Ballet After Dark: Somatic Healing After Sexual Trauma
As Mental Health Awareness Month comes to an end, it’s important to remember that there are resources and organizations to support your well-being year-round. It’s also important to think outside of the box when it comes to your mental health, finding outlets that are soothing to the unique needs of your healing journey. For example, somatic therapy is an alternative form of therapy that includes physical techniques, such as deep breathing, relaxation exercises, and meditation, to help relieve symptoms of trauma.
We learned more about the effectiveness of somatic therapy after chatting with Tyde-Courtney Edwards, the Founding Director of Ballet After Dark, a dance therapy organization which combines dance therapy with counseling and teaching resources to help young women heal from sexual trauma. In our interview below, you can learn more about the effectiveness of this technique, healing exercises you can do on your own, and how you can help the cause.
Was there a specific moment when you realized how powerful movement was for you, personally, in helping to regulate and heal after trauma? What did that feel like?
It was when I really started understanding that in order for me to receive corrections while I'm in the studio, I have to develop a sense of comfort. So whatever the apprehension was that I had about allowing people into my personal space, I had to let that go. But also, I was paying attention to how I was feeling and how I was changing emotionally when I was in the studio, and I was noticing how it didn't feel like a chore.
I really was perceiving dance as a completely different benefit as opposed to it being a trained discipline. So I think when I started feeling joy from it - and also with me being an older dancer at the time - neurologically, the connections I was able to make between my mind and body made a lot more sense. Also, I had a different goal. Now, I was working towards healing and not towards the stage. So I think that's when it started to click, like this is more than just a physical activity.
What would you say to a woman who isn’t sure if she’s experienced trauma?
Well, I think one of the biggest challenges that survivors face is identifying as a survivor. Most of the time, a lot of the trauma we endure is conditioned to be treated as either a rite of passage, or some sort of milestone of maturity, or just the typical generational trauma that's passed down. So I would probably say instead of dissecting whether or not you, as an individual, would be considered a survivor, dissect the event that is making you think about the trauma. You have to kind of separate yourself from it. You have to take into account every element that went into this traumatic situation and you have to break it down.
Also, it has a lot to do with education. The more you know and the more you understand the definitions of words like trauma, assault, harassment, and abuse, you'll begin to realize that some of the things that you were subjected to that we would typically normalize, weren't normal things. It takes time, but I would suggest starting with the event and also ask questions. Ask questions if you are unsure about something. There are resources that exist so that you can kind of walk through, not so much the experience, but the questions that you have in relation to it.
Why might someone, especially someone who may not already be a dancer, find it more therapeutic to dance than to turn to standard approaches to therapy?
Well, I like to think that healing requires an innovative and holistic approach. So somatic interventions like what we provide should be done in conjunction with your traditional mental health care. There are articles that are written about how dance activity and training are directly connected to the body's emotional interplay, which means that movement and dance are fundamental forms of expression.
Sometimes trauma is stored in the body in places that conversation can’t reach, so you have to get into a practice of moving your body. Also, sometimes you just don't want to talk. You'd be surprised how you're able to relieve yourself of pain by being given the opportunity to move around and release it.
I know that with Ballet After Dark, you do combine a variety of activities along with the community that you felt like you were missing, the long-term community. Do you have anything to say about how that combination of activities helps to complement each other to lead to recovery?
I'm a huge fan of one-stop-shop solutions. One of the most discouraging things about recognizing unkind legal systems and unfriendly mental health systems is the navigation of them. Most of the resources are set up for you to have to contact the phone number, which leads you to a website, which directs you back to a phone number, which takes you to another phone number. Before you know it, you've just decided to give up on the journey before you can even have an encouraging start to it.
There are also a lot of boundaries and obstacles that the Black community faces specifically that would keep them from being able to access a lot of resources, even if they are free. So the goal of creating this organization from a holistic lens was to be able to provide resources while eliminating those public health barriers and disparities that would keep a survivor from accessing resources, and that’s very important. I mean you can say you want to help people all day, but if accessibility is an issue, then you're not really able to have an impact.
You also want to provide resources to the whole person. When we do work with survivors and they are enrolled in our dance therapy cohort, they're introduced to trauma-informed dance technique, socio-emotional wellness strategies, fundamental financial literacy, and also a community. All of these things are important when you are talking about someone’s well-being, their whole well-being.
I agree, especially the financial part, because that can be a reason that a woman may stay in an unhealthy situation. So just having those fundamental tools and knowledge, like you said, can help.
Financial abuse is very real and it is very much encouraged. I know of situations where women have been encouraged to stay just because of the comfort that they've grown accustomed to or the lifestyle that their partner is able to provide, but they have no access to any of it and no freedom. We're exploring a new partnership that lets us create a more comprehensive financial literacy resource for survivors. All of these things are necessary in order for us to excel.
I know a big focus of your work is to help women and dancers regain control and reconnect with their bodies. So, what are some simple exercises that they can do in their own time or space to manage those triggers or help them regain control when they need to at that moment?
