ABSTRACT
For dance/movement therapy (DMT) to fulfill its stated purpose to facilitate body–mind integration with individuals and groups through creative body movement and dance, increased understanding of the role of gender, race, ethnicity, and culture in the social context of the dance/movement therapist is required. In a world where national boundaries change rapidly and cultural identities are fluid, where difference is the norm and emigration is a worldwide phenomenon (Suarez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard, 2004), the dance/movement therapist needs an expanded capacity to respond to social conditions and knowingly embody cultural factors. In this globalized environment, challenges to traditional values and ways of making sense of the world become the norm for both patients and dance/movement therapists alike (Kareem and Littlewood, 1992; Suarez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard, 2004). 318No longer an emerging profession, the field of creative arts therapies in general, and DMT in particular, is studied and practiced on six continents, with practitioners in at least thirty-seven countries (Dulicai and Berger, 2005). Students travel to different countries to study DMT— invariably in a second language, and educators teach in other countries— frequently in English. International conferences assume commonalities of DMT praxis, i.e., a practice that combines established theories of dance and of the social sciences with the professional implementation of DMT skills. Such examples of shared theory and practice include application of nonverbal communication theories in observation and in assessing relationships with the centrality of dance and body movement in the service of health and well-being.
