TYPE OF WORK
Dance in community and health settings

TARGET GROUPS

• Integenerational dance in urban settings with high populations of older adults as part of community development and regeneration.
• Integrated dance/music/arts social inclusion projects for children and adults with learning difficulties.
• 
  Hospital work in dementia care and supporting staff in finding new ways of communicating non-verbally.

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
UK, Western and Southern Europe

COMPANY POLICY
To offer accessible opportunities for people of all abilities to participate in dance activities, which build self worth, self confidence and respect for diversity. The organisation facilitates opportunities for building relationships through dance and supports healthy living objectives.

The company has 15 years' experience of delivering training to professionals in the arts and in health and social care settings. The training is often carried out in conjunction with ACD projects thus offering opportunities for professionals to gain practical experience of a new way of working.

SCALE OF PROJECTS
Number of practitioners: 1-8
Number of participants: 5-50
Preparation time: 5-40 hours
Contact time: 6-72 hours

Ranges from two hours per week over several months to an intensive block period over one or more weeks.

PERMANENT STAFF
Diane Amans, Director
Trisha Woodsworth, Administrator
Kath Gooding, Chair of Management Group

Mature Movers (UK, 2002)
Community dance project with older adults. A pilot programme involving local people in a weekly dance session. Participants ranged from independent mobile individuals to more frail people needing support. The aim of the project was to engage people in dance activities, to help with falls prevention, maintenance of mobility and strength, and promotion of well-being. Each session included warm-up exercises, breathing games, creative dance activities and relaxation. Participants were encouraged to develop their own creative movement and time was given for individuals to share the leadership and express their own ideas. After each session there was a social break and participants talked about the experience and recorded their responses in a comments book.

After the six-month pilot, 20 participants were attending regularly. All participants were motivated to work on the activities at home between sessions and were keen to tell other members about the benefits they had noticed. 12 months after the programme started, the group regularly gives demonstrations to other groups of older adults. Following the success of this project older people will undertake training to co-facilitate sessions.

Landscape Rhythms (Greece, 1999)
Cross-cultural dance project involving young people and adults from Greece, UK and Germany. The project leader worked separately with groups in the three different countries and all participants came together for an intensive 10-day residential. The aim was to exchange different cultural traditions and explore responses to different landscapes.

The young people from each country led some sessions and all participants discussed the experience of dancing with people from a different generation and a different culture. Outcomes included cultural exchange visits and, in two cases, periods of study in a different country.

Dance project for young adults with learning disabilities
Taster sessions and weekly workshops. (UK summer-autumn 2003)

Leading Dance with Older People (training for volunteers)
Training course for volunteers funded by South Manchester Healthy Living Network. (UK, summer 2003)

Diane Amans
Freedom in Dance
25 Hawk Green Road
Marple
Stockport SK6 7HU

T/F +44 (0)161 427 5093
E freedom@amans.fsnet.co.uk

“It has improved our relationships with people now we’ve danced with them.”
Support Worker

“Look how I can move up and out of my chair – it’s wonderful.”
Participant in a Mature Movers project

“This different style of leadership has had a big impact on me – it’s more gentle and very empowering for participants.”
Volunteer

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