Blog: 'We aim to make our dance sessions accessible, fun and enjoyable'
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year.
October's theme is older disabled people, with the first of the month being the United Nation's International Day of Older Persons.
This week, Fergus Early OBE, Artistic Director at Green Candle Dance Company, discusses his charity’s various projects which help disabled people to enjoy dance.
Fergus’s blog:
Green Candle Dance Company is a charity based in Bethnal Green in the East End of London. For nearly 30 years we have been working with disabled people, both young and old.
Green Candle was, for example, the first company to employ a wheelchair user as a professional dancer, back in the early 90s, and we have worked extensively with deaf children and with children with multiple and complex needs.
Our work with older people embraces every type of physical and mental ability, from active older people to people with profound dementia. Green Candle believes that everyone has a right to experience dance, regardless of their age or ability.
Some examples of current projects show the range of our work.
Our performance group, the Green Candle Senior Dancers, for people over 60, meets weekly to dance and create new pieces which the group performs at venues ranging from the Southbank to local day centres.
Many of the group live with disability such as arthritis and osteoporosis, and some have more profound conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease. None of this prevents their full participation in the class.
Remember to Dance is a weekly dance class for people with dementia still living in the community, together with their partners, carers or companions. Transport from home to the class is provided free for those who need it and people dance in their chairs, if standing is a problem.
We use a range of props to dance with, as well as playing percussion instruments and singing. For many, the combination of enjoyable movement, creative improvisation and social exchange makes this an important landmark in their week.
Green Candle Dance Company video
People living with dementia are often isolated, together with their carers – this session aims to nourish both those with dementia and their carers alike.
The Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has commissioned us to lead a pilot project, Your Move, for people who have recently fallen or are at risk of falling.
Again, these sessions start with the participants seated, but progress to strengthening exercises standing up, often supported by a chair, and end with specially adapted folk dances to improve confidence, weight transfer and balance. Here again, a live musician accompanies the class.
It’s also worth highlighting a specific Green Candle project focuses on our young people. Our most recent professional production, No Fear! - designed for audiences of children aged one to five years old – was made to be equally accessible to deaf and hearing children.
All the songs and dialogue used specially choreographed versions of British Sign Language, alongside spoken or sung words.
As with all Green Candle’s work, we aim to make our sessions accessible, fun and enjoyable. Dance is a wonderful way to enhance the quality of your life, wherever and whoever you are.
Image caption: Remember to Dance participants enjoy a morris dance.
