Movement session at Braeburn Care Home!

Earlier this week myself and some of our dancers returned to Braeburn Care Home, this time to lead a movement session!

After our hugely successful performance there in January, the care home staff and I discussed the potential benefits for the residents of a participation session. So I went along, accompanied by 4 of our dancers, to deliver a short movement class.

This was my first time leading a session for care home residents, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect in terms of how the residents would engage with what I'd planned. Going in, I said to the children that our main aim was to get some of them moving a bit...well I can safely say we achieved it!

To my delight, the residents were engaged right from the start. I'd planned for the whole session to be seated, but was delighted to see some of the residents independently getting up so they could move about more. Two highlights for me were hearing them singing along to the music, and our game of Musical Statues at the end!

The children's role was to help demonstrate the movements as well as to help hand out equipment. Speaking to the care home staff afterwards, I was interested to hear they believed the reason the engagement was so high was because of the children. I could have gone alone, but perhaps wouldn't have had the same impact. It seems that having the children there hugely motivated the residents to get involved. Perhaps seeing the children unlocks some childhood memories, or maybe seeing them having fun dancing is the motivation to join in. It's difficult to know for sure, but I do know that the success of the session was thanks to them.

I'm always so proud of how well the children conduct themselves throughout our care home visits. Whilst at the moment they perhaps don't quite fully appreciate the impact they have, we (myself, their parents and the care home staff) certainly do. I'd like to think that our engagement with the community, particularly care homes, is becoming quite normal for them.

Community matters... well done dancers ❤️