{"value"=>"<p> <span class=\"title\">My Personal Song of Songs: a Creative and Spiritual Journey With Anna Sokolow</span></p> <p>This paper reviews the history and practice of the art of dance in the West over the last two millennia. The thesis has a general focus on the use of dance as a means of healing, and its specific use to support the author's personal dance experience and its effect on his own therapeutic transformation. The author discusses his self-exploratory process while working and performing with the early modern dance pioneer Anna Sokolow on her choreographic adaptation of The Song of Songs. Three personal aspects are explored: 1) The reconnection of the author with this therapeutic tool, his body, after an unacknowledged body trauma in the form of surgery. 2) The author's spiritual return to Judaism and how the creative process helped him to integrate his beliefs into his identity. 3) The easing of the mourning process over a partnership, and the subsequent freeing of the author's ability to love.</p>"}