Throughout the African Diaspora, emphasis on the connection between individual and community plays a vital role in improving health and wellbeing, often woven together through ceremony, empathic connection between healer and patient, food, and dance – rich cultural healing traditions are still reflected in Black and African American communities throughout the U.S. today.

In addition to being community-focused, traditional healing methods in the African Diaspora are body-aware and encourage restorative healing of mind, body, and spirit without internalizing illness symptoms!

Western psychology is slowly learning what African communities have known all along- what we hold in our bodies, can be released through our bodies, and we heal holistically… and not alone. Nicole M. Monteiro, Ph. D., and Diana J. Hall, Psy. D., have written a beautiful work from their research, African Dance as Healing Modality Throughout the Diaspora: The Use of Ritual and Movement to Work Through Trauma, published in the The Journal of Pan African Studies, (vol.4, no.6, September 2011).

There they describe the purpose of dance throughout the African Diaspora and also the U.S., educating us on dance as a mode for cultural transmission, individual and community healing, reduction of vulnerability, a means of celebrating moments of significance, and a way to make meaning of the hard moments in life.

These benefits aren’t restricted to ritual and traditional dance, however. Dances found throughout Black and African American communities in the U.S., often with roots in traditional African dance, serve these same important functions wherever they are found.

So move those hips!

And shimmy those shoulders. Be the ballerina, the warrior, the elk. Be the ancestor, the future… whatever you need. Tell the story, or write a new one. Make your child laugh, or let yourself cry. Dance is an important expression of you, and so freedom of expression is vital.

Written by Jennifer Heck, Lead Family Partner, SSYAF Family and Youth Partnership program