How does your organisation operate?

Through our bold, inventive and ambitious style of working, Impelo has experimented with and challenged traditional definitions of community dance, presenting it in fresh and exciting ways with new partners, participants and audiences.

Our Mission is to connect and inspire individuals, communities and organisations through the joy of dance – empowering diverse voices, curiosity, ambition and lifelong learning. We achieve this through four strands of work:

–  Talent development, investing in and advocating for aspiring, emerging and established dancers, especially from backgrounds which are under-represented in dance;

– Dance Centre programme, a safe, fun and nurturing space for people to show up just as they are and dance with a wide range of weekly dance  workshops and classes, a space to create for Y Nyth (our professional dance network)

– Community projects, co-produced opportunities for and with children and young people, families, differently abled adults and older people – especially those experiencing marginalisation, poor mental and physical health, isolation or who are at risk;

–  Educational programmes in schools, facilitating rich learning opportunities through quality professional dance, interactions with diverse dancers, and training for educators.

Internal and external collaboration is at the heart of our work and members of our small team and wider external network challenge and influence us to achieve the highest quality outcomes in:

• co-creation – sharing power to design projects with participants  and artists
• artistic excellence and pushing to achieve our full potential
• being canny and enterprising – creatively, strategically and financially
• approaching all our work with authenticity, honesty and integrity
• that collaboration is integral to success
• being open to new ideas, new people, new places, and new ways of working
• equality and inclusion for all – speaking out for social change and tackling inequalities

We have Arts Council Wales Portfolio Organisation status (2015-2023). We have delivered our priorities around arts and health, creative learning and inclusion, diversity and talent in new and unexpected (not just because of the pandemic) ways including:

12 residencies for dancers (including new graduates/early career stage, Welsh speaking and POC) as part of our Y Nyth programme for professional dancers – we want Powys to be the best place to grow dance careers

Produced touring dance for families and children like Cell  with Imperial College, Oxford University and Abingdon science centre.

Health and wellbeing for over 60s and people living with dementia

Our current programmes are:

Do Your Thing – weekly programme in Llandrindod Wells – self referral

Improve your cancer Journey – targeted dance and somatic movement – referral pathway PTHB and cancer support

Joio – Dance with people living with or alongside those with a dementia diagnosis and Welshpool, Ystradgynlais, Brecon, Llandrindod Wells – referral Dementia Matters in Powys, Community Connectors, Memory clinics

Joio is a co-produced dance programme for people living with dementia and their carers to improve mental and physical well being in partnership with Dementia Matters in Powys.  The programme was funded through the Y Lab Nourish programme

For 6 years we ran a weekly programme for mobile over 60s in Welshpool, and Llandrindod Wells but in 2019 we started to look more at both the need and the research at different stages of the aging process for over 60’s with an overarching focus on people feeling happier, healthier and better connected and how that would specifically apply for people living in residential care with poor mobility, people living in their own homes or in residential care with decreasing mobility and a dementia diagnosis, over 60’s with a health diagnosis like cancer.

There are particular challenges and needs in Powys for older people which our programme(s) have needed to address.

Powys covers 5180 km2, covering a quarter of the area of Wales with just 26 persons per square kilometre, making Powys the sparsest and most rural county in Wales and among the sparsest in the UK.

26% of the population of Powys is 65 or over with 3% 85 or over this is predicted to increase by 159% by 2036

There are challenges for independent living, especially isolation and loneliness which can increase as people get older. Rural areas can face extra challenges in terms of supporting people to live at home for example the number of people that we support through domiciliary care varies across the county.

There are estimated to be 15,571 people over 50 living alone in Powys in 2015 (ONS, 2015). Age UK (2010) states that research shows the figure of those often or always lonely is between 6% and 13%. 6% in Powys would equate to approximately 1,697 people suffering from loneliness and social isolation; 13% would equate to 4261 (Age UK, 2010). The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) found that loneliness and isolation are common problems amongst older people and that tackling loneliness and isolation is inherently preventative in terms of delaying or avoiding the need for more intensive support.

