Dance City has collaborated with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM), linking into their partnerships with Northumbria Healthcare, National Health Service Foundation Trust (NNHS) and Linskill Park, Housing 21 in North Shields and Helen McCardle Care in Whitley Bay, on the Movement and Dance project.

The project engaged older people with Dementia and without at the care home to use movement and dance with museum collections & archives to stimulate memory and life experience. The project is linked to the Platinum Programme at TWAM which aims to encourage people aged over 55 to engage with the culture and heritage services.  This unique partnership has taken place with two x 6 week blocks of activity with further ‘movement and memory’ sessions proposed for Sep 2015.

Statistics & Successes

20 people attended the weekly sessions.

Kath Boodhai, Outreach officer for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums said,

“Dance enlivens the process of triggering memory from the museums’ collections and archives. It ‘adds value’ to reminiscence work and encourages sociability amongst older people”

 

Sylvia Lowes, Older Person’s Health & Well-being Occupational Therapist from North Tyneside Hospital was full of praise for the project. She said,

“Dance enables people to reconnect with their youth.  It is a way of bringing people together to help overcome feelings of social isolation and low mood.  People have fun together, and dance is the ideal activity to maintain and improve their health and wellbeing.”

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