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Duke Faculty Bring Two Disciplines Together to Heal Through Dance

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The rhythms of Congolese drumming and the resulting movement may offer healing potential.

When James Brown gave his famous advice, "get up offa that thing and dance 'til you feel better," he probably never envisioned someone conducting a clinical trial to see if it would really work.

Two Duke professors, one in the Dance Program, and one a professor of medicine, are conducting a clinical trial on Saturday, April 19, to see if dancing to rhythmic drumming might benefit individuals who experience pain, depression and other ailments.

"Traditional African Healing Ceremony in a U.S. Population," is the project of Ava LaVonne Vinesett, associate professor of the practice of dance, and Ken Wilson, associate professor of medicine.

Twenty-five people from age 25 to 65 will be recruited for the ceremony and focus group follow-up. The goal is to enroll five people in each of five categories: anxiety disorders; depression; cancer in remission; chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia or chronic Lyme disease; and subjects who do not have a diagnosis of a chronic disease but have seen a health-care provider at least 8 times in the past year. The trial is open to anyone in the Duke and Durham community. To find out more, call (919) 684-5878.

The participants will dance in a slow 6/8 rhythm commonly used in northern Congo healing ceremonies for about 50 minutes. They will be asked to concentrate on the music and the dance and let other thoughts and preoccupations drop away.

Wilson said the ceremony was designed not to be too strenuous. "The risk is about the same as going to a party and dancing," he said.

Vinesett, an African dance choreographer, created a similar secular healing ceremony based on the Yoruba tradition of dance movements and presented it at the Across the Threshold conference at Duke in 2009 and later at a conference in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Wilson found Vinesett's work resonated with his interest in Congolese rhythm traditions and his own work with mindfulness based stress reduction (MSBR).

Wilson said that not everyone finds it so easy to adapt to mindfulness techniques such as meditation. There might be cases in which an individual is too stressed or in too much discomfort to relax, he said.

"There are a lot of people who feel [meditation] is just not an activity that speaks to them," Wilson said. "Their minds are racing too much or they just don't connect with it."

For these people, Wllson and Vinesett believe that the interconnectedness of Yoruba and Congolese traditions offers healing potential. The rhythms of Congolese drumming and the resulting movement in time with the rhythm is designed to help participants get in touch with their bodies and emotions.

"As our emotions manifest in our bodies, we come to know ourselves, and as we come to know ourselves, we change," Wilson said.

Vinesett tries to bring this aspect of healing to all facets of her work. When she initially presented her work at the 2009 Across the Threshold conference, she had no idea it would lead to The Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation grant.

To prepare for the work, Vinesett consulted Mabiba Baegne, a dancer and healer from Congo-Brazzaville, and Congolese drummer Pline Mounzeo. The ceremony for the clinical trial is designed to respect all cultural religious beliefs of the individuals participating.

Vinesett said she hoped the feedback from the trial would indicate an increase in physical wellbeing, as well as a transformative experience for the participants.

"I'm very much connected to how these dances can fundamentally transform the individual, and assist them in viewing their lives in a different way," Vinesett said.