There is a growing body of research around the challenges facing people with dementia and their carers who live in rural areas.

Joio started as a dance programme co-designed by Impelo, dancers,  partner organisations, participants, staff, volunteers and where appropriate carers and family members to create a regular joyful experience for those struggling to stay active and maintain social connectivity in the 2020/2021 pandemic.

The programme was successful and we wondered could it work as a health intervention, so in this next phase of the programme.   At the start of the programme we had an exciting mix of new and existing partners  (Powys Teaching Health Board, Dementia Matters in Powys and Powys County Council) who had either been part of Joio or have excited by its success and its potential as a scalable health intervention in improving the physical and mental wellbeing of participants and improved quality of life.  We share an interest in exploring what the specific elements of a complex programme might be to ensure replicability and success.

However the project ran faced a number of significant blocks to progressing our original aspirations but helped us to learn a lot more about the context in which we were working:

1. Although there was initial enthusiasm for digital participation which had included adaptation of the programme, specialist equipment and support with technology attitudinal and functional barriers to accessing the programme by people living with dementia in an area which has typically poor broadband proved difficult
2. Whilst we knew that Powys’s older population and those living with memory issues were some of the highest in the UK we had not realised that referral pathways have been identified as the poorest in the UK
3. The impact of COVID on PTHB existing pathways and the priority to rebuild these before innovating services – PTHB is in ‘business critical mode’
4. Because of the vulnerability of people over 70, access to dementia wards and  other sites was not possible.  Online delivery had proven to be inaccessible for people with dementia although it was successful with carers
5. A key ‘project champion’ at PTHB away from her work
6. We learned more about commissioning routes and the barriers to future investment

Overview of social prescribing-related activity

At the moment we consider ourselves socially prescribing curious.  We have spent a time exploring social prescribing as a potential operational model but found that currently in Powys that there are practical, historic and financial barriers for us currently

Our referral pathway is currently primarily through our partnership with Dementia Matters in Powys who are the primary third sector pathway for all those in Powys given a dementia diagnosis.  DMiP are given no funding through the regional partnership for their work but are the primary non pharmaceutical intervention that people with a diagnosis are referred to through social prescribing

Their primary service they provide are weekly Dementia Meeting Centres in the 5 major (over 5,000 people) Powys towns. Meeting Centres are a local resource, operating out of ordinary community buildings, providing warm and friendly expert support to people living at home with dementia – that’s people with dementia and their families and friends. At the heart of the Meeting Centre is a social club where people can meet to have fun, talk to others, and get great help that focuses on what makes life great. Meeting Centres started in The Netherlands 25 years ago and  now operate across Europe.

Meeting centre overview evidence

In response to the ruralality of Powys DMiP have taken an approach which is more expensive but can better respond to local needs and issues for accessing centres i.e. a presence in all ‘major’ towns.  Other rural areas have taken a more centralised approach and there is currently a review of these different models by University of Worcester.

It’s worth noting that if someone from the very south were to travel to the centre of Powys (many other services operate on this basis) it would take 1 and a quarter hours and they would only be able to do so via their own transport.  From north to south Powys the time is around 2.5 hours.

Because DMiP are not funded and an SME it means that their small capacity has the demand of ongoing fundraising to continue their work.

Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations is funded by the Regional Partnership to deliver a social prescribing service ‘Community Connectors.’  Again the rural nature of Powys means that they have taken a ‘local’ and more expensive approach with 8 connectors employed.  After complaints about inaccessibility of the service for people living with dementia a specialist connector was employed until February 2021.  Connectors have no budget and so if they ‘prescribe’ a service there is no payment to the provider.  They do use their enquiries to provide evidence of need which has been used to inform priorities for funding through the Social Value Forum (funding provided through the Joint Commissioning and administered by PAVO) and more recently funding through the UK government ‘leveling up’

Dance is a unique art form by its physicality and some types of dance are recognised in the NERS (exercise on referral scheme).  In Powys the approved provider is Freedom Leisure who are commissioned by and asset transferred their leisure centres from Powys County Council.  We had some discussions with them which were extremely positive but the payment for ‘teachers’ was under 50% of dancer pay rates.  This could be mitigated in a more densely populated area by groups of people but in Powys the pattern is for 1 or 2 referrals per locale and so not financially viable

Impelo is currently core funded by Arts Council of Wales – we use some of this funding to develop and deliver our work with people living with dementia and staff time to develop the partnerships needed to sustain the work in the longer term.

