptualization of felt meaning, felt thought, innersensing and authentic movement contributed to innovative theoretical formulations. Her study of creativity under Rugg, her early association and collaboration with Dr. Valerie Hunt, Mary Whitehouse and other West Coast innovators in dance and therapy have resulted in her unique contribution to the development of theoretical constructs of dance/movement as a healing art. Dr. Hawkins was also instrumental in bringing key leaders from a variety of related fields into the dance/movement therapy academic setting. Among those researchers, scholars and clinicians with whom she dialogued and co-taught were Edmund Jacobson, Eugene Gendlin, and Robert Ornstein. While developing the dance major at UCLA Dr. Hawkins began to experiment with teaching techniques and theoretical constructs. She cites Suzanne Langer's stance as being particularly meaningful in helping her formulate a philosophy of aesthetics. Dr. Hawkins worked as a therapist at the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute at UCLA from 1960-1977. She worked individually and in groups with all populations, including children, adolescents and adults. During this period she developed a series of educational films: Imagery and the Thought Processes; Centering and Self Space; and Spatial and Energy Components of Movement Therapy which explore various elements of her work pertaining to the healing potential of the dance/movement. Since her retirement from UCLA in 1977 Dr. Hawkins has continued to play an active role in therapeutic and educational pursuits. She is Chair of the Council of Dance Administrators; she helpedfound the Council of Graduate Dance/Movement Therapy Educators and has served on the Approval Committee for the ADTA. She has been recognized for numerous contributions to dance in higher education and performance. She has received citations and awards from the State of California for contributions to dance, from the University of Missouri as outstanding woman of the year, and from UCLA for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Hawkins is currently involved in a course on the fundamentals of choreography which she developed for and teaches at Santa Monica College. Now in its fourth year, the course attracts dancers, therapists, and actors from throughout the greater Los Angeles area. It has become a research laboratory for Dr. Hawkins where she is able to expand upon her early theories of creativity and her knowledge of creative growth and healing. The main question and challenge to her now as she teaches and prepares a yet unpublished manuscript on dance/movement therapy is " . . . if on the one hand you believe that the human being has a need for

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form, an innate sense of f o r m . . , how does one then facilitate experiences that will allow the individual to grow gradually and develop on his/her o w n . . , and arriye at an organic f o r m . . , and what is the relationship of the forming process to the development of the self concept?..." I first met Dr. Hawkins at UCLA in the 1960's where I was studying for a Master's degree. Dr. Hawkins was a dedicated, patient, supportive and inspiring teacher. Though our class discussions in the philosophy of dance class included art, politics and education, we always returned to the basic premise of Dr. Hawkins: that there is an inherent talent and creativity residing within each individual, waiting only to be guided and untapped. She has dedicated her life to the art of dance with the belief that there is no swifter, truer w a y f o r an individual to reach his/her fullest growth potential. That this belief eventually found its way into Dr. Hawkins' discovery and creation of dance as a healing art is not surprising. MBL: Alma, you obviously discovered dance as a powerful force in growth and development. Can you cite some of the major influences that contributed to your evolution into dance therapy? AH: I had for many years been interested in dance as a performing art and in the dance experience as a determinant in helping individuals develop their creative capacity. That interest grew out of my background in education. I studied dance extensively during the thirties and forties. I spent summers at Bennington College where many of the modern dance pioneers were teaching and experimenting--people like Doris Humphrey and Hanya Holm. it was a very exciting time for us. We didn't understand it all, but we were excited to be studying with the experimenters. 1 particularly enjoyed working with Doris Humphrey. My actual involvement specifically in dance/movement therapy began about 25 years ago when a psychiatrist from the NeuroPsychiatric Institute at UCLA, who happened to have a deep personal love of modern dance, suggested that we begin to find a way to work with patients using dance. Though I was keenly interested, I felt I needed more background. Gradually, I began working in close collaboration with this psychiatrist, Dr. J.A. Cannon. MBL: What was a critical point in your synthesis of the various constructs which form your theoretical model? AH: A critical time for me in my own development was during my first

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few years at UCLA. I was working simultaneously in three different areas: dance aesthetics, composition and therapy. Specifically, I was teaching the freshman dance majors and was concerned with helping the students to develop their creative potential. Secondly, I was developing a philosophy of dance course which involved studying with Suzanne Langer (1953), Arnheim (1974), and other theorists of creativity. At this same time I was working with hospitalized patients at the N. P.I., exploring and developing the use of dance/movement. Suddenly, with those three influences, I discovered the nature of basic movement and its relationship to the creative process. I found that this process was not only fundamental to the development of an art object (i.e. choreography), but inherent to the creative process. MBL: And the creative process in movement? AH: And the creative process through movement! MBL: Do you remember how your early work in dance therapy developed? How did you decide upon an approach or a model of working? AH: Initially, I worked with groups. In general, I knew that I was not going to teach dance technique, I wasn't even going to help the patients learn howto make dances. I was certain that I would work with pure movement. I began to experiment with the use of movement and various approaches to presenting movement events that would help facilitate change in individuals. Over a period of years I kept learning. Finally, it was probably through the experience of trying not to use things related to dance technique that I acquired a clearer understanding of the basic movement phenomenon. Eventually, I began facilitating movement events using the elements of movement: time, space, energy flow. I always allowed the experiences to be directed or cued from what the patients were giving. Even though I knew enough not to teach dance or to do prescribed exercises, it took me a while to discover the true nature of basic movement. MBL: Often we read or hear of dance therapists working within a particular mode or discipline derived from or influenced by a specific theoretical orientation. I have heard you speak of dance therapy as having its own discipline, with its own body of knowledge or theoretical model. Is this accurate, and if so, what are the constructs or elements within such a model? AH: Yes. Some people do appear to use a theoretical model from an8

