Make a dashed path in Illustrator, each dash it's own path

I'm trying to create a path animation using an svg and a jQuery plugin called Vivus that helps create animated svgs. The problem I'm having is that my path is dashed and since it's only one path, when the script is ran, it connects it in a straight line. I tried creating each dashed line manually but it doesn't look great. My question is, is there a way to make a dashed path and then divide each dashed line into its own path? Or what other way can I achieve this?

Here's the kind of path I'm talking about: Path