Seated dance therapy aims to help quality of life

People with a range of medical conditions and those who are facing health struggles are using seated dancing therapy to help improve their quality of life.

The free sessions, run by non-profit organisation Dancing for Health CIC, use dance both as a physical and a social activity, and are supported and funded by the Sheffield Hospitals Charity.

People affected by strokes, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, neurological conditions, trauma, bereavement, injury and other major life changes can all take part in the classes.

Kay Layton, who has a spinal injury and who attends the sessions, said: "I absolutely love them. I like to get up and stand up and dance, but I can't do it. I love coming here."

The sessions, funded by Sheffield Hospitals Charity, regularly take place at the Salvation Army premises on Psalter Lane in Sheffield, while Dancing For Health runs other classes in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

Tracey Barnes, managing director of Dancing for Health, said the benefits for those taking part in the sessions were significant - and they were also "fantastic" for people with dementia.

"Our musical memories are stored in the part of the brain that is last to go with dementia. So, when you play a song it will trigger those memories," Barnes said.

By adding movement, the benefits were compounded, she explained.

"It actually lights up all the regions of the brain, so it helps that plasticity - and if you put choreographed movement with it, that plasticity is far greater," she said.

Barnes said she had witnessed significant changes in participants with dementia in sessions in the care sector.

"I've seen breakthroughs of residents that were non-verbal actually say words. It's like a switch goes in their heads and the gates open," she said.

Janet Pepler, a group member at the Psalter Lane sessions in Sheffield, had a stroke at home when she was 42 and spent nine months in hospital.

She said her right arm had lost almost all function, but seated dancing was brightening her life.

"It's absolutely wonderful," she said.

"I've got my own dance routine and it has been set to music - to I Will Survive - and everyone does it with me."

Pepler added that the sessions also helped by covering general wellbeing and nutrition advice.

"I'm still here, and that's the main thing isn't it?" she said.

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