DISSERTATION DANCE PIECE ON MD.

[morgan oakes]

hi everyone! 

my name is morgan and I'm a third-year at university studying dance and drama. For my dissertation piece and final project, I am creating a narrative movement piece that portrays MD, exploring the beauty of daydreaming but also the addiction and negative effects of MD. 

with this piece, I would like to help raise awareness for MD and bring more insight into it especially through the eyes of people living with it. as I understand it is not a recognized diagnosis on its own. (please correct me if I am wrong on that!) 

for my piece, I would like to ask you guys a couple of questions and was hoping you could message or respond to this so I can have first-hand responses. I would also like to use some of the responses in my piece as a part of the script and to influence my movement. 

for the question I have: 

What do you do to invoke a daydream?

Can music help? If so what type?

What was your reaction to being able to daydream like this?

Do you find it freeing or burdening?

How does time change in a daydream?

Have your experiences been negative or positive or both?

If there was one word to describe MD what would it be?

What would you want to show or tell the world about MD if everyone was listening?

How has your MD been during the lockdown and quarantine? (gotten worse/better/more intense etc) 

my studies show that there is usually some type of repetitive movement to induce a daydream state, like rocking or tapping, etc. in your experience are there any physical movements/gestures/ things you do to induce an episode? 

thankyou so much!

any and all responses will be really appreciated as I hope I can portray the raw and real reality of MD. also if anyone has any more insight/ wants to elaborate on anything please message me! any insight will useful and appreciated! 

[Valeria Franco]

Hello Morgan,

It is nice to know that you are interested in MD, but maybe your approach to this topic is not the most suitable.

While reading, I was wondering: would he ask the same to a group of heroin addicts? Would he be willing to create a narrative movement piece about that?

Maladaptive daydreaming has a very fascinating name... "daydreams" recollect good feelings, artistic temperament, innocent behaviour. But the name is misleading.

Maladaptive daydreaming is an addiction, there's nothing romantic about it. Some people daydream intensely without getting addicted to it and they are fine, some others tend to daydream a little bit too much but they are still in control, others...see their lives slip away.

We are here to talk about all this. And people tend to avoid feeling "studied" or "observed", as this is a safe place, and often the only safe place they have.

Maybe we need to know more about your project and be more involved in what you are doing to help you.
It is very difficult to understand what MD really is, from the outside.

[morgan oakes]

hi there, 

I am very sorry if I came across in an offensive way, my knowledge so far with MD has been through psychiatric studies and research so I'm truly sorry if I wasn't sensitive with my questions, I really meant no offense. 

To answer your question, for many choreography pieces in the arts, especially with dance, similar questions would be asked in that manner and many of my peers have created pieces on addiction and mental illnesses and disorders. i would be very willing to create a narrative piece on addiction as I again think it would be very interesting to explore and understand from an academic and movement analysis.  I think that the arts should show more pieces on what is not being talked about if that makes sense, and also I believe dance shows and connects people in a different language, it can help portray things that are difficult to verbalize and to understand which I think is why many people use subjects that are sensitive such as mental health as themes/stimulus for pieces. 

to give more detail for my project, so far I have only gotten information through a psychiatric side, through a doctors perspective rather than the individuals with daydreaming and I thought it would be much better to hear about it from people experiencing rather than doctors/ psychiatrists, etc communicating what they got from that person if that makes sense. the reason I asked such specific questions such as the music is that that would then influence the music I use in my performance, and for the influence of movement, I would want to recreate that into my dance.  

I really appreciate the knowledge that the name for MD is deceiving in essence, thank you for sharing that with me. 

I hope this helps give a little more insight and again apologize if i have offended anyone in any way, 
Valeria Franco said:

Hello Morgan,

It is nice to know that you are interested in MD, but maybe your approach to this topic is not the most suitable.

While reading, I was wondering: would he ask the same to a group of heroin addicts? Would he be willing to create a narrative movement piece about that?

Maladaptive daydreaming has a very fascinating name... "daydreams" recollect good feelings, artistic temperament, innocent behaviour. But the name is misleading.

Maladaptive daydreaming is an addiction, there's nothing romantic about it. Some people daydream intensely without getting addicted to it and they are fine, some others tend to daydream a little bit too much but they are still in control, others...see their lives slip away.

We are here to talk about all this. And people tend to avoid feeling "studied" or "observed", as this is a safe place, and often the only safe place they have.

Maybe we need to know more about your project and be more involved in what you are doing to help you.
It is very difficult to understand what MD really is, from the outside.