Throughout history and in contemporary times, people worldwide have danced to cope with the stresses of life. But how has dance helped people resist, reduce, and escape stress? What is it about dance that makes it a healing art? What insights can we gain from learning about others' use of dance across cultures and eras? Dancing for Health addresses these questions and explains the cognitive, emotional and physical dimensions of dance in a spectrum of stress management approaches.

Designed for anyone interested in health and healing, Dancing for Health offers lessons learned from the experiences of people of different cultures and historical periods, as well as current knowledge, on how to resist, reduce, and dance away stress in the disquieting times of the 21st century. Anthropologists and psychologists will benefit from the unique theoretical and ethnographic analysis of how dance affects communities and individuals, while dancers and therapists will take away practical lessons on improving their and their patients' quality of life.

By Judith Lynne Hanna

Part 1 I. Setting the Stage
Chapter 2 Prelude
Chapter 3 1. Evolution's Gifts
Chapter 4 2. Dance-Stress Coupling
Part 5 II. Historical and Non-Western Dance-Stress Relations
Chapter 6 3. Meeting the Gods and Demons
Chapter 7 4. Shaking Off Poison, Plague, Death, and Sin
Chapter 8 5. Coming to Terms with Life Crises
Chapter 9 6. Resolving Conflict
Chapter 10 7. Revitalizing the Past and Facing the Future
Part 11 III. Western Dance-Stress Relations
Chapter 12 8. "Playing" Onstage in Western Theatrical Dance
Chapter 13 9. A Dance Career in the West
Chapter 14 10. Amateur Dancing in the West
Chapter 15 11. Dance/Movement Therapy
Chapter 16 Finale: Dance and Stress Resistance, Reduction, and Euphoria