The Woman Who Danced Away Her Cancer

It may be a bit new-ageish for some, but more and more people are becoming convinced that art has some profound healing powers. One of the leaders of the art-as-medicine movement is California choreographer Anna Halprin. “For more than 30 years, Halprin has been working out the dynamic of art’s multidimensional power to heal mind and body, which many believe in but few have experienced in such a visceral, immediate way.” Halprin claims to have beaten cancer with an intensive program of painting and dance, and while the medical community isn’t about to give a lot of credence to that particular claim, doctors admit that art does appear to have some sort of as-yet-unexplained benefits to human health.