Footage of dementia sufferers from a Stirling lunch group taking part in a ground-breaking partnership with a professional dancer will be featured at the Let's Dance Festival in the town this weekend.
Members of the Town Break group worked with choreographer and artist Janice Parker for seven weeks before making the film, as part of a residential placement, to explore the impact of dance for dementia sufferers.
The festival based at the MacRobert Arts Centre is the first of its kind devoted to the artform in Stirling, while the project is seen as helping towards Stirling's bid to be the first UK dementia-friendly city, as revealed in the Sunday Herald last weekend.
The reaction of some of the participants to the film itself will also be included. "We showed people the footage of themselves and that was really powerful," Ms Parker explains. "They were amazed, delighted, ecstatic.
"Some had forgotten having the experience, although I suspect there is an emotional memory which remains. We filmed their response and that will be edited into the film."
The scheme involved taking dance to members of the group – some of whom could only participate in a seated position in their chairs – with the choreographer attempting to use it to bridge between her world and that of the dementia sufferers.
She used "dance immersion" to involve participants, and followed that up with workshops where they were led through particular dance movements.
"I took the idea of being in residence quite literally and saw it as a chance to inhabit another world," Ms Parker adds. "I took in images of dance from the past and contemporary dance as well. They were able to experience that dance feeling even if they were sitting down in chairs – people really got that."
The idea seems to have parallels with memory projects such as the acclaimed Football Reminiscence Project which has seen sport used to prompt memory-recovery in Scottish dementia sufferers.
Dance can have similar benefits, Ms Parker agrees, but has another advantage. "It can be a memory trigger, but it is not just about what has happened in the past, but also what is happening right now. It is a non verbal-language – that is something all dance has – which is very relevant for people with dementia."
For those who have difficulty organising other aspects of their lives, thoughts or communication, it can be freeing to surrender to the energy of movement, she adds. Meanwhile, the discipline was able to help challenge prejudice about what people can and can't do, she says.
"As an artist I really like to challenge perceptions of who can dance and what a dancer can be. The creative contribution inspires me as a choreographer."
The festival is part of Get Scotland Dancing, which aims to encourage more people to get active and participate in dance and which is seeing Creative Scotland invest £1.5 million across a four-year period to promote an inclusive celebration of dance in communities across Scotland. It has been running in Stirling since Wednesday, but culminates on Saturday when the dementia short film will also be screened.
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