Abstract

Anna Halprin is a world-famous theatre artist and early pioneer in the expressive arts healing movement. This book explores her personal growth as a dancer and choreographer and the development of her therapeutic and pedagogical approach.

The authors, who each trained with Halprin, introduce her creative work and the 'Life/Art Process®' she developed, an approach that takes life experiences as a source for artistic expression. They also examine the wider impact of Halprin's work on the fields of art, education, therapy and political action and discuss how she crossed the conventionally defined boundaries between them.

Exploring Halprin's belief that dance can be a powerful force for transformation, healing, education, and making our lives whole, this book is a tribute to an exceptional body of artistic and therapeutic work and will be of interest to expressive arts therapists, dance movement psychotherapists, dancers, performance and community artists, and anyone with an interest in contemporary dance.

Readers will find that Anna Halprin: Dance, Process, Form is a detailed, well-researched, and objective examination of the life, work, and artistic mindset of Anna Halprin... the book is an interesting foray into where the process of expression in dance and therapy stands today, and also what it might mean for practitioners and performers going forward.
Michael Fiorini
Somatic Psychotherapy Today
I found this book a comprehensive and rigorous account of Anna Halprin's work and its application and relevance today. The discussions on the boundaries between Art and Therapy in her work with the body are both radical and inspiring. As both a dance artist/performer (...) I find the depth of enquiry and capacity to understand the body in doing, making and developing a political structure quite profound. One would hope that more people today who are interested in Dance and Movement and the body in both contexts will take up this extraordinary account of a life's work.
Kay Lynn
The Gestalt Centre; BGJ (British Gestalt Journal) and the Oxford Psychotherapy Society's members-only Journal

Ronit Land completed her training with Anna Halprin in 1977. Since 1990 she has been director of the department of dance at the Remscheid Academy, and lectures internationally. Until 1990 she had responsibility for dance within the Israeli Ministry of Education and was dance editor for Israeli radio and television.

Ursula Schorn graduated at the Fritz Perls Institute for Integrative Gestalt as a dance and Gestalt therapist and trained as a Halprin practitioner at the Tamalpa Institute. She currently works as a therapist in independent practice, and as director of advanced training in art education and therapy at home in Germany and abroad.

Gabriele Wittmann has been an assistant lecturer in dance criticism, dance history and creative scientific writing at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts since 2003. She worked previously as an independent dance journalist for the press, radio and television. She studied with Anna Halprin at the Tamalpa Institute in 1997.