Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

society. Dance also has a long history of successfully working with hard to reach groups and
building a sense of social cohesion within communities.’
Dance makes an enormous contribution to our physical, social and creative health and well-
being but as stated above it is also increasingly recognised as making a significant
contribution to building social cohesion within communities because of its socially interactive
nature as an artform. This instrumental deployment of dance has created greater employment
opportunity for dance professionals, as we saw in Part Five, but has also led to a growth in
financial resources for the form along with a growing perception of its value.
A recent study commissioned by the Department of Health and the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport, Mental Health, social inclusion and arts: developing the evidence base, has
shown that participation in the arts leads to significant improvements in health, and that it can
also boost self-.esteem, and reduce feelings of isolation and exclusion. The research found
that, ‘participatory arts and mental health activity is evidently a vibrant strand within the wider
English mental health economy. Projects were offering an impressive variety of arts activities
to almost 4,000 people with mental health needs each week.’
Projects up and down the country that involve partnerships between arts and health
professionals are demonstrating real benefits – improving patient self-esteem, helping people
make connections and engendering a sense of community.
Dance plays an important part in this range of initiatives. As the Arts Council England report
on dance and health stated:
‘Anyone can enjoy dancing regardless of their age or background, if they are disabled or
non-disabled, whether or not they have danced before, and whatever their shape and size.
Dance can be done as part of a group or practised alone and can happen in a variety of
places – including social, education, community, arts and health settings. At its simplest,
dance involves moving rhythmically to music. Anyone can do this with benefits to their
physical health.
It has particular appeal to a number of groups that may not readily engage with traditional
sports – young women, older people and culturally diverse groups, for example. Dance can
also provide a good way of introducing people to other forms of physical activity.’
Dance brings a range of well articulated benefits: physical and mental, personal and social
and educational. The creative and collaborative nature of dance leads to these benefits:
• Physical and mental:
o healthier heart and lungs
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