Releasing stress is necessary to avoid physical and mental harm, and one way to do so might be to just get up and dance, according to medical experts.
People tend to hang on to stress, which can cause long-term problems, said Ellery Mills, a registered dance movement therapist and licensed professional counselor with Cleveland Clinic.
"Traumatic events, even if we're kind of mentally past it, our body still kind of holds that trauma," she said. "You see that a lot with patients with PTSD or traumatic events, flashbacks, anxiety. All those things kind of mount at the body."
Dance or movement therapy can provide a way to relieve stress and trauma, Mills said.
“Dance has been shown to regulate the nervous system," she said. "So that kind of fight or flight response that we feel when we're triggered by something or are scared of something, dance has been known to regulate that.”
Research supports the benefits of movement therapy, Mills said. A 2018 study showed dance's ability to reduce stress among patients dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and a 2021 study found the therapy helped improve the wellbeing of children with autism, including enhancing their social communication.
But the literature is limited, she said.
“It's a newer form of therapy and so there isn't a whole lot of research on it," Mills said. "I think it's a little bit hard to kind of pin down because it's so open and it's so abstract.”
No shoes, no words and no worries
One local approach is a type of movement therapy known as ecstatic dance, where participants dance without shoes and without speaking. The dancers are not supposed to engage with one another without first getting permission by moving closer to another dancer while extending an open palm. The other dancer can decline by placing their hands at their heart in a prayer gesture.
The dancers also use whatever steps they want, moving to music provided by a facilitator who also serves as a DJ, playing music ranging from Reggae and new age to world music, jazz and electronic.
Ecstatic dance started in 2000 in Hawaii and is now found at hundreds of sites across the world.
Kathryn Kuhlman, an Orange resident, has been leading biweekly ecstatic dance sessions in and around Cleveland for more than four years with her company, Dance Your Soul. The two-hour sessions usually take place at the Masonic Hall in Richfield, located midway between Cleveland and Akron.
These sessions help relieve the dancers' stress, she said.
Ecstatic dance is "the opportunity to come into a space, set down whatever you've been doing, set down your worries, your fears or anxieties, and just be," Kuhlman said.
While the music is the same for all participants, the dancing will be specific to each person's individual needs, she said.
"It's very specific to your state of mind," Kuhlman said. "If you're holding on to fear, if you're holding on to pain, if you're holding back joy, these are all the things that are going to come up in your dance.”
Group movement programs like ecstatic dance are beneficial, despite dancers not directly interacting with one another, Mills said.
“Just being in a space with like-minded people and sharing that kind of intangible energy is really helpful and healing," she said. "The conversation following the actual movement exploration, I think, is just as enriching as the actual physical movement.”
Ryan McCoy, a first-time dancer from Akron, said he's glad he tried it.
“It's definitely exhilarating," he said. "I feel very positive energy now, and I'll be having a great rest of the day, I have no doubt.”
The fact that he could dance without worrying about what steps to use or how he'd look was important, McCoy said.
“It was pretty much what I was looking for, because I don't really know how to dance," he said. "I just like to dance.”
