The SMC Dance Department “Dance is Great Medicine” Initiative
The arts and humanities are the cornerstones for defining and understanding the human experience. These disciplines not only fuel our creativity and provide us with a sense of self and collective identity, but they also enhance our capacity to heal mentally and physically and make us whole again when we feel broken. This perspective, called Medical Arts and Humanities, is an evidence-based modality that recognizes the impact the arts and humanities have on providing, improving, and maintaining mental and physical health and wellness.
The SMC Dance Department “Dance is Great Medicine” Initiative is a departmental effort aimed toward raising awareness of the health and wellness benefits of incorporating the arts and humanities into our daily lives and promoting inclusive community engagement in these disciplines to improve quality of life and achieve optimal mental and physical well-being.
The SMC Dance Department “Dance is Great Medicine Initiative” was inspired by the Medical Humanities and the Arts program at Stanford Medical School and developed for the SMC Dance Department by Desmonette Hazly, MA, MSW, PhD and Dance Department Chair Mark Tomasic, MFA. The initiative highlights science and research that identifies the positive contributions of the arts and humanities to health and wellness, promotes empirically supported practices within the department that successfully utilize the arts and humanities to attain and maintain optimal health, and includes interdisciplinary collaboration across campus and with community stakeholders that have vested interest in public health to ensure accessibility to this highly specialized medical modality.