Passion in the performing arts: clarifying active occupational participation

Active participation in daily occupations is a vital part of everyday life, social participation and healthy life long human development; however, enablers of active participation are not well understood. Passion, a strong tendency towards an activity that a person finds meaningful and spends a lot of time doing, is a potential enabler. Accordingly, it is important to understand how an individual's passion for a specific occupation plays out across the occupational life course.

To explore the experience of passion across the life course of older adults involved in the performing arts.

Seven older adults involved in, or retired from, the performing arts, who consider themselves passionate about their occupation.

A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to explore, through interviews with older adults, passion for performing arts across the life course.

Emerging themes supported development of an initial theoretical framework explicating active participation and passion. It centers on passion as an enabler of occupational participation through different modes, and suggests barriers to that enablement process.

Findings suggest that passion has an important role in continued active participation in an occupation; however, barriers, such as social and financial, can derail the pursuit of a passionate occupation.