Dance, Theater, and Medicine

See our Spotlights

This initiative was created for and by women who blend performance of narratives to better the practice of humanism in medicine. By exploring the intersection between dance, theater arts, and medicine, we enhance our understanding of the human experience through performance highlights and research database cultivation. Through performance of dance and the theater arts, we understand how our bodies tell stories, revealing our values and our individual perspectives on healing. It is this knowledge that leads the transformation for equity-based, narrative driven, and diverse medical care.

Join Our Committee

 
Current Leadership:

Co-Chairs: Andrea Samson, Jasmine Thomas
Research Subcommittee leads: Lekha Vuppalapati, Andrea Samson
Programming Subcommittee leads: Jasmine Thomas
Spotlight Subcommittee leads: Amy Pham

Founding Committee:

Shilpa Darivemula, MD (Co-Chair)
Roshni Prakash (Co-Chair)
Lara Rostomian (Social Media & Recruitment Chair)
Maya Roytman (Spotlight Features Chair)
Emily Chen (AMWA Project Coordinator)
Eliza Chin, MD, MPH (AMWA Executive Director)

Questions?  E-mail dance_theater@amwa-doc.org

For the Physician

Dance in Medicine Programs

Foundation for Embodied Medicine

International Association for Dance Medicine and Science

NYU -Internships for Dance Medicine

Articine: Prescribing Dance

Stuck at Home? Learn to Dance from the Best (CNN)

Theater in Medicine and Science

Medical Improv

No Joke, the Serious Role of Improv in Medicine (Sarah Mahoney, AAMC)

What Improv Can Teach Tomorrow’s Doctors (Anu Atluru, The Atlantic)

Medical Improv Putting Physicians to the Test (Lydia Coutre, Modern Healthcare)

Engaging hard-to-reach populations in research on health in pregnancy: the value of Boal’s simultaneous dramaturgy (Smyth, McClements, and Murphy, Arts&Health)

All the World’s a Stage: Integrating Theater and Medicine for Interprofessional Team Building in Physician and Nurse Residency Programs (Salam T, Collins M, Baker A, The Oschner Journal)

Improvisation and the Art of Medicine

Mayutica: Discover What You Know

Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science

Using improv to improve life with Alzheimer’s

Clinical Applications of Dance

For the Patient/Performer

Dance

Foundation for Embodied Medicine

American Dance Therapy Association

Dance for Parkinsons

Theater

North American Drama Therapy Association

The Betes Organization

Autism, Art, and Accessibility to Theater (Corbin, AMA J of Ethics)

Advocacy

Dance

The Aseemkala Initiative: Transforming Medicine Through Traditional Dance 

Kolkata Sanved Dance Movement Therapy for Change 

BodyWise Dance (Greenlee)

Evidence Map of Arts-Based Health Interventions:Results of a Community-engaged Scoping Review of the Literature (Arts and Health)

Theater

B!RTH: 7 Countries, 7 Plays, 1 Global Controversy. Watch the trailer.

Elevate: Theater for Health

Regeneration: The Play (Rappaport)

Medical Education

Dance

Pas De Deux, (Ofri)

Sati’s Surgery: An Exploration of a Surgeon’s Vulnerbaility through Kuchipudi Dance (Darivemula, Association of Women Surgeons)

Educational Opportunities in Dance Medicine and Science  

Harkness Center for Dance Injuries Education and Research (NYU)

Dance in Medicine for Humanism in Medicine Course (Ohio State Medical School)

Theater

How Theater Training Can Improve Your Doctor’s Empathy (Jafine, The Conversation)

I Learned How to Be a Good Doctor in Theater School (Klingman, KevinMD)

Can Acting Classes Help Physicians Learn to Show Empathy? (Bernard, Medical Economics)

The Use of Theatre in Medical Education in the Emergency Cases School: An appealing and widely accessible way of learning (Keskinis, et al; Perspec Med Edu)

Using Theater to Teach Clinical Empathy: A Pilot Study  (Dow et al, J Gen Int Med)

Theater Training Helps Doctors Enhance Patient Care with Clinical Empathy Skills (Gresham, VCU News)

Inside the Theater of Medicine Where Actors Help Train Future Doctors (Park, TIME)

A Collaboration Between Theater and Medicine Leads to an Innovative Empathy Program for LAC+USC staff (USC)

Performing Medicine: The Role of Theater in Medical Education (Kohn, J Med Ethics)

Using Theater to Increase Empathy Training in Medical Students (Reilly, et. al, J for Learning through the Arts)

Serious Play: Teaching medical skills with improvisational theater techniques (Watson, Acad Med)

Active Learning on Center Stage: Theater as a Tool for Medical Education (Hobson, et. al., Acad Med)

Medical Readers’ Theater: A Guide and Scripts (Meyer, et. al., JAMA)

Medical Education Empowered by Theater (MEET) (Antonio, et. al., Academic Medicine)

Engaging Physicians in CME: The power of theater (Health Partners Institute)

Medical Readers’ Theater: Relevance to Geriatrics Medical Education (Shipiro & Cho, Gerontology & Geriatrics Education)

What do you get mixing medicine, theater and communication? (Tinklepaugh, K-ute Radio)

New doctors polish communication skills through theater arts (Upstate Medical University)

I Learned to be a Good Doctor in Theater School (Klingman, KevinMD)

Medical Theater: An artist and physician team up to examine the role of acting in the clinical setting (Hoffman, Proto: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Medicine)

ImprovDoc

Do medical schools teach medical humanities? Review of curricula in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom – Howick – – Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice – Wiley Online Library

Resources

Reimagining Medicine Festival

Deadline to Apply: November 23, 2022