On the occasion of Les Grands Ballets' tour in Tel Aviv, in February 2019, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens' National Centre for Dance Therapy is proud to host a panel on dance therapy. Organized in partnership with the Québec Ministry of International Relations and Francophonie and the Canadian Embassy in Israel, this event, structured as a panel, will take place on February 26, 2019, at 2pm, at the Ambassador of Canada to Israel’s residence, Her Excellency Deborah A. Lyons.
This panel will be an occasion to exchange on the features of the dance/movement therapy (DMT) field in Israel, in Canada and in a more global context. The objective is to stimulate exchange and the transfer of knowledge between, on the one hand, Israel, a pioneer in the integration of this discipline in the medical and educational fields, and, on the other hand, Canada, an advocate for innovative ways to develop the field with a focus on research.
Panel participants will be key actors of development of the field of international reputation: Ms. Sarah Berry, a researcher in bioethics at the Medicine Faculty of McGill University (Canada), Dr. Dita Federman of the Creative Arts Therapies Research Centre, Emili Sagol (CATRC) of Haifa University (Israel) and Mr. Christian Sénéchal, director of the National Centre for Dance Therapy.
The event will begin with a twenty-minute presentation by Ms. Berry on the state of research on DMT. Berry is especially interested in the development of mixed research methodologies for the evaluation of innovative practices in health, including DMT. She will also present the preliminary results of her current study, held in Montreal, which combines neuropsychology and social sciences methodologies to evaluate the changes in the mental health of students following a DMT session.
This presentation will be followed by a short Q&A session, which will give way to the panel including Dr. Federman, Ms. Berry and Mr. Sénéchal.
The public will be limited to a maximum of twenty people including professionals from the cultural and arts intervention field, representatives of the Canadian Embassy in Israel (Culture and Health), as well as some donors.
Dita Federman, PHD, DMT, Emili Sagol Research Center, University Of Haifa (Haifa, Israel)
Dr. Dita Federman is an accredited dance movement therapist, psychotherapist, lecturer, supervisor and senior researcher at the Emili Sagol Research Center. She was head of the dance movement therapy (DMT) training at the University of Haifa, Israel, for 10 years. Dita has initiated a unit of DMT in the psychiatric ward at Rambam Hospital. Her areas of interest are trauma, depression, mindfulness, stress management and neurodegenerative disorders, especially Parkinson’s disease. Dita has been developing her own form of attentive movement with groups & individuals. Her clinical work has influenced her approach to DMT and attentive movement both of which are informed by her research.
Sarah Berry, PHD, ABD, Faculty Of Medicine, Mcgill University (Montreal, QC, Canada)
Sarah Berry is a research fellow in Bioethics (Faculty of Medicine, McGill University), course lecturer in Sociology (McGill University), and research consultant with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. Her research interests and current projects are focused on the development of mixed-methods research methodologies for the evaluation of novel mental health interventions. Her recent work involves the correlation of neuroscientific and social scientific research data, with the aim of engaging in translational mental health research that reflects diverse epistemological and etiological theories of mental health. She is currently coordinating a study combining neuroscientific methods (rsEEG) and social scientific methods (journaling and self-report) to assess changes in mental health status following a dance intervention. Sarah is Chair of the Board of Directors at Centre de jour St-James, a Montreal non-profit organization that provides services and support for people struggling with homelessness, mental health concerns and substance dependence.
Christian Sénéchal, EMBA, Director, National Centre for Dance Therapy, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens De Montréal (Montreal, QC, Canada)
Christian Sénéchal had his first experiences in the cultural field through directing actors, staging, directing, producing, and teaching. The principal investigator of his projects, he developed his management skills on the field. To perfect his competencies, he obtained a DESS in Management of Cultural Organizations from HEC Montréal, a Specialized Executive MBA in Cooperative Enterprises from l’ESG-UQAM and an EMBA from Paris-Dauphine University. To complement his field experience, he always wished to keep in touch with university research. He was research auxiliary for the Alliance de recherche universités-communautés (ARUC) and for the Groupe de recherche sur les OBNL, communautaires ou culturels from HEC Montréal. In the community field, he was involved with various organizations, as the Association des victimes d’infections nosocomiales (ADVIN), of which he was general director. Afterwards, he collaborated as a consultant for the establishment of the National Centre for Dance Therapy (NCDT), of which he was named director in October 2012.
