This pilot study explored the role of dance in maintaining and developing relationships between people with dementia, and between people with dementia and those who care for and support them. The project ran a series of dance movement sessions at a day centre in Brighton and Hove. Data was gathered through engagement and observation by researchers and creative practitioners involved in delivering the sessions, through interviews with participants and their carers and from reflections recorded by staff working with the participants.
The findings of the pilot which ran in the early part of 2011 have now been published (see our project reports and findings page). Sitting within the context of the growing body of work on the use of creative therapies with people with dementia, the pilot helps to develop thinking on the use of dance as a communication mechanism and particularly focused on the potential to increase social interaction and to recognise the importance of the relational network in care for people with dementia.
With a small grant from the university's Community University Partnership Project (CUPP) to pay for the creative practitioner's time, research staff time from both the University of Brighton and the University of Chichester and practitioner time from Brighton & Hove City Council, the pilot was an excellent example of collaboration and partnership between academics, creative practitioners, and local authority staff.
If you would be interested in hearing more about the pilot or our interest in this area of research please contact Naomi Smith, Research Fellow in SSPARC at the University of Brighton, telephone 01273 644530, email: nms4@brighton.ac.uk
