Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

My Embodied Bicultural Experience And Dance/Movement Therapy, Anisabel Perez

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Culture is in the everyday. It is embodied in the way people walk, sit, stand, eat, wash, breathe, and otherwise comport their bodies as they go through daily life (Cohen & Leung, 2009). Culture is multifaceted and embedded and embodied within identity. Ignoring emotions and body signals is detrimental to mental and physical health. It is possible for an individual to have a sense of belonging in two cultures without compromising their sense of cultural identity (Kim, 2002). Biculturalism allows culture to be a choice rather than something that requires purging old practices and beliefs from the self for individuals …