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other discipline, for example, Jungian or psychoanalytic theory. They use that as their framework to support their work in movement. Naturally, anyone working in therapy has to understand about human behavior, and have a background in psychology, and understand mental illness. You must have basic information but movement, itself, has the potential for being an effective means of intervention, for growth and for healing. One of the great challenges is to increase our understanding about the movement experience, how basic it is to our biological development and how movement is related to the creative response that the human being makes to life. It seems to me, as a result of my experience, that change and growth take place as a person begins to see his situation in a different way, begins to get insight, sees new relationships, sees self/environment in a new way. I think that comes through the movement experience and the creative process, bringing experience into a new, meaningful relationship. Therefore, some of the tenets from which I see a model developing are biology, creativity, and the human response to movement. MBL: What is the relationship of dance to movement? AH: My current thinking leads me to believe that there is a basic movement process that can be directed toward therapeutic goals. It is this process that brings about change. This basic movement process is in reality a creative process which can just as easily be directed toward an aesthetic goal and the achieving of an art object. It seems to me that in both art exploration and in dance/movement therapy the process is the same. MBL: What is this process? AH: I see it as the same process that undergirds the creative act in any situation. One needs to get in touch with inner-sensation feelings and imagery and then allow the imagery to shift and change. Finally, one externalizes those inner sensations, that bodily felt sense through some external movement event. Through the process, the individual is bringing experience together in a new way. In art, the choreographer goes through this process in discovering relationships and building toward some inner image or aesthetic goal. When working toward therapeutic goals, individuals working through this process often get new insights about happenings in their lives. Again and again, I see individuals who have had experience in this process get an entirely different sense of self, a confidence in self and a sense of personal identity.

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MBL: Do you believe that there is something inherently therapeutic in this creative dance/movement process? AH: My hunch is that the basic process in dance which makes it possible for one to create a work that is substantive and evokes an aesthetic response is the same one which enables healing to occur. This will be achieved if the approach to the creative work is based upon inner sensing, feeling and imagery. These three are the elements basic to the creative act. However, in terms of therapy, the basic assumption is that the facilitator or therapist has a deeply integrated background and knows how to adapt the process to individuals according to where they are, what their needs are and what they can handle. For example, all the time that I worked with patients at the N.P.I., I tried to be sensitive to what was appropriate to facilitate, believing that each individual had his or her own way of working. In addition, I always felt that it was so important that one simply work with another person just as another person. When I worked with patients, I always thought of them as persons, not patients. The relationship between the facilitator and the person involved is the single most important factor in any kind of growth or therapeutic situation. A special kind of empathy must be established which sets the stage for a deepening of the "working" relationship. MBL: Do you feel that empathy is something that is more facilitated in a dance/movement event than some other kind of therapeutic relationship because of the nature of our tools, meaning energy flow? AH: Probably so. There certainly seems to be a deeper level of empathy involved when there is movement interaction/energy interaction than with verbal expression. But whether or not it works that way will depend upon how the facilitator sets the situation. There are so many factors involved. More and more I see that the movement experiences that are facilitated must have a developmental thread. The facilitator anticipates and paves the way by suggesting tasks or events appropriate to the level of readiness of the client. By doing so, the facilitator is creating a safe and nonthreatening environment where the client can begin to respond spontaneously, without having to pre-judge or censor. Clients are freed from the disruptive inner chatter of "Oh, what do I do now?" or " H o w should I handle this one?" The facilitator is gradually leading the client toward a place of working with deeper involvement. MBL: So as a leader, while you must be free of judgment, you are still at10

