Dance as Medicine: How DanceBrainRehab transforms wellbeing for vulnerable groups

DanceBrainRehab is an Erasmus+ project co-funded by the European Commission. The project aims to equip dance professionals with neuroscience to work with fragile groups through artistic dance. The dance training program designed in the project targets to enhance wellbeing and quality of life of a wide spectrum of participants, including people with motor, cognitive or mental challenges. The project also evaluated the benefits the dance training may have to the perceptual, motor, cognitive and social skills, and behavior of the participants.

The project was conducted in 2023-2024 and lead by neuroscientist Dr. Hanna Poikonen (WiseMotion Community, Finland), in collaboration with Indie Box (Romania), Ijshaamanka (Italy), Association of Applied Neuroscience Barcelona (ANA BCN, Spain) and with several local associations in four EU countries of the partners. When combining the skills of all partners, our project benefited from an extensive experience and knowledge in the fields of brain research, dance education, dance research and production, somatics and psychology applied to special groups. In this project, our group of experts investigated and put into practice how different methodologies can be implemented to work with people with special needs. Indie Box applied dance, vocal work and somatic methods for people with psychotic illnesses, Ijshaamanka dance and performance for people with autism, Down syndrome or motor challenges and ANA BCN various dance styles to elderly with different stages of dementia. The dance training conducted in our project was highly inclusive engaging people from 15 to 90 years of age, with different motor, cognitive and mental capacities, various cultural backgrounds, including patients, healthcare professionals and families of the patients.

A neuroscience-backed approach to dance for fragile groups

The project ignited from the vision of the partners that care, dance and neuroscience can form the fundamental pillars of a new way of looking at fragile people and enhancing their wellbeing. Our approach to physical, cognitive and mental neurological illness highlights the human being as a whole, with their minds, bodies and rich internal creativity which would bloom in a safe and encouraging social setting. At the same time, the partners were aware about the necessity of creating:

- a strong ensemble of practices in continuous development: to extend, try out and experiment approaches linked to neuroscientific studies, to somatics and to dance improvisation.

• a connective structure between people, involving the present and future generations of professors and students, artists and scientists, pedagogues and psychologists, dancers and theatre people, together with fragile groups of all ages.

The international network, which was formed during the project, creates a link between local institutions of care, associations, universities, dance centers, ONGs, freelance artists, art therapists. The network opens possibilities for collaborations to students, professors, dance artists, pedagogues and healthcare professionals.

The project reflected a need of implementing new protocols adapted to the specificity of each person who lives in a certain country, with a special socio-familiar situation. For example, in Romania there is a big need for alternative methods with psychiatric patients and disabled people. The old protocols and medication are not efficient and don’t give enough support and possibility of a better life to the complex situation of the ill people and their families.

Building a bridge between dance, science, and wellbeing

The project is a part of a larger context, the so called Cultural Welfare, from art to health and from health to art. We applied the theoretical framework called embodied cognition which means that our thoughts and emotions are not separate from our bodies, but they are grounded in our gestures, actions and bodily sensations. The connection of our brains and bodies is reciprocal, interactive and inseparable, and influenced by the social setting we are in. In addition to artistic work, embodied cognition has been applied in scientific research of physical and mental illnesses, and education from childhood to higher education, with results supporting the theory of the mind, body, brain and community as an organism functioning in unison. In such research, anatomy, physiology, cognition and genome meet with experience, emotion, creativity and intuition.

With embodied cognition, we acknowledge the importance of movement for the health of a human being - both on an individual and communal level. Large networks of our nervous system are involved in action - in action observation, preparation, execution and imagination. An action is most of the time automatic, imbricated into an unconscious pattern of thinking, emotion, and perception. Therefore, by bringing awareness to our bodies and changing one element - the movement - we can change the behaviour, internal state, arousal and energy, decision making and problem solving of the person. For us, the central focus is the process of embodiment: to become conscious of your body, of sensations, movements and thoughts as a whole.

Practical tools for dance professionals and a call to action for healthcare providers

In the first stages of our project, all partners gathered frequently online to define what we wanted to achieve with our participants in the dance program.

We defined several core elements:

- strengthening the inner balance and self-perception

- connection with oneself and with us, educators

- positive emotions and emotional expression

- embodiment of emotions, not through descriptions, but through the body

- trusting the body as a valuable instrument to get in touch with the others overall playfulness and resilience 

Through this process, we created a Handbook of Best Practices - a collection of twenty different practices which we have found engaging and beneficial for fragile groups - and a Syllabus, which consists of the key advises and proposals for dance professionals who work or aim to work with groups of special needs. Based on this background work and our 5-day residency with all partners at the Dance House Helsinki, we created an introductory Training Program focusing to the neuroscience of dance, brain-related illnesses and embodied collaboration. 

Together, these three freely available PDF guides form a base for someone looking for inspiration and information on connecting neuroscience, dance and wellbeing for people with special needs. The guides form a collection of support on both practical and theoretical level.

We close the DanceBrainRehab Erasmus+ project with inspiration and a firm belief, supported with some preliminary behavioural evidence, that well-designed programs of artistic dance can support physical, emotional and cognitive wellbeing and quality of life of individuals who belong to different kinds of fragile groups. We strongly encourage public and private social and healthcare institutions, centres and associations to utilise artistic dance in their care work.

TEXT: Prof. Dr. Valentina de Piante (Indie Box) and Dr. Hanna Poikonen (WiseMotion Community).

DanceBrainRehab: Benefits of the Artistic Dance for Fragile Groups is an Erasmus+ project co-funded by the European Commission, and lead by WiseMotion Community (Finland) in collaboration with Indie Box (Romania), Ijshaamanka ricerca cultura festival produzioni (Italia) and Asociación Neurociencia Aplicada Barcelona (Spain).

Biographies

Valentina De Piante for Indie Box is a PhD lecturer professor at the Caragiale University of Theatre and Film Arts U.N.A.T.C. in Bucharest and a Feldenkrais practitioner. As an artist, she applies and extends the Feldenkrais© method and somatic studies in Romania in the educational field, at the university and in numerous performative contexts, working with scientists and artists altogether.

Dr Hanna Poikonen form WIseMotion Community is a neuroscientist, researcher and dancer. Currently, she conducts brain research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Örebro University Hospital. Hanna has developed the WiseMotion method based on her academic research and practice in dance, martial arts and somatic methods.

Monia Mattioli from Ijshaamanka is dancer and choreographer ,artistic director of Alter Art Festival and of the integrated  “DanceIn”Company.With her research in the field of dance applied to people with cognitive or physical dysfunctions, she developed and recorded the Dan.Ce.In. method, she collaborates with the University of Educational Sciences of Macerata , and with IADMS(International Association for Dance Medicine & Science)

Raffaella Crapio from ANA BCN is a professional dancer and choreographer and co-director of Los Escultores del Aire. She graduated in Choreography and Dance Performance from the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, and continues her training with a master's degree in Theatre Therapy. She has always believed in the healing power of art, both on a personal and social level. Throughout her career she has worked with immigrant and refugee children and with people with Down syndrome. As a creator she has created pieces against environmental pollution, against mistreatment and abuse of power. Currently on international tour with “A Skin Poem for Cosy House”, a show that has won several awards. Awarded by the I Lake dance Festival 2018 for her artistic career and social involvement through dance.