Dance and Dementia Project

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 dance and dementia project ran between January and March 2011 and offered six weekly dance movement sessions to a group of older people with dementia who attended a local authority day centre in Brighton and Hove. Research findings were published in a report in January 2012. The project used observation and interview techniques and was designed and carried out as a collaboration between academic researchers, creative practitioners and social care practitioners.

The project aimed to:

• explore and understand more about dance as a mechanism for working with people with dementia

• consider the impact of a series of dance sessions on the quality of life for a group of people with dementia, their social interactions and their communication with each other and those who care for them.

• consider whether any learning can be taken forward into changes to practice in providing care and support for people with dementia and their carers.

The key findings from the project were:

• Familiarity with the process and a sense of belonging developed within the group as the sessions progressed and participants became increasingly engaged and confident with the movement.

• The techniques used in the sessions, particularly working with reminiscence and embodied movement, encouraged the recall and expression of memories and allowed insights into the participants as the people they were and are. Interactions between members of the group increased but were not sustained outside the sessions

• The experience of the participants was very positive and there was some evidence from carers that this impact was sustained after the sessions

• Having a private, self-contained space to run the group was a crucial part of its success as was the active involvement and support of the care staff and managers

• The methodology design was good although in a small pilot we were unable to include any audio-visual recording and more visual feedback tools would have been useful.

• The collaborative partnership was key to the success and experience of the pilot

If you would be interested in hearing more about the pilot or have an 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