Dance belongs to everyone, but it begins with you I have been allying with diverse communities to facili- tate experiences of dance and movement for 18 years, with over 10 years specifically with communities of older adults and people living with chronic conditions like Par- kinson’s Disease and dementia. My practice is grounded in the concept of creative aging, the idea that “the golden age” of life is a time of rich experience and celebration of life, rather than a time of restriction and retreat. Creative aging in itself is a radical act which counters ageism and ableism. It invites us to recognize the beauty in all types of bodies and amplify our experiences and voices over our life course through creative expression. Dance and storytelling helps us develop those tools and encourage spaces where the voices they empower, thrive. I see dance as a practice that doesn’t just take place on stages by “trained professionals” but in our homes and our communities. A practice that is accessible – to all bod- ies, all ages, all abilities. A practice everybody contributes to, participates in, and receives something from. Thanks to persistent leaders, many of whom have been my mentors either in person or by inspiration, this view of dance is becoming more widely embraced. More of us recognize that dance is something that is inherent in all of us. And it is something that belongs to us, that we have agency in. Famous American choreographer, Alvin Ailey, stated that, “I believe dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.” I believe dance and movement expression is our human right. It belongs to everyone. We deserve opportunities to explore and discover our own movement voices in places where we are seen, valued, where we feel we belong. After we greet each other, in Stories in the Moment , we take some time to turn our attention to our individual bodies through a gradual tuning in and progressive warm up. Self-agency and trust are key underlying principles of a co-creative practice, but it takes time to listen to our bodies, especially as most of us don’t often get enough time to do so. As a result, hearing and feeling our bodies takes more time. So, we begin by slowing down, medita- tively, taking time to check into how our bodies are today before we extend our focus to one another and the group. If we wish to extend a kinesthetic awareness to others, we must first receive space to find that connection within our- selves. This allows for kinesthetic awareness, the sentient and tacit forms of our knowledge and expression, our movement awareness, to take hold and take space. After taking time to tune in and warm up, we begin to extend our focus from individual kinesthetic approaches to a sense of a group body through a dance called Signa- ture Moves. This approach is founded on the idea that if we trust our bodies, they naturally respond to music with movement.
access to this basic human right is characterized by a profound paucity. Relationality is key to meaningful cit- izenship and people living with dementia are not exempt from the right to it nor are they immune to its benefits. For the 50 million people living with dementia globally, this lack of meaningful connection is compounded by the detrimental effects of a progressive disease which can impact affective states, mobility and spatial relationships, and ability to communicate or follow conversations. As a result, people living with dementia inevitably experi- ence shifts in their modes of and capacities for expression, which influence their ability to express and feel connected to the communities around them. Reportedly, persons liv- ing with dementia and their care partners often experi- ence a reduction in size of their social networks and loss of connection with others as the disease progresses. A core practice behind Stories in the Moment is the idea of interdependence. We all have a responsibility to care for one another. And that care, support, and expres- sion can look different in various spaces. This is the power of co-creative practice. It amplifies our human- ity and opens up opportunities for each of us to enter in and see how our contribution has meaning. As public health and ethics researcher Pia Kontos writes: “In the context of cognitive impairment, dance takes on even greater significance given that corporeality becomes the primary means of engaging with the world and with others. Dance provides a unique medium for non-verbal communication, affect and reciprocal engagement which profoundly enables the relational cit- izenship of persons living with dementia.” 1 This underlines the demand for programs that engage with people living with dementia as opposed to only delivering programs at or to them. As highlighted by Dr. Gill Livingston in the pivotal 2017 Lancet Commis- sion article, “Engaging in meaningful and pleasurable activities is hypothesized to improve health and wellbe- ing”. The benefits of these social engagements include “reconnecting individuals to their physical and social environment, supporting self-esteem, building neural connections through complex interactions and promot- ing a sense of role continuity, purpose, or personhood, self-identity, and meaning.” 2 This perspective has powerful ramifications for the challenges we face as a society around how we view peo- ple living with dementia and aging in the United States. We are in desperate need of rewriting social narratives to person-centered systems, which view people not through the metric of what they can produce, but who they are, uniquely and holistically. If we shift the way we attri- bute value to actions and to individuals, we can go a long way to extending the collective feelings of belong- ing and community. Through Stories in the Moment , I
am inviting us to see value in the voices of these individuals and communities who are experts in their lived experience. A care partner and wife of one of the Stories in the Moment participants reflects on this, “What you do and your attitude and acceptance is invaluable. Most of the participants are extremely well educated and many held important positions. Sadly, they feel their losses every bit as much as their partners do. Since they can still think they can still appreciate the arts, music, dance, paintings and sculpture....the arts enrich their days, dementia or not.” In our conversations, she shares how joining in Sto- ries in the Moment , her husband, Marv, feels engaged and that his unique voice matters. “He adores you. He loves to make jokes, even though some of them miss the mark. And he feels valued, which is super important to him.” In fact, Marv’s participation and jokes, often in the forms of brilliant puns or poems, contribute to the atmosphere of each class, mirroring and amplifying the themes we explore. They highlight how one individual’s words join with another’s movements or sounds to collectively create a multi-sensory dance story, which would be merely two dimensional with one voice. A theme and variation – group improvisation and co-creation of a dance story Each class of Stories in the Moment is centered around a theme that guides our creative explorations and drives our collective storytelling. Recently, one of our themes was Sports. “ We can be par-ticular ” (Marv on the theme of sports.) We begin this exploration by seeding ideas inspired by some form of multimedia. Sometimes these are videos compiled around movements and ideas that can guide our exploration. Other times, these seeds are inspired by images that invite deeper conversation in movement, sound and words. Inspired by these media, we explore these ideas in more depth. During our exploration of Sports, I began by guid- ing us in a discussion of three sports that use a ball: base- ball, bowling and basketball.
We all have our “signature move” when music that we enjoy comes on. Some of us bob, some of us snap, some of us clap, some of us push back or lean away but still join in the dance and tap our toes, and some of us jump straight into the disco. Signature Moves invites us to just get moving and take turns to share our movement with one another. This is pivotal for all of us, but especially for people living with dementia. This simple act of Sig- nature Moves begins to create a space where they are the experts, and their voices are the center of attention.
“[Bob] has lost so much control over his life. And I hate that for him. And so when we do dancing in the kitchen, we’ll do movements like you do with us. And he’ll start a movement and I will follow his movement. And so he’s in charge. And then he’ll have this big smile on his face. Because, you know, he came up with the movement, and I’m doing the movement with him.” Creating our own movement and sharing it with one another adds a safe challenge which also sets the stage for the approach we use in our co-creative storytelling, where each individual’s voice is seen, heard, and felt in movement. Together, we assemble them to make our own dance stories. Dance supports an egalitarian space nourishing dignity and value Meaningful connection is paramount for maintaining dignity. But too often for people living with dementia,
Together we explored the movements we make when we play baseball – setting up to bat, hitting the ball, winding up and releasing the ball during a pitch, diving to catch
30
in dance SUMMER 2022 30
SUMMER 2022 in dance 31
In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
unify strengthen amplify unify strengthen amplify
44 Gough Street, Suite 201 San Francisco, CA 94103 www.dancersgroup.org
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker