- Talking about
- How dance can improve the health and wellbeing of older people
Dancing in Time is an interdisciplinary project bringing together Yorkshire Dance and researchers from our Faculty of Biological Sciences.
Together they demonstrated that participation in contemporary dance can improve the health and wellbeing of older people, helping to mitigate risk factors in order to prevent the injuries caused by falls which can often lead to further health complications.
The project took place in three areas across Leeds and provided new dancing activity for older adults who have little access to dance. It looked at the impact of dance on the health and wellbeing of older adults, especially the impact of their physical activity levels, which is widely accepted as contributing to health and happiness.
Video transcript: Sarah Astill & Sarah Lyon discuss 'Dancing in Time' research project
The research was funded by Leeds Public Health and realised its ambition to investigate the feasibility of implementing a dance programme with a health focus. You can read the research paper, and Yorkshire Dance’s own evaluation report.
Working on a national research programme with the University of Leeds was hugely influential to our organisation for reputational, creative, developmental and sustainability reasons. This was made possible by the excellent researcher who worked for both organisations and who was able to provide essential knowledge, understanding and reflection, as well as exemplary professional commitment.
Further funding of £300,000 was secured through Sport England for the programme to roll out across Yorkshire for a three-year study. The collaboration with Yorkshire Dance will continue and also bringing on board new partners One Dance UK and People Dancing. In January 2018 the project re-launched with three new 10-week programmes in Holbeck, Belle Isle and Holt Park, building on the learning from the earlier research and gathering more data to develop it.