Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Community dance is a project that has spread throughout the UK since the 1990s, trying to incorporate and unfold diversed people in society, including immigrants, disabilities, elders, homeless people, and juvenile delinquents. delinquents. Community dance is defined as an activity to stimulate local community by using the power of dance. It also applies to various fields such as education, health, and welfare. For this research, we held the workshop of practicing community dance for local elders, aiming to improve their social health at Tendo City in Yamagata Perfecture. In Japan, community dance for children and people with disabilities has been widespreading, but few for the elders. From the perspective of community health care, physical activity and interaction with others are important for the elders. During the workshop, the participants made various expressions and movements freely, which were brought out by listening to instrumental music and some tools that reminiscent of old local festivals dance. There were 33 participants, the average age was 75.6 years, and 90% were women. From the interviews afterwards, participants said, “I moved a lot,” “I laughed more than usual,” “I talked a lot with other people,” and “I felt fine.” Community dance is not a typical health promotion exercise for the elders. This dance workshop provided the elders with more opportunities to actively engaged in exercise, which made them feel physically competent and appreciated interaction with others. Community dance workshop could contributed to the improvement of social health.