The most simple things that we'd like to call on, which I refer to as self-soothing strategies, are breathing exercises. Deep breathing always helps - in through the nose out through the mouth, anywhere from 3 to 5 second intervals. Also, recalling your combinations. Counting was something that I started noticing in the very beginning of my healing journey was very soothing. If I was in a triggered state or if my anxiety was starting to flare, I would start thinking about a tendu combination or a plié combination.
Our discipline is structured in such a way that the repetition of counting the exercise in my head helped me to settle down. So that is one thing that we encourage our program participants to do. When you feel as though your anxiety is about to flare up, think about your combination that you've learned in class and replay that in your head until you feel yourself start to settle down.
How is this newfound, regained control reflected in their everyday lives?
You will see how they start to reimagine and restructure things, whether it's from them setting hard bedtimes for themselves because they're prioritizing their rest, or whether or not they're making sure that their checkbooks are balanced, because they know that if they are able to manage their funds appropriately, that can eliminate stress. Whether or not they had moments where they drop their kids off and said, ‘forget them kids for a little bit,’ and you know, think about themselves. There are baby steps.
You know healing, it's not a linear journey, and you'll find that you're gonna have these really good days, you're gonna have great days, and then you're gonna have bad days and you just have to take it bit by bit. But you see that blossoming happening in them. You see the excitement of being a part of a community, and you see that it means something to be able to be in a space with women and girls that look like you that may have had similar experiences. It really is reflected in how they start to take control back and reprocess and reclaim their lives again.
We also talked a little bit about the struggles of navigating the resources that are offered on the mainstream level and I know that was something that played a role in you creating your own organization as well. Do you have any tips or guidelines for dancers who might be looking for those resources in their own communities and in their own cities?
Just about every city does have their own network of local trauma resources. Most of the national ones are able to be accessed through websites like rainn.org. But also, don't give up. Keep in mind now, this is a different time with the pandemic. Everyone's mental health awareness has shot up, so it's very hard to get appointments; it's very hard being seen right now. So the biggest thing should be to continuously do research.
Don't be discouraged if you're not able to get an appointment immediately. Keep looking for providers. Keep looking into free resources like support groups. Also, don't be afraid of group therapy. We've been getting ready to go into our second semester of offering free group mental health therapy and you'd be surprised how helpful it is to just have conversations with others safely facilitated.
What advice do you have for established organizations in terms of providing safe spaces like this, even if it’s not their main focus?
There's no sense in reinventing the wheel. Partnerships and collaborations are really going to be the key to making sure that these resources are amplified and accessible. I like to think that Ballet After Dark serves as a support system to existing victim service agencies, women’s organizations, girls’ organizations, shelters, and things like that.
We're recognizing the compassion fatigue that exists in victim service organizations, and we kind of want to help fill in those gaps. So the best thing is always to connect with organizations and community members that are already ‘boots on the ground,’ doing the work and amplifying the resources that they have available. That's probably the easiest thing to do.
Is there anything else you want to say to dancers reading this article?
You are smarter than you think and stronger than you know. Don't give up, but also do not fill your life with unrealistic goals. Be realistic about where you want dance to take you and about the future you want to have. We already know going into it, it's highly competitive. We know that we're going to spend a lot of time training and developing, and we also know that every single one of us is not going to make it to a stage.
Be realistic about what you're putting your body through and how you want to use it as a resource or as an opportunity to get you to college, get you to other places. But really, think about the fact that you don't have to be a starving artist in order to enjoy this or in order to create something lucrative and sustained.
If you are a part of the dance community and would like to support the mission of Ballet After Dark, click here to make a donation. “We love volunteers too. We have a lot of opportunities coming up for young dancers that may be interested in pursuing dance therapy as a career,” said Tyde-Courtney. “We are always looking for interested dancers between the ages of 18 and 21 to volunteer their technique with us in the form of a master class or a workshop.”
While the organization is currently geared toward DMV-based dancers, Tyde-Courtney hopes to expand its reach soon. She’s even working on a new web-based platform that would make trauma-informed dance therapy and somatic intervention accessible and affordable options for people outside of Baltimore. “The goal is to always figure out the best ways to make sure that the very unique resources we've created are reaching the communities that are in need,” said Tyde-Courtney.
Ballet After Dark hosted a series of events during Mental Health Awareness month, including a fundraising event on May 25th. In July, they’ll host a Safety and Security Month, where they’ll offer self-defense classes and panel discussions hosted by Black women in safety and security. Registration for their newest program, Aqua Ballet, will be opening later this summer. The rest of their programming will resume in October. Otherwise, The Ballet After Dark performance ensemble has been getting booked for a lot of local paid performances. Learn more about Ballet After Dark’s programs here.
“We are really diligently working on expanding our capacity because we do know how unique this organization is and how necessary healing is,” said Tyde-Courtney. “We’re getting there.”
Photo: Tyde-Courtney Edwards
Tyde-Courtney Edwards is a classically trained ballerina, art model and survivor of sexual assault. Born and raised in Baltimore City, she is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts and has over 20 years of dance training and experience. Trained in various styles of dance including classical and contemporary ballet, pointe, modern, lyrical, jazz, tap and hip-hop, she conceptualized Ballet After Dark after struggling with recovery following her sexual assault. Read Tyde-Courtney’s full bio here.