dancing as a therapy.

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I know dancing has been used as a therapy for autism for a while. I just want to know if anyone else has benefited from it. In particular, ballet. It's completely changed my life. I was severly depressed before I started dancing and I had hardly any friends. None at school, and only a few that were neighboors. It's helped in so many ways:

-There is a routine that is very strict in a dance class.
-There is a complete dictionary of methods and styles and steps to get immersed in. Plus, it's not uncommon for even NTs to get obsessed with dance. There is even a nickname for them, "bunheads". Obsessive personalities are slightly more accepted.
-It helped me with my coordination and actually made it better than most NTs
-I no longer walk "weird"
-Dancing is a form of stimming so of course my other stims dramatically decreased.
-It's easier to make friends in a dance class when your forced to be very close at times. Sometimes you have no choice but to bond when you are dance partners.
-It's helps with my problems touching people.
-It can help or harm your self confidence at times, but overall it's helped.
-Also all of the obvious things like discipline, strength, flexibitlity.

Anybody else had a similar experience?

my cat has more coordination than me. this said, it sounds like an excellent idea. an all-round therapy which combines social and physiological exercise that is therapeutic in multiple modalities. maybe if i was young again it might be a good idea. but not crippled-up with arthritis.

Every benefit you listed, I get from my Aikido practice. Getting a feeling of how to carry myself is something most people take for granted, but I actually had to use the aid of martial arts...

BBC3 just aired (May 6th) a special called "Autism, Disco and Me" which would discuss many of these issues. It is worth watching.

The official website is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sbk0y

Not living in England, I obviously couldn't watch it directly. You will find the episode here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/385036826/A ... .part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/385037341/A ... .part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/385037675/A ... .part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/384995669/A ... .part4.rar

Description:
Andy and Sheila Hobley have three children, 16-year-old Alex and 10-year-old twins George and James. But they are not a typical family--all three boys have autism. Alex is an Emo, George likes playing computer games, and James likes dancing – he is, in fact, a champion disco dancer.

Two years ago, James couldn't read or write; he struggled at school and was happier playing with his cats than talking to his family. Then, a leaflet for disco dancing lessons dropped through his door--and changed his life for ever. Within six months, he'd won countless competitions and was crowned "best beginner" at the World Disco Championships.

Now, James's goal is simple: he wants to win what's arguably the biggest disco competition out there--Disco Kid--in Blackpool.James's family believes dancing has "unlocked" his mind. Since he started dancing, his reading and writing has improved drastically, his memory and coordination has got better and, for the first time in his life, he has friends. Andy and Sheila have invested thousands of pounds on dance lessons, travel and fancy costumes preparing James for competitions, but believe the remarkable transformation they have seen in their son has been worth it.

Autism, Disco And Me reveals how dancing has transformed James's life and follows him on his incredible journey. James believes that dancing has fixed his brain, but will his progress be enough to see him through to the final of Disco Kid?

I wouldn't be surprised if dancing was a good therapy. Music certainly is, and that's a kind of dancing in a way - just that you don't use your legs much unless you're a drummer (now there's a therapy ). I've been to a few dancing lessons myself and it did me good, though I was pretty poor at it.

There's also quite a tradition out there about the therapeutic effects of this kind of thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurythmy

It's a bit airy-fairy but they may be onto something......and salutogenesis seems perfectly feasible to me. Generally I'm a fairly practical-minded guy with a healthy suspicion of "spiritual" therapies, but science-based therapy does have its limits somehow.

Pretty much anything can be therapy --- if it develops and hones skills, all the better.

I just started getting back into exercising again after ages. I forgot how great it feels to focus on the body and give the mind a rest. I lose weight, have more energy, look better, and work on various physical skills.

I also get therapeutic value from jewelry-making, which hones fine motor, problem-solving, and creative skills.

I think everyone should have a hobby that has some sense of 'progress' that is visible or otherwise measurable. The feeling of accomplishing something that has real-world results is pretty awesome.

I use pretty much the same phrasing when expressing this thought. Leveling up in real world is like winning a battle against time. It certainly feels better than leveling up one's mage in World of Warcraft instead

It's nice to see another thread by you, dustintorch! How is the SF Ballet going? My little guy, who is interested in ballet, will be starting classes next fall. I think my husband would rather he did martial arts, but he is very insistent about it being ballet! He does a performance for me every night as part of his pre-bed routine!

I find that after an evening at a dance, I feel much better.

My community is a dance and music oriented community. It's hard to imagine having a good life without that.

I took jazz, ballet and tap for a while. Jazz was hard because I move awkwardly and I always felt like I got the movements wrong, I just couldn't figure out how to look graceful. I loved ballet and the structure of it. Tap was fun because I got to make rhythms with my feet.

I like to dance, I'm just not very graceful. My fingers are nimble on the piano keys, though.

My mother let me stop ballet when the teacher would not let me take the lowest level exams for fear that I would embarrass her.

I did find Raks Shaki dancing very useful though.

I only took ballet when I was little because I wanted to wear a tutu- I had seen a picture of one. But when I got there noone was wearing one. In the concerts we had i was made to wear a leprechaun outfit. There is a photo of me wearing it looking very angry. i lost interest in ballet after that, clearly I had been lied to.

I do lke dancing in nightclubs though, i am not a very talented dancer though, I have difficulty coordinating more complex moves and I cannot do anything that isnt simple and basic really, my motor memory is pretty poor.

Oh you remember my last thread! I actually deleted it because I didn't to give away too much about where I live and where I work online but I was so excited at the time I wasn't thinking. I haven't started there yet but I'm still very excited and also nervous. Thanks for asking! I'll be moving very soon and I'm curious to see how I'll handle it. Hopefully my love of ballet and all forms of dance will motivate me enough to survive!

Oh and that's really great about your son! The sooner the better, don't make him get a late start on it like I did. Age 9 is ideal for starting ballet. But boys can be a little older. Is he on the spectrum? He will benefit greatly from ballet if he is. Make sure you get a good school though. It won't be more expensive since he is a boy. They will give him scholarships just for being a boy and you may actually end up paying less for a better school! The other schools are a rip off anyways. Mostly run by people who never really had a career in dance. Where do you live? I would be happy to give you a good list of schools in your area. If you live anywhere near a big city, that is most likely the best place to be. Even if he is NT he will still benefit.

We live in a small city in British Columbia (I don't want to give out too much info online), but we actually have what's supposed to be a pretty good ballet company here. The school that hosts the company is just a few kilometers from where we live, so I imagine I'd be sending him there. I had sent my daughter to another school for her lessons, but I could tell (even with no ballet experience myself) that they were terribly sloppy, so she's been getting lessons at school from one of the teachers from the better school, and even with just one group class a week, she's improved x100! I can only imagine that the official classes offered at the school of ballet are even better! My son is only 3, so he will be getting quite a good start, I think. He copies everything his sister does and he always takes a bow afterward. So cute!

Anyway, good luck with your move and your job! And thanks for the info about scholarships, that's really cool!