Circle Dance and Dance Therapy for the Talented Children with Disadvantages and Special Needs

Abstract

At the meeting points of different cultures, a unique quality is born. That is what we can experience when sacred round dance, dance therapy, and talent development meet and overlap.
The study aims to present a project operated by the Budapest 10th district Educational Consultant Team with the support of the Hungarian National Talent Program. The program, named Square-Dance-Theatre-Scene, was started as an experiment, integrating 12–14-year-old students, including psychologists, drama experts, art therapists, dance therapists, and dance teachers. In the paper, a sacred dance therapeutic workshop is described and analyzed, which was a part of this broader talent management program. The workshop was preceded by an outline of the underlying tripartite theoretical background: The sacred dance workshop’s
group dynamics are analyzed with dance and movement therapy methods. The archaic roots of sacred dance related to the therapeutic approach are also displayed. Finally, a SWOT-type summary of the work process is given, including both the project’s strengths and weaknesses.