Dance of Healing

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with psychological anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Dr. Tamara Turner. She shares the origins of her award-winning research into the role of dance and healing in North African communities. Her initial focus was on a career in classical music. But she developed an interest in other types of music that eventually led her to study the music of West and North Africa. She discovered that in Morocco and Algeria, certain communities used music and trance dancing as a healing modality for pain and trauma. These healing rituals could last 8-9 hours. The movement of the dance would lead to an altered state and the level of trance ranged from light rapture all the way to complete dissociation.

Dr. Tamara Turner is a psychological anthropologist and ethnomusicologist who has spent more than 15 years researching the role of music and dance in healing across cultures. Her award-winning research in North Africa focuses on Sufi music and dance rituals designed to deal with inter-generational trauma among Black communities who are descendants of slaves from the trans-Saharan slave trade. As both an academic, international speaker, and musician, she has published extensively across arts and health disciplines and has held research positions in the US, UK, and Europe. For more information, visit:https://kcl.academia.edu/TamaraTurner.