Project title
Description of initiative
Dance to Health is a programme created and delivered by Aesop Arts and Society. Aesop is a charity that uses the arts to help solve a challenge society faces. Dance to Health is a nationwide pioneering community dance programme for older people. It combines evidence-based falls prevention principles with the creativity, expression and energy of dance. Dance to Health programme uses dance to help people improve or maintain their strength and balance. This is important to ensure they continue to get the most out of life. It also reduces pressure on their health system. Dance to Health was created to demonstrate that an arts intervention can address a major challenge. This prompted a key question: what ingredients must an art program have for it to be taken up by the health system and made available to every patient who could benefit?
Further information on the initiative
Themes: Culture and...
Keywords
Target group
Cultural field
Timeframe
Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
The evidence outlines that Dance to Health offers the health system an effective and cost-effective means to address the issue of older people’s falls. It should be used to help support and encourage effective commissioning; the evidence should be used to help inform health care professionals, national and local organisations, stakeholders and decision makers of the demand for Dance to Health, the programme's success to date, and the impact the programme can have in reducing both falls and the associated costs.