04/16/2025
Live to Dance - Dance to Live -
Enjoy the movement!
"At 51 years old, Anna Halprin was slowly dying. Doctors had diagnosed her with severe, incurable bowel cancer. All she had to do was resign herself to the approaching end. Instead, Halprin took up dance and, as fantastic as it sounds, defeated the cancer. Since then, for more than 40 years, she has danced – not for the sake of art, but for the sake of health. At 92, Anna Halprin frequently performs and teaches others how to heal. There is no magic or anything supernatural in her story. 'The natural self-healing mechanism is built into every cell of the body.'
A wonderful way to trigger this mechanism, says Halprin, is to start dancing. Not just any way, but to connect the movements with your feelings and experiences.
That's what happened to Anna. After learning about the illness, she took some paints and on a large canvas drew her cancer as she imagined it. The result was a threatening abstract blot. Anna hung the painting on the wall, invited a dozen friends, and performed the Dance of Cancer in front of the painting. The idea was to use the language of dance to 'speak out' fears and doubts. It looked quite unusual, and sometimes even frightening: while dancing, Halprin spread her arms, made sharp movements, squatted, hissed, and moaned. There was something almost religious about it.
'One day, when I was a child, I saw my uncle praying and swaying as he prayed,' says Anna Halprin. 'Then I thought that God must be a dancer.'
Surprisingly, the dance of cancer helped. Anna Halprin is completely cured. 'My struggle with the disease was an incredible gift for me,' she admits. 'Before the cancer, I lived to dance. After that, I dance to live.' This is the art of dancing to live that Halprin has been teaching her students ever since. Her method is to establish a deep connection between the mind, the unconscious, and the physical body itself. For example, she asks students to take a piece of paper and draw their fears, worries – whatever comes to mind. And then, improvising, 'dance' that drawing. That is, to talk about the same experiences, but in the language of movement. 'I teach people to listen to their bodies,' explains Anna Halprin. 'They heal themselves, I just guide them to resources. But that still makes me very happy.'
Now, on the eve of her 93rd birthday, Anna Halprin holds three-hour classes twice a week in her studio and also leads author's workshops.
For 40 years, Anna Halprin has been healing people through dance – one might say she dances with God.
God, it seems, is quite a good dancer." From the book "I Wanted It and I Could" / Cynthia Cynthia. TAT TVAM ASI/
