Queens community builds brain health through dance

Photo credits: Nuria Rius

On November 1, 2024, over 160 older adults from across Queens joined DanceStream Projects executive director Magda Kaczmarska and dance artist Hilary Brown-Istrefi for a Community Dance Party celebrating Belonging in Action and the many ways we connect to support our Brain Health through Dance.

Hosted by our ongoing community partner, Queens Community House, at the Forest Hills Older Adult Center, this event featured a DJ dance party, brain health trivia and a photo booth during lunch followed by an interactive dance activity and reveal of an original artwork reflecting the conversations we shared across these 6 neighborhoods about dance, brain health and belonging. 

Over the last 4-months, we’ve connected through dance and storytelling with Queens-based older adults and people living with dementia at 6 senior centers across the borough — Jamaica, Rego Park, Kew Gardens, Jackson Heights, Pomonok & Forest Hills, to discuss how we can better support our brain health, dance together, and identify the ways we want to build spaces of belonging in our communities. This Community Dance Party featured reflections of elders on ways we can use dance to create spaces of belonging as we navigate changing brain health. 

We wrapped up the event revealing an art work, created by Chilean artist and dementia advocate Macarena Espina Díaz, amplifying the voices of these diverse older adults and people living with dementia. Our aim is to take both these reflections as well as the massive turn out from the community as an indication that the community recognized the value of dance for their health and wants more access to receive the benefits dance can offer. DanceStream Projects commits to take these messages to council members and other stakeholders to ensure we can grow access to these evidence-based dance programs and ensure everyone in Queens has access to the brain health boosting powers dance can offer for all!

This event was supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall. 

This event was also made possible with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.