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Dancing With Dementia: Exploring the Embodied Dimensions of Creativity and Social Engagement
Pia Kontos1,2, Alisa Grigorovich1, An Kosurko3
1KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Ontario, Canada.
The Gerontologist
|September 10, 2020
Summary
Dance programs like Sharing Dance Seniors foster playfulness and sociability in persons living with dementia, enhancing their self-expression and social inclusion. This highlights the need for wider accessibility of such creative arts interventions.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Creative Arts Therapies
- Dementia Care
Background:
- Residential long-term care increasingly uses dance to improve health and function.
- Limited research exists on dance's role in social inclusion for persons with dementia and their families.
- Dance programs can support embodied self-expression, creativity, and social engagement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the potential of dance to enhance social inclusion for persons living with dementia.
- To investigate how dance programs support embodied self-expression, creativity, and social engagement.
- To analyze the experiences of persons with dementia and family carers participating in a remotely streamed dance program.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative sequential multiphase study of the Sharing Dance Seniors program.
- Analysis focused on 67 persons living with dementia and 15 family carers in long-term care.
- Data collection included participant observation, video recordings, focus groups, and interviews; thematic analysis was used.
Main Results:
- Two key themes emerged: playfulness and sociability.
- Playfulness involved participants immersing themselves in dance narratives and adding personal style.
- Sociability demonstrated how the program's narrative approach fostered connectivity and co-constructed meaning.
Conclusions:
- Dance engagement among persons with dementia is characterized by playfulness and imagination.
- Dance programs can challenge dementia-related stigma and promote social inclusion.
- There is an urgent need to increase the accessibility of dance programs for persons with dementia globally.
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