Beyond health and well-being: transformation, memory and the virtual in older people’s music and dance

Abstract

Research exploring older people and the participatory arts has tended to focus on notions of biomedical impact, often coupled with appeals to evasive notions of ''well-being.'' Rather than suggesting such approaches are invalid, this article proposes the need for their extension and proposes an alternative, critical approach to analysing older people's experience of arts participation. Based on ethnographic participant observation and intensive consultation with a cohort of older people engaged in a programme of creative music and dance, we explore the complex processes and possibilities of transformation that the participatory arts can initiate, examining how performance can create intriguing linkages between past, present and future experiences. Taking a phenomenological approach to the study of memory, recollection, reminiscence and future anticipation, we discuss how arts participation can ''actualise'' potential memories in older participants, examining how and why this kind of expressive activity animates the idea of ''virtual'' selves (after Bergson). Keywords: memory, well-being, temporality, imagined selves, phenomenology, pragmatism, participatory arts.Participatory arts programmes targeting older people have blossomed in recent years, offering increasingly diverse and colourful opportunities for creative engagement among people aged 60 and over (Cutler 2009). Yet despite this rich array of activity, research into participatory arts activity among older people has been largely restricted to somewhat instrumentalist accounts of health and well-being outcomes.1 Whilst the field of critical gerontology has for some time fought against accounts of ageing governed by ''biological determinism and the narrative of decline,'' the majority of ongoing research into older people's arts participation remains focused on impact-driven, biomedical studies (Twigg 2004: 60).This article presents an alternative approach to the study of older people's arts activity, exploring transformational experiences of memory and anticipation among a cohort of older people engaged in a programme of participatory music and dance. Drawing on ethnographic and phenomenological research methods, we argue that important aspects of older people's experiences of arts activity, particularly concerning more nuanced ideas of temporal perception, have been omitted in contemporary literature on the subject. Rather than suggesting that such studies are invalid, this article demonstrates how these approaches require further extension through a type of methodological switch. This revised methodology, whilst acknowledging the biomedical and psychological benefits of arts activity for older participants, takes a phenomenological approach to the theme. We approach the study of memory, recollection, reminiscence and future anticipation among older people via theoretical constructions concerning the temporality of experience, as provided by classical phenomenology. We furthermore couple this theoretical account with 1 A number of substantial lon...

Dancing through life in a changing world: life course, historical time and serious leisure

“…Also, women in the same theme who described how the return to the dance floor was facilitated by dance experiences in youth can be understood as preserving the self over the life course. All the results above on continuity are in line with previous research, putting forth how dance in old age sustains and resumes feelings of continuity over the life course (Araujo & Rocha, 2019;Cooper & Thomas, 2002;Wakeling & Clark, 2015). However, this study points to a more complex pattern.…”

“…Life events such as divorce, widowhood and retirement are central along with friends, available dance classes and defining moments. However, earlier experiences of dance and closely related activities such as music and sports seem to facilitate resuming or starting folk park dance, which is in line with previous research putting forth continuity in the form of reconnections with youth experiences and memories (Araujo & Rocha, 2019;Cooper & Thomas, 2002;Wakeling & Clark, 2015). However, this theme also displays experiences of discontinuity among the former dance goers, for example, the women who saw the surplus of women as a great challenge.…”

“…This article reports on dancing through life in terms of four themes which demonstrate how life events, historical events, social change, and individuals' involvement affect individuals' experiences of social dance through life. While scattered results in previous research indicate that social dance in old age contributes to continuity across the life course through reconnecting with youth experiences of dancing (Araujo & Rocha, 2019;Cooper & Thomas, 2002;Wakeling & Clark, 2015), this study highlights experiences of discontinuity caused by social change, i.e. changes in the folk park dance.…”

“…Cooper and Thomas (2002), who studied ballroom dance in London, reveal how dancing revokes cultural experiences and social codes of the older dancers' youth, thus offering the opportunity to relive earlier experiences. Wakeling and Clark (2015) put forth how dance as participatory art creates links between the past, the present and the future by evoking memories of the past. Araujo and Rocha (2019), who studied dance groups for older people in Brazil, likewise suggest that dance music provides memories of the past.…”

“…Studies of social aspects of dancing show that dance has multiple benefits for older people, such as sense of community, intimacy, esthetics, competence, happiness and being energetic far beyond the dancing (Alfredsson-Olsson & Heikkinen, 2019;Brown et al, 2008;Cooper & Thomas, 2002;Nadasen, 2008;Roberson & Pelclova, 2014;Wakeling & Clark, 2015). However, we still lack knowledge of how early experiences of dance relate to dance later in life.…”