DÒCHAS  

In high-income countries, up to 95% of older adults aged 60 years and above have one or more chronic conditions. Chronic conditions are a key driver of healthcare use and costs, disability, mortality, and reduced psychosocial well-being. Common disease burdens include frailty, pain, sleep disturbance, stress, impairment in activities of daily living, social isolation and loneliness. Dance and Health programmes are increasingly being recommended to support those living with chronic conditions. However, voices of older adults are under-represented, and the creative and aesthetic characteristics of dance are under-researched.

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This doctoral project draws on a framework of multiplicity and embodied becoming to understand (i) participants’ lived experience and (ii) the artistic process of a co-produced dance programme for health and well-being. It is an an arts-based mixed methods study.

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It is hoped that the project findings will inform public health and arts and health policies, as well as serve as a guide for the implementation of future dance and/or arts-based programmes for older adults with chronic conditions.