WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LEARNING DANCE?

Barbara Mettler, a pioneer of Creative Dance through the Mettler Method, regarded dance as a Central Art. She believed that before humans learned to speak, sing, write, or draw, we already knew how to move — to communicate and connect with the world.

Learning dance is not simply about learning beautiful movements. First and foremost, it is about learning how to be human.

It is learning how to be present in your body. How to sense space, time, and rhythm. How to know when to move forward and when to step back. How to listen, interact, and express what words sometimes cannot reach.

More than five years ago, when we brought Creative Dance to Vietnam together with Mettler Studios, USA, we encountered many questions and doubts:

“Why is the teacher so old?”

“Why don't you use music?”

“Why do you have to wear black?”

“Why does every session seem so similar?”

Time has gradually answered these questions.

After nearly five years, many participants have told us that what they discovered was not simply how to dance, but how to be present in every movement of their own bodies.

The Mettler Creative Dance community now includes more than 160 Vietnamese participants from different parts of the country. Each person comes to Creative Dance for a different reason.

• Some education students and young teachers come looking for a more creative language for their classrooms — one that helps children become more confident and makes learning more alive.

• Psychologists and therapists learn dance to discover another way of accompanying their clients when words are no longer enough, while deepening their own embodied experience before continuing their journey toward becoming Expressive Arts Therapists.

• Trainers, coaches, educators, and human development professionals explore dance as a way to bring movement into their work — helping people learn through their whole bodies, not only through the analytical mind.

• Doctors and nurses from oncology and mental health hospitals turn to dance as a way to care for themselves after long periods of exhaustion, while holding onto the hope that one day they may bring movement into their patients' journeys toward holistic recovery.

• Dancers, visual artists, and theatre directors return to Creative Dance to temporarily let go of technique and professional identity, reconnecting with the raw emotions of being a naturally alive and authentic human being.

• Women in their sixties and seventies experience, sometimes for the first time in their lives, the freedom of allowing their bodies to move freely. Watching them, I often feel as though they are completing a dream once held by the carefree little girl they used to be — or perhaps by their mothers and grandmothers.

• Women entering perimenopause, carrying hot flashes, insomnia, and hormonal changes, explore gentle organic movement to listen to their bodies, regulate their nervous systems, balance their emotions, and rediscover a sense of inner peace.

• New mothers come to reconnect with a body that has changed through motherhood — and to feel once again that they are not only mothers, but also themselves.

• Many people enter the studio feeling shy or hesitant, shaped by familiar gender expectations. Through movement, they gradually discover that every body has the right to be soft, strong, creatively free, and simply itself.

• Young people from Gen Z, exhausted by screens, academic and work pressures, numbers, and sleepless nights, sometimes come simply out of curiosity. They stay because they rediscover an artist within themselves — someone who can play, listen, and enjoy life.

• And there are those moving through loss, crisis, or profound questions about life. Dance does not erase pain. But it can help them take a deep breath, return to the present moment, and gradually find their vitality again.

YOUR JOURNEY WITH DANCE AT VDMT

In the age of AI, Body Wisdom — our capacity to sense, create, and connect — is becoming more valuable than ever.

At VDMT, you can begin wherever you are:

MỞ | Creative Dance
A 16-week experiential journey to reconnect with your body, move freely, create, and connect. From here, you can continue toward training as a Creative Dance Facilitator through programs in Vietnam and the United States.

Dance/Movement Therapy
Begin with individual Dance/Movement Therapy sessions, available online or at our studio, to support mental health and emotional well-being.

If you are looking to grow personally or professionally, you can explore our courses in Body Wisdom and Dance/Movement Therapy, and gradually deepen your journey into professional practice and training.

Whether you come to dance for experience, therapy, personal growth, or as a profession, every journey begins with something simple:

RETURN TO YOUR BODY — BECAUSE EVERY CHANGE BEGINS WITH MOVEMENT.