About Being: a community dance programme for people living with long-term health and neurological conditions
When: Wednesday’s durning term time, 11.00 – 12.45
Venue: University of Cumbria, Calva Building, Carlisle, CA1 2AJ
Fee: £5 per session, care givers free
Please contact Susie before joining a class
Originally About Being ran as two groups, one aimed at those recovering from a stroke, and one for people living with Parkinson’s; however, on suggestion of the two groups, it is now mixed and happily welcomes anyone living with illness or disability.
The programme is for anyone who wishes to explore, create, socialise and take part in exercise that can support their physiotherapy, and bring joy into their lives.
Working in partnership with other professionals, including occupational therapists and physiotherapists, the groups meet weekly at the University of Cumbria. Sessions focus on moving together as a group, supporting people to connect or reconnect with their own bodies. There is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ with movement; everyone is free to explore their own creativity.
Physiotherapy and occupational therapy students from the University of Cumbria support the About Being sessions. This creates a place for shared learning between students, arts and health sectors, and the participants: they teach the students about their lived experience of movement.
In 2021, as the world was coming out of the COVID pandemic, we made our first film with Alice Underwood, Swimming Upstream. This was created at Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s centre in Carlisle, Gosling Syke.
The accompanying poem was written and read by About Being participant, Rachel Beadle.
About Being is supported by North Cumbria Integrated Care Foundation arts programme, Healing Arts and the Cumbria University. It is a development of a 10-week programme of work Susie Tate led on the neurology ward at Cumberland Infirmary as a part of the Reaching Horizons project.
Breathing Space, Dance Art Foundation
We work in partnership with Dance Art Foundation’s dance in health programme, Breathing Space, an ambitious, participatory dance project for disabled children and young people at Hexham Priory Special School in West Northumberland.
Led by Susie Tate, this specialist, well-evidenced, inclusive dance approach fosters children’s creative learning, and supports their physical and emotional health. Staff at the school also take part, helping them to diversify their skills, further enhancing their work with children and expanding the project’s reach. This is especially important in a rural area with limited arts provision.
A film, About Us, documenting the project, celebrates the children’s ideas, stories and achievements. The filmmaker, Alice Underwood, trained as a dancer herself and highlights the beauty of all movement – however small or big it may be.