Join Dancer & Artist Jennifer Giuglianotti At The MAD Love Creators Meetup This Saturday

Jennifer Giuglianotti is the therapist, dancer, artist, and three-year resident of Ditmas Park behind the first upcoming MAD Love Creators Meetup this Saturday, May 4, at 2pm. The meetup, open to all music, art, and dance (MAD) creators in the area, will center around dance therapy and art, but participants are encouraged to bring any materials necessary to make and share their preferred art forms. We spoke to Jennifer about her history, process, and what can be expected this Saturday at her E 21st St. studio.

Who are you, and how did you become involved in art and dance? When did it occur to you to combine painting, movement, and therapy?
I am a dance/movement therapist, choreographer/teacher, and painter. I grew up in Pennsylvania, starting to dance at three and continuing training in jazz, ballet, tap, and modern. I graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Psychology and found a way to merge my love of dance and helping people through continued study in the Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) master’s degree program at Pratt Institute. A branch of the Creative Arts Therapy field, DMT is the psycho-therapeutic use of movement to holistically integrate the body, mind, and emotions.

Throughout my classes and internships at NYC psychiatric hospitals and with children, I began to explore art-making with patients. This originated out of their interest in art coupled with their reluctance to dance: through merging both art-forms, I was able to lead them smoothly into DMT and learned a lot from them in the process. This professional exploration led me to continue painting at home.

A fellow artist urged me to paint large, un-stretched canvases who told me that I swept the brush in such expansive movements, that it appeared I was dancing as I painted. This led me to do exactly that–dance and paint at the same time. Large canvases on the floor and walls, dipping my hands and feet in paint, I now explore improvising and choreographing as I create these pieces, calling the process “Choreography On Canvas.” My living room has turned into a workspace for creating: dancing, painting, and filming.

What are some ways you’ve witnessed creative therapy affecting people?
Creative Arts Therapies help people in so many ways! Dance/movement therapy, in particular, goes right to the deepest core of our being: expression of ourselves through movement is a natural language without the filter of spoken words. Oftentimes, we cannot “put feelings into words” and this is where dance, art, and music therapies are the ideal, natural ways to express and heal.

I have worked with children with developmental disorders (e.g, Autism Spectrum Disorders) who engage in, respond to, and expand through movement more than any other means of communication. The freedom in dance within the safe space of a group circle allows these children to be held physically and emotionally as they express themselves and learn. Language, gross/fine motor skills, spatial awareness, social communication, and rhythm are some areas that they expand. Being silly, laughing, and fully moving their bodies, they are able to achieve a balanced state.

With adults undergoing psychiatric/psychological care, I have witness profound changes in the patients within a single group. Largely process-oriented in nature, the groups I lead allow people the confidence to connect with others in their own unique style of movement and creativity. Through movement, imagery is created, which serves the foundation for deep, emotional meanings that can be explored and verbalized: arms raised to the sky can become a welcoming of rain, which turns into a cleansing exercise, and shedding of troubles, worries, anxieties, and feelings of depression.

How is living in Ditmas important to your art?
Ditmas Park’s sycamores remind me being “home” amongst the trees, giving me a sense of calm and peace. The people who live here are diverse and many are artists, which helps fuel my drive to create. My apartment is spacious and affordable, so I can dance without the restrictions of a smaller space.

Why did you decide to have this meetup, who is involved, and what do you have planned?
Holding the MAD Love Creators Meetup is my way of doing 3 things:

1) Exposing people to the healing power of being creative, and specifically, to DMT.
2) Having a time and space to meet new people, be creative, and learn from each other’s talents and creative pursuits, similar to the old parlor art gatherings. Musicians, artists, poets, actors, and dancers are welcome!
3) Move towards someday holding a dance/movement therapy and art workshop in a big, beautiful space with the people I meet.

Artists interested in attending the meetup can RSVP and find out more details, including the address of the meetup, at the event page.

Top photo via GO Brooklyn