Chaturangan Indian Dance Health and Well-being projects


	A development initiative for South Asian Dance in the North West

Health and Well-Being projects

2015	Do Not Yet See here.
2014	Fleeting Moments On 4th and 5th of September with support from The Bluecoat, we produced two more shows of Fleeting Moments. On the 4th we presented a performance exclusively for BUPA care homes. Eight BUPA care homes came together to sponsor the performance. This was a new approach for Chaturangan and also for the care sector. The manager of the lead care home Hillside attended and gave us a real boost of confidence. All this was possible for the support and hard work of the activities coordinator Alice Lenkiewicz. I requested freelance arts consultant Sri Sarker to project manage the BUPA involvement part of the project. We thank her for time and expertise to make it a successful partnership. The 5th was our public performance which was graced by the lord Mayor of Liverpool and the Mayoress. We had a good mixed audience representing different sections of the wider community. There were residents of care home, medical centres, students, University lecturers, arts practitioners, community groups, individuals living with dementia and their care partners. People travelled from London, Nottingham and Manchester. Notable absence was from the DAA partners Huge thanks to all artists who gave their time and effort so freely to make the performance a success, particularly Karen Wynne who at a very short notice came to our rescue by providing excellent music for the show. Our usual musician was touring in Europe. We want to extend ur thanks to Eimear Kavanagh for making beautiful props and Kali for stage managing on both days. Creative Dementia Conference, Oxford Bisakha delivered a workshop cum lecture on Dance and Care of Dementia at this conference. Elixir Festival Sadler’s Wells in London organised a three day festival to celebrate dance and ageing. Bisakha was invited to deliver a workshop on Choreographing for Elders. She was assited by Anusha Subramanyam and Kali. The workshop was appreciated by all the participants. Creative Dementia Conference A very interesting and valuable conference for care workers in Somerset was held on 25th October in Wells. It was organised by Alice Allen and Dr Sue Jennings. Dr Jennings is a Churchill fellow and highly respected for her work with People living with Dementia. It was a comparatively small conference but highly informative and offering practical support to the care staff. I had a large group. Many of the participants thought that they will be able to use the ideas introduced in the session. Alice attended my session at the Oxford conference and felt that the workshop ideas will be useful for their participants.She was an excellent host and a very good contact in south of England, I have already consulted her for my work. The participants were introduced to the Fleeting Moment and the dance resource on the Art4Dementia website. Delivering Dignity Conference Throughout last year The Kings College Hospital London, nursing staff have been engaged in a year long initiative to develop good practice for caring with Dignity. The conference was the final event of the project. I feel extremely honoured to get this opportunity to deliver the Keynote lecture to the right group of people who can, and are, making a difference.
2013	Churchill Fellowship Bisakha visited Canada on a Churchill Fellowship to learn about their work in Art and Older people. See here for details. Fleeting Moments Chaturangan presents another culturally diverse cross arts performance as part of Phase II of the Fleeting Moments project. The performance specially welcomes people living with dementia, and their companions, with the aim of enriching their quality of life. This family and dementia friendly, heart warming joyous dance and music performance has evolved in consultation & collaboration with people living with dementia and their companions. Fleeting moments to lift our collective spirits. There will be three short sections of Indian, Chinese and Contemporary dance to live music, with two breaks and opportunities for sensitively led audience participation. This family and dementia friendly performance has evolved in consultation & collaboration with people living with dementia and their caregivers. Artists taking part: Fenfen Huang, Anusha Subramanyam, Mary Pearson, Steve Boyland and Chris Davies. Venue The Bluecoat , School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX Date Friday 27th September 2013 2.00 - 3.30pm Tickets £7/£5 To book please contact Tickets & Information at the Bluecoat on 0151 702 5324 or info@thebluecoat.org.uk See summary here and more information here. See article in Pulse here, page 18. http://issuu.com/sanjeevinidutta/docs/130902_pulse_122_web . The Impact of this artistic initiative for the care of dementia will be evaluated by Julie Hanna. *Chaturangan is delighted that Q-Park are supporting this project www.q-park.co.uk* . We’ll be parking at Q-Park Hanover Street, Liverpool
2012	Pancham : Connect A small conversation to share our experience and evaluation of Pancham. We invite you to join us in conversation about culturally diverse creative activities and its impacts on the wellbeing of the participants and the artists . When …. 12.30 , 11TH January 2012 Where …. LIC Studio ,Bluecoat ,School Le ,Liverpool For programme see here. Ragamala The first of the Ragamala workshops was held in the Dulwich Picture Gallery on 21st and 22nd February 2012. See here for details.
2011	Pancham 2011 Pancham was a 10 session programme of diverse cultural dance, music and activities delivered by Chaturangan with a small group of artists to people in hospice, nursing home and day centre settings. An evaluation was carried out to capture how the programme impacted on people’s health and wellbeing. “I can’t dance like you but I can dance with you!” See here for an evaluation completed in 2012 by Julie Hanna.
