Rwanda Dance Therapy

Rebuilding Rwanda through Dance Therapy Children were orphaned, people were left without homes and without families.More than 800,000 people were murdered. This devastating event, the genocide of 1994, left Rwanda traumatized, and in terrible condition. Rwanda, has since done many things to try to rebuild and retire after the genocide (Adekunle 20-22). One of the thing they greatly focused on to help the people of Rwanda was dance therapy. Although dance as therapy might not be for everyone, Rwandans have used dance to help those affected by the genocide through helping them communicate, relieve physical or emotional pain, and can serve as an outlet from their current life. The genocide started when the Tutsi shot down a plane with President Haybarimana, a Hutu, aboard. After his death, the Hutu were so angry that they went and murdered any Tutsi that they found, women and children included. The Tutsi sought protection in churches, in homes, in fields, they ran and hid anywhere that they could. However, the Hutu showed no mercy and often burned down whole buildings if they knew even just one Tutsi was hiding there. Both the Hutu and the Tutsi sought to murder each other and

Some of the dances that they participate in tell a story, and through these stories they communicate what is going on in their lives. The children can express fear, sadness, joy, and many other emotions though dance that they may not be able to easily express verbally. They also non-verbally can communicate with other children on the streets who may not have the means to participate in dance. They communicate to them by showing them the dances and the children watching will often understand the meaning of the dances and mimc them. Even though some children do not take dance, the others that do help them learn the dances and they communicate to each other through dance (Niwenshuti