Arts and health is one of the main focuses of our work and we run over 40 programmes and projects a year in this area alone.  We work with between 12 and 25,000 people a year.

Our organisation has the equivalent of 3 full time posts and we need to ensure that not only do we make a difference in our participants lives but also we use our resources wisely.  At this point we have not found an effective way to operationalise ‘social prescribing’ work for us or beneficiaries because of our operational context in Powys.  Although some of these issues will resonate elsewhere in Wales

 

Why do participants take part in your activities? What is your unique selling point?

Primarily people take part in what they now call ‘wiggle with a giggle’ for fun.  The word dance can be intimidating for many people especially those with reduced mobility and or cognitive function and our first ‘tasters’ build trust and confidence – reassuring them that they will have fun and feel ‘better’ and perhaps most importantly their voice will be heard in the sessions and that it will feel supported to develop physically and creatively in the sessions.

We spend a good deal of time deciding on music, themes and what people’s aspirations are for the programme – in popular parlance co creating both programme and evaluation.

The sessions are 1 hour long and have options for both seated and standing participation.  Most programmes are themed by the participants and there is some progression and repetition built in.  The music is a key element of each session.

Whilst they participate for fun they feel the positive results for body and mind.  For people living with people with dementia it also gives the opportunity to share happy times together where often their relationships are day to day carer and cared for – dancing together allows them the space to be a couple again

The relationship between dancers and the groups built over tea, lunch and dancing means that there is great trust developed which supports participants agency/empowerment and choice.

Quality framework Joio

 

What are the outcomes?

What do your participants say that dancing and movement offers to them? Are there different participant outcomes for face-to-face and zoom meetings?

Despite working with individual participants to support access and Digital Communities Wales online delivery had proven to be inaccessible for people with dementia although it was successful with carers.  There were a number of reasons for this including poor rural bandwidth but more importantly functional and attitudinal barriers for people living with dementia that could not be addressed through support.

‘dancing on a Friday keeps me going and happy through the weekend’

 ‘It is so invigorating and great to have another way to connect with people. I didn’t expect to get the ‘buzz’ you feel afterwards. And as well as connecting, you get the health benefits of cardio, stretching and the music makes it fun. It’s a continuous circle of feel-good’

We co created an evaluation which mixed some standardised questions with participants own aspirations.  We found that at the people felt stronger, more confident about their mobility and flexibility and had valued connection and sharing fun times.  There was also an increase in creative risk taking and agency as evidenced by our regular choreography corner where participants lead the dancing

 

What do you do to meet participants’ engagement needs?

We have 2 dancers at each session (live and online).

Online we also had technical support participants and or their carers to attend.  We spent significant time working with participants to identify barriers to digital engagement and where hard/software was an issue also worked with Digital Communities Wales

 

Face to Face and digital we risk assess to ensure that we are dancing safely and do a ‘safety briefing’ having 2 dancers also helps support safe dancing.  Whereas live we might encourage participants to gain confidence to dance on their feet online our sessions were mainly seated.  This was necessary where the participants were in their own homes often with an elderly partner but no lifting support and dancers could not properly assess movement or strength because so much of the body was out of camera frame.

Confidence in standing and moving and moving between seating and standing is important to independence and personal agency and is part of a live situation that it was not possible to focus on safely online

We also had emergency contact if it looked like people were struggling mentally or physically in the session.

