Story by Nick Edmondson | Photo by James Woollen
This year we have been exploring ‘dance’, inspired by BBC2’s ‘Our Dancing Town’ and a short video we watched called ‘You said you liked the dancing’ by Janice Parker and Martin Clark which you can view at vimeo.com/52151878
Volunteers visited public dancing venues to see if they would be accessible to people with memory problems. An Awards for All grant helped us pay for trips to City Hall and the Crucible Theatre Foyer with quite small groups of people who use the café. This has increased our confidence to continue regular outings and plan our own events here in Burngreave.
At the Crucible’s free monthly Dementia Friendly Tea Dance the singer, Susan St Nicholas took the hand of a man in our group. His expression came to life as he danced with his arms and shoulders. Soon he was actually standing, which is normally quite difficult. Others were singing and smiling and loved joining in. We have been learning how to safely manage outings despite limited resources. ‘Dementia? Welcome! Café’ is on Wednesdays 11am-1pm at the Furnival, 199 Verdon St, S3 9QQ. Contact Nick Edmondson on 07725 569 380 for more information.