Univ. of Maryland Semester of Peace Events
More info. Contact Karen Bradley in the Dance Department:
kbradley@umd.edu 301-405-0387
1. An Evening with David Alan Harris, MA, LCAT, ADTR
"Using Dance Movement Therapy to Heal African Survivors of War & Beyond
the Classroom
Monday, October 12, 2009, 7-9 pm
1102 South Campus Commons, Building 1
http://www.beyondtheclassroom.umd.edu/btccalendar.php
2. Atrocities, Resilience, and Healing: Peace-Building Lessons from
African Child Soldiers
Wednesday October 14, 2009 7-9 pm
Stamp Student Union, Colony Ballroom
University of Maryland, College Park
3. PEACEWORK … DANCING TO HEAL
A Dance/Movement Therapy Workshop for Dance Therapists and Movement
Professionals with David Alan Harris
Saturday, October 17, 2009, 10 AM – 5 PM
At Preinkert Dance Studio, University of Maryland College Park
4. About David Alan Harris, MA, LCAT, BC-DMT, NCC, is a dance/movement
therapist who specializes in fostering resilience and recovery among
survivors of egregious human rights abuse, and war.
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1. An Evening with David Alan Harris, MA, LCAT, ADTR
"Using Dance Movement Therapy to Heal African Survivors of War & Beyond
the Classroom
Monday, October 12, 2009, 7-9 pm
1102 South Campus Commons, Building 1
http://www.beyondtheclassroom.umd.edu/btccalendar.php
If, as Alice Walker reminds us in her new book, "hard times require
furious dancing", David Alan Harris knows the hard times and the furious
dancing. For the young men and boys he encountered in Sierra Leone, he
provided warmth and the container for fury, through a process called
Dance/Movement Therapy. Harris will share stories of the boys he worked
with in a keynote address as a part of the University of Maryland's
Semester on Peace: Atrocities, Resilience, and Healing: Peace-Building
Lessons from African Child Soldiers. Join him as he inspires us all to
dance with each other, and join us afterwards at the UMUC Marriott Inn
and Conference Center to put all of our energy to music, in a
celebration of resilience and healing!
The Marriott is located at the crossroads of University Boulevard and
Adelphi Roads. 3501 University Blvd E Hyattsville, Maryland.
More info. Contact Karen Bradley in the Dance Department:
kbradley@umd.edu 301-405-0387 / Marriott Phone: 301-985-7300.
DAVID ALAN HARRIS, MA, LCAT, ADTR, a leading dance and movement
therapist, will share his work with former child soldiers in Sierra
Leone and other parts of Africa, and with young male survivors of severe
trauma. Combining his careers in human rights advocacy and choreography
to work on the ground in Sierra Leone's Kailahun District, David has
collaborated with local counselors to develop an innovative dance and
movement program to provide treatment for 12 former child soldiers, all
of whom were orphans who survived the brutality of Sierra Leone's
11-year civil war. David's inspiring work has demonstrated that "dance
and movement therapy (DMT) interventions, if designed to promote
cultural relevance and community ownership, may enhance healing among
adolescent survivors of war and organized violence."
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2. Atrocities, Resilience, and Healing: Peace-Building Lessons from
African Child Soldiers
Wednesday October 14, 2009 7-9 pm
Stamp Student Union, Colony Ballroom
University of Maryland, College Park
David Alan Harris at Maryland: Keynote Address: Atrocities, Resilience,
and Healing: Peace-Building Lessons from African Child Soldiers
Co-Sponsored by the Initiative on Education for Peace, Cooperation, and
Development (IEPCD), Student Entertainment Events (SEE), the First-Year
Book, the UMUC Marriott, and ARHU
David Alan Harris will deliver the Keynote Address of the Semester on
Peace about his work with Dance Movement Therapy in the treatment of
child soldiers and other victims of torture and post-traumatic stress
disorder. This is a campus-wide talk, featuring film on his work in
Sierra Leone, and will serve as a prelude to Dave Egger's talk on his
book, What is the What?, the First-Year Book. Read David Alan Harris's
article on his work in Foreign Policy in Focus at
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6187.
-----------------
3. PEACEWORK … DANCING TO HEAL
A Dance/Movement Therapy Workshop for Dance Therapists and Movement
Professionals with
David Alan Harris, MA, LCAT, ADTR
Saturday, October 17, 2009, 10 AM – 5 PM
At Preinkert Dance Studio, University of Maryland College Park
Cost: $30 for professionals
$20 for students and retired professionals
To register, email Teresa Redmon at TREDMON1964@COMCAST.NET
And send check, made out to MD/DC/VA chapter of ADTA, to
3018 Benefit Court, Abingdon, MD 21009
CEU'S AVAILABLE
For more information please call Karen Bradley at 202-669-3927
In this workshop you will:
* Be introduced to David's particular approach to working with
survivors of trauma and violence.
* Share best practices with movement professionals in working with
clients with stress and somatoform issues.
* Consider ways in which dance therapy might intersect with and
influence international relief work.
Come and learn from his stories. Read David Alan Harris's article on his
work in Foreign Policy in Focus at http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6187
-----------------
4. About David Alan Harris, MA, LCAT, BC-DMT, NCC, is a dance/movement
therapist who specializes in fostering resilience and recovery among
survivors of egregious human rights abuse, and war. As a
Clinician/Trainer for the Center for Victims of Torture in rural Sierra
Leone, he supervised a team of paraprofessional trauma counselors
providing therapeutic services in the aftermath of that country's brutal
conflict. He introduced Sierra Leonean and Liberian counselors to
dance/movement therapy (DMT) practice—in 2005, launching the first DMT
group in West Africa; and in 2006, apparently the first DMT group
anywhere for former child combatants.
David has presented on his DMT work at various U.S. and international
gatherings, including the IX International Rehabilitation Council for
Torture Victims Symposium in Berlin, in 2006, four annual conferences of
the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA), and at McGill's Division
of Transcultural Psychiatry in Montreal. The ADTA honored one of David's
academic articles about his dance therapy work with its 2007 Research
Award, and recognized his efforts more broadly, bestowing on him its
Leader of the Future award that year. A 2002 graduate of the Creative
Arts in Therapy program at MCP Hahnemann (now Drexel) University, David
has taught graduate-level courses on trauma treatment at Columbia
College, Chicago, and Naropa University in Boulder.
David also has more than 15 years' experience working for organizations
dedicated to sustainable solutions to the problems of refugees and
asylum-seekers, including for Doctors of the World-USA, the American
Friends Service Committee, and Human Rights Watch. In 2008, the U.S.
Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, sponsored a series of training workshops
David and a colleague conducted there, designed to increase the
effectiveness of health professionals and other civil society workers
providing services to survivors of the country's ongoing political violence.
