The experience of attunement and misattunement in dance movement therapy workshops

Moments of attunement and misattunement were explored in a dance movement therapy workshops. The guiding question was; “how do participants experience moments of attunement and misattunement in dance movement therapy workshops?” The study employed a quasi-experimental design, with phenomenological inquiry, including a two part analysis: Laban Movement Analysis and descriptive grounded theory using coding. Four students of expressive arts therapies attended four experimental dance movement therapy workshops, emphasising the process of mutual attunement. All workshops were video recorded. Based on video movement analysis, key moments of nonverbal attunement and misattunement were selected, and then analyzed within group interviews with participants. The results of the study show that successful attunement in dance movement therapy draws the client’s attention to the present moment; it encourages individual spontaneity, playfulness, and creativity; promotes embodiment, and thus the integration of mind and body. Successful attunement to the other leads to an intersubjective interchange, where two people co-create an intersubjective experience. Successful attunement to the group leads to the experience of oneness with the group. Moments of misattunement trigger unpleasant feelings, and result in a lack of spontaneity, feelings of exclusion, and hinder contact. The limitations of the results should be considered, as the study was done on a small number of participants and in nonclinical experimental setting. Researchers propose a larger study with clinical populations to further investigate the phenomenon of attunement and misattunement in dance movement therapy