2010	Tropical Tales (Care and Cure) Tropical Tales is a cross arts project, the idea is to collect of stories from LSTM (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) and work with a creative team of established artists (painters, poets, musicians, dance and spoken word performers) to produce resource materials; some of this material will be used by local school children and selected material will be published as story cards and innovative digital media, this will initially be available via the Well Travelled Clinic (part of LSTM) and local NHS waiting rooms. Diverse Dance II Chaturangan and Encourage North West (previously known as Dark Horse Venture) supported by St Mary’s Millennium Centre provided divers dance (Indian, Chinese and Black dance) and story sessions. Taster sessions were provided at the Millennium Centre, local care homes and for the local Stroke Support Group and other organisations. The dance sessions was devised for the older people in the community.
2009	daCi, "Dance and the Child International" At the beginning of August 2009 Bisakha travelled to Jamaica to deliver a paper entitled "Homesick for the World" at the daCi 2009 conference. She was accompanied by Chaturangan's regular collaborator Noelle Williamson. See here for copies of the PowerPoint slides used in the presentation. Diverse Dance I Chaturangan and Encourage North West (previously known as Dark Horse Venture) supported by St Mary’s Millennium Centre provided divers dance (Indian, Chinese and Black dance) and story sessions. Taster sessions were provided at the Millennium Centre, local care homes and for the local Stroke Support Group and other organisations. The dance sessions was devised for the older people in the community. Knowsley well-being now Through Indian dance, music & storytelling we addressed the physical and mental well-being of older people in the Huyton, Kirby and Halewood areas of Knowsley. We started with sessions of dance and live music with existing groups who normally do chair-based exercises. As the group responded, we introduced movements that they found engaging and beneficial. Instead of presenting this as an exercise routine, our movements evolved from ideas arising from the stories. In this way the participants were encouraged to think creatively and to contribute their own suggestions for new movements.
2008	Waiting "This is a Chaturangan initiative in response to Liverpool Culture Company's “Story of Waiting” strand in their “Creative Health” programme. The “Story of Waiting” programme is a partnership between Liverpool Culture Company, Liverpool Primary Care NHS Trust, Mersey Care NHS Trust and other Health Partners. It is being delivered by Chaturangan, The Comedy Trust and FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology). As a part of this project Chaturangan is taking multicultural participatory activities including dance music ,visual arts and storytelling to various health settings where people experience different types of stress from waiting . So far the company has taken this work to Royal Liverpool Hospital, Woodlands Hospice in Fazakerley hospital, Creative Alternative ,Southport and children’s Hospice Claire House. As part of this project, the company has also produced a film suitable for screening in‘Waiting Areas’, places in healthcare settings where people are required to wait for services. The film from the project ‘PRECIOUS ‘ made by Gina Czarnecki was installed in two sites in the Royal Liverpool Hospital . Diverse Dance Chaturangan and Encourage North West (previously known as Dark Horse Venture) supported by St Mary’s Millennium Centre provided divers dance (Indian, Chinese and Black dance) and story sessions. Taster sessions were provided at the Millennium Centre, local care homes and for the local Stroke Support Group and other organisations. The dance sessions was devised for the older people in the community. Precious Seminar This was a seminar to view the film Precious which has been showing in areas of the Royal Liverpool Hospital and Broadgreen University NHS Hospitals, and is now installed in the waiting area of the newly opened Biomedical Research Centre. There will be discussion about what we learn about arts and health from this piece of work and its journey as part of Waiting. The morning was chaired by Clive Parkinson, Director of Arts in Health, Manchester Metropolitan University.
2007	Warrington film project Warrington film project for residential homes Warrington Borough Council commissioned Bisakha to create an exercise video suitable for use in residential home, and dance groups for the over-50s. As part of the project Chris Davis and Bisakha worked in residential homes and with local mature dance groups. There will be four films, three suitable for chair-based exercise and one for more mobile participants. The emphasis is on creativity. The films will be webcast when ready. Waiting From birth to death we experience different levels engagement with time. Mostly we do not think about it .Any concern over a health issue brings dramatic change. Suddenly everything stops, and we mark time - minute by minute, second by second. Time looms large and hangs heavy in the waiting rooms of Doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, recovery rooms, labour wards. Its effects can be felt even in the intimate privacy of the homes of individuals waiting for news or a phone call. The time we wait is filled with uncertainty, fear, impatience and low moral.. Waiting takes away our control and along with that our motivation. We put life on hold. We feel scared to hope. The mind is left without an anchor. Art offers dreams, something for the mind to engage with. Art gives permission to enter a world of imagination, where we can again be in control.
2006	Dignity Bisakha provided a one-day workshop for "The Place" theatre.The project looked at working with older people in hospitals. Blythe House See here for details of Chaturangan's performance at Blythe House Day Hospice in Buxton.
Earlier