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tempting to shape and balance the flow of the emerging theme-which does imply a discerning eye. AH: Absolutely. You know that you're trying to facilitate certain kinds of experiencing. When something is happening for an individual I'm not going to imply that it is good or bad. I attempt to support the responses that are happening. I might help a client to identify aspects of the experience by asking" Did you feel anything different happening today in the way you were moving than the last time?" I would never say what I saw. MBL: Why not? AH: Because I believe that change only happens as people are ready to change. All I can do is help facilitate. A person might well say that he or she was not aware of anything different--that happens. Or, the person might say, "Yes, some of it felt different." I would then say, "Where was that? What happened?" When the person does recognize and identify issues and changes in his or her movements then I say, "Well, I thought I saw something like that happening." In this way, I reinforce people's awareness after they identify what is happening for themselves. All I can do is facilitate and help them to identify. It may be that an authentic kind of response extends over a period of time and I may help to identify it. MBL: How do you know what's an authentic, involved response? AH: That's what everybody always asks. I really don't know how to describe that, though I know immediately with my eyes. I know exactly what happens. There is a different quality to the movement, a different energy flow and continuity. My experience suggests that when a person is first able to become involved and make an authentic response, the externalized movement pattern tends to be of short duration. I think of this as a "fragment." As the individual grows in ability to maintain the inner oriented process, the movement happening is sustained over a period of time. Gradually there is a development in motifs and qualities. There seems to be a developmental flow which starts with a "fragment" and progresses toward an "organic form." MBL: How much does the form relate to the first fragment? Do you see a quality in the fragment, an element of movement? AH: Early on you usually see one quality. MBL: Then it becomes more involved?

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AH: After a period of exploration at the personal level, I have found that the individual is ready to perceive and respond in a much broader context, and thus create movement patterns and forms that are more universal in nature. This kind of growth potential and developmental approach to form is supported by research in the visual arts by Schaeffer-Simmern (1961). The challenge for the facilitator is to discover the kind of experiences that will support and nourish the individual and thus make her progress from the "authentic fragment" to the mature "organic form." Herein lies the art of therapy. MBL: Alma, you've been involved in dance for over fifty years as a teacher, administrator, therapist and theorist. What do you believe are the most important changes you've witnessed? AH: Maybe one of the most important changes that I've observed is the development of dance programs in university settings. These programs have provided an opportunity for people to study dance as a discipline and have created a foundation for the development of dance as both a performing art and as a medium for therapeutic intervention. Through these programs, the foundation for research is evolving. MBL: What are the most important elements in training to become a dance therapist? AH: I think that students of dance therapy need a dance background so that they've had the creative experience. I also believe that they need a broad experience in psychology with an understanding of human behavior. This is the requisite experiential and educational background. It seemsto me that the heart of the educational experience of dance therapy is movement and how the movement experience is used as a medium to facilitate growth and change. That must be supplemented by a rich theoretical foundation interfaced with an experiential component. Theory and experience have to go hand in hand. Finally, the students must have the opportunity to develop clinical applications. MBL: A person would really need to be in an academic setting to get that kind of rich theory along with the experiential component. Could they work with mentors and be able to develop in this way? AH: There are a lot of different views about this. i don't think that working with a mentor, per se, is a very functional way to acquire a professional education. I do believe that training needs to be in an academic framework in order to have the opportunity to experi12

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ence an integrated plan of study supported by the related disciplines and theories. Continuity is a significant factor in professional education and preparation. MBL: Do you think that the dance therapy graduate programs are meeting the needs of this professional preparation? AH: We're on the way. MBL: Where do you think we have to go? AH: Our next step is to develop research which will clarify the nature of our work: the movement phenomenon and the power of movement. We need research which explores the biological basis of movement. Secondly, our field would benefit from research which investigates the nature of the creative act through movement. Then, on the basis of these forms of data, we could explore dance/ movement therapy constructs. It would be wonderful to perform longitudinal studies in dance. As far as I know, we don't have a single one. We need to begin with young children and follow them through high school in order to see what happens in terms of personality change and development as we work with the dance/movement process. At this point, the facilitating that we as leaders do in hopes of nurturing the growth process is based primarily upon our experience, intuition and imagination. We do not have research that clarifies the developmental stages that occur in thecreative movement process. MBL: Upon what do you think the future of dance therapy is based? AH: I see potential in movement therapy. I even dislike the term therapy now because I see the movement process in a much broader frame. I see movement as a means of growth and change playing a very significant role in the lives of people in a great variety of settings in the years to come. That includes elementary schools, high schools, colleges and community groups as well as hospitals, i think there are signs of such development. If it hadn't been for the economic crunch that hit us, it would have expanded. I think some kind of collective understanding of the field has to evolve through the clarification of the heart of our medium. This will help to further research and support the development of the profession. I do believe that those of us in dance and in dance therapy have the potential to work with two of the most basic life enriching tools available to the human being--movement and the creative potential. 13

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References Arnheim, R. Art and visual perception: A psychology of the creative eye, the new version. Second edition, University of California Press, 1974. Gendlin, E.T. Experiencing and the creation of meaning. New York: Glencoe Press, 1962. Ghiselin, B. The creative process. New York: Mentor Books, t960. Hawkins, A.M. Creating through dance. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1964. Jacobson, E. Biology of emotions. Springfield, II1: Chas. A. Thomas, 1967. Koesfler, A. The act of creation. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1964. Langer, S.K. Feeling and form. New York: Chas. Scribner & Sons, 1953. Ornstein, R.E. Nature of human conscbusness. New York: Viking Press, 1974. Ornstein, R.E. Psychology of consciousness. New York: Viking Press, 1972. Rugg, H. Imagination. New York: Harper and Row, 1961. Schaeffer-Simmern, H. The unfolding of the artistic process. Berkeley: Univ. of Cal. Press, t961.

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