About the project

Moving Minds sessions explore how dance, with its focus on touch, reciprocity and connection, might facilitate a greater awareness of non-verbal expression and communication in the context of a condition in which spoken language can prove problematic.

The focus during sessions is on playfulness, social engagement and autonomy. Activities are participant-led with the focus placed on the abilities that people have; acknowledging and witnessing individual responses and ways of moving. 

Central to the endeavour of the project is a vision that goes beyond the individual's loss – especially the loss of cognitive and linguistic abilities – but rather sees both personhood and identity in more complex terms of transformation and change.

Dance allows people with dementia to experience their body as a field of activity and affectivity, and can, in response to the right invitation, act as a generative, spontaneous expression of identity.

The Moving Minds project creates unique learning opportunities for neurodiverse communities and challenges societal assumptions and stigma associated with the condition.