Happy Holidays from DanceStream Projects!
Photo credit: Nuria Rius
A message from our Executive Director:
Dear friends,
As 2024 draws to a close, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for being a part of our community. This year has amplified to me the importance of cultivating spaces of sustained connection, creative expression and wellbeing, in other words, cultivating the space for dance, for all of us but especially for older adults and people living with dementia.
I am still struck by reflections from people living with dementia joining our Stories in the Moment program for the first time: [The program] allowed me to come out of my isolation, out of my comfort zone. It built my confidence... I normally wouldn't dance in front of people.”
I am reminded how much practicing being in a group body, like we do in co-creative dance serves all of us, not just people living with dementia but those who partner with them in care as well. As one care partner reflects: “[The program] allowed me to dissociate from the constant monitoring. I was able not to just focus on her needs and my high expectations for myself [as her care partner]. I had the freedom to let go a bit.”
In conversation with older adult participants in our programs, I am reminded that at every chapter of our lives, we need to to hone the muscle of togetherness, of being in community. As one participant shared: “We are very close to each other. It is very important, especially [at] our age. We are not separate. We are together. So this is not only dance, this is connection.”
None of us dance through life alone. I want to take a moment to shout out to the DanceStream Projects team without whom none of what we do would be possible. To each of you, thank you! I am blessed to create this life-changing work with you!
I also want to offer my deepest thanks to our champions. Whether through following us, commenting on our posts, joining our programs or making a contribution to our giving campaigns, you are helping us in our mission of sparking brain health and building creative community through dance and movement.
As I look forward into the New Year, I am emboldened by our growing community. I have hope that if we embrace these principles of reciprocity, curiosity, generosity and joy, that what we create together in the New Year will be greater beyond our wildest dreams!
Happy Holidays!
In gratitude and service,