A programme block was 1 hour session once a week

In Dementia Meeting centres most attendees have carers or family members with them and we have increased partner dancing

Spending time chatting, having tea and getting to know participants and co-creating what we will do in a session helps us understand and address specific physical or mental wellbeing needs of the group.  It also means that the vital ingredient of trust which will allow people to take creative risks

People living with dementia and often mobility issues often have limited agency so an important part of developing each programme/ co creation is building the trust ensure people are empowered and have agency in the work to put the ‘I can’ into their lives

Music is a key ingredient and spending time getting to know the musical tastes of the group supports both enjoyment, repetition, creative risk taking and physical engagement with dancing

Dancing together is based around both expressive and functional movement

 

Dance Activity Structure

1. Safety talk
2. Circle
3. Upper and lower body warm up
4. Posture consideration
5. Confidence to move from seated to standing – challenge given
6. Easier moving face to face for participants in Brecon
7. Themes have worked well – helps practitioner more than the participants
8. Props a safety blanket
9. Movement vocabulary supports creative risk taking
10. Free-styling but needs time to develop confidence
11. Choreographed routine
12. Choreography corner
13. Freestyle
14. Cool down

 

What is important to you in terms of values?

Holding labels lightly is really important so we can meet with people as they are.  In order to do this and to respond to the room as it is we use the pillars of our practice which are:

‘The Professionals’

We always use professional dancers who are supported in their practice through an ongoing programme of CPD and opportunities for creative growth provided by Y Nyth.  In our work to support transformative change in our participants health, learning and aspirations we bring in specific expertise from the field to help us develop effective creative methodologies (for example physiotherapists or teachers)

‘We Dysgu’

The Welsh word ‘dysgu’ can mean to teach or to learn.  The context is everything.  In the Impelo context ‘dysgu’ means both; we both learn and impart learning as Impelo artists and practitioners.  To this end, we happily seek expertise from partners to expand our knowledge and skills, and to inform programme design.  For example, from world-leading scientific researchers for our sci-dance productions, or health professionals for our Health & Wellbeing programme.

‘Coming to Meet’

It all begins before a session and starts with a conversation – with partners, potential participants, and as dancers and arts producers.  This helps us understand the need, participants’ lived experience and their taste, culture and interest which will inform our co-designed project.

‘The Road Map’

We always use a logic model (or story of change) that sets out our journey, helps us to track progress, manage expectations, and enables us to recognise success or understand how and why we failed.

‘Compassionate Creativity’

Creativity and self expression are woven into the fabric of a session with sensitivity and appropriateness to the ‘dance confidence’ level of the group.  We recognise that rewarding self-expression can be found even in the simplest of taught routines, and is an effective way of nurturing participant confidence which is grown over the course of a project or programme, resulting in more ambitious creative asks or tasks over time.

‘Holding the Space’

We welcome warmly, meeting our dance participants’ minds and bodies just as they are. We are our embodied, authentic selves and we recognise that this ‘transmission’ of qualities, values and ways of being is an effective way for participants (particularly on our training programmes) to learn.

‘Fun at the Front End’

Whilst meticulous research and development goes into the design of our programmes – we always bring in health/education/access expertise to hone dance’s capacity to create change – the participants’ experience is fun and life enhancing.   The fun factor runs throughout the programme – from the way in which it is marketed, the informal and friendly nature of early stage conversations, right down to the way it’s evaluated.

 

What takes a lot of time but is really important?

• Taking time to nurture connection between partners and participants is vital.  Despite the time we took doing this I would say that we could have increased this significantly and would have had real benefit in outcomes.
• We spent time with dancers and physiotherapists developing a safe and beneficial lexicon of dance and movement and also the dancers’ confidence in working with both creative and functional movement.
• The time spent on the reflective journal for the project (dancers and Dementia Matters staff) and the use of an observer helped us to refine the work as we went along
• Cups of tea!  The before and after of a session is vital to build trust and learn what’s working and what’s not.
• Although we did spend a lot of time in looking at published research and talking to experts definitely feel this part of future projects we’ll build in even more time
• Creating spaces of connection and finding a common language with participant through movement and music which increases trust and confidence and outcomes.