And now for the Real Stars
​
in appreciation of the staff at Memory Care centers who
care for, and dance with, their residents.  And the residents, too.

When the staff at memory care centers help residents dance and sway to the music, they are, along with the residents, the real stars. And they are theologians, too. Dance-movement therapy is one way of practicing open and relational (process) theology. In the moment of dancing, a new future, however momentary, is born, lured by the healing presence of the spirit. The dancing is holy communion.

​Six Benefits of Dancing
​for People with Dementia

​from Samvedna Senior Care​
​

DMT works with people to help them improve their body image and self-esteem. It is a versatile form of therapy founded on the idea that motion and emotion are interconnected. The creative expression of dance therapy can bolster communication skills and inspire dynamic relationships. Various aspects of a dance session, such as the music, exercise, and social components of dancing, may achieve positive effect. Some of the benefits include:
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1) Relaxation: It increases the amount of endorphins in the brain which result in you experiencing a sense of well-being and the rhythmic movements can also help you feel calmer.

2) Mind & Body Connection:  Dance therapy helps ease problematic behaviors such as agitation which is common among individuals with dementia who are frustrated with their changing abilities. It helps individual to calm down, reassuring, boosts self-confidence and self-esteem.

3) Building Motor Skills: It enhances motor functioning helping with balance and coordination. It is also useful for individuals with Parkinson’s as it helps to maintain motor functioning.

4) Communication: It allows the individual to express body language, non-verbal behaviors, and also regulate emotions. It helps to increase confidence, social and communication skills as well as improve self-esteem and over all attentiveness in individuals.

5) Agitation Management: Non-verbal individuals in late dementia often become agitated out of frustration and sensory overload from the inability to process environmental stimuli. Engaging them in singing, rhythm playing, dancing, physical exercise, and other structured music activities can diffuse this behavior and redirect their attention. It stimulates memories and provides opportunities for reminiscence.

6) Emotional Closeness: As dementia progresses, individuals typically lose the ability to share thoughts and gestures of affection with their loved ones. However, they retain their ability to move with the beat until very late in the disease progresses.
Inclusion of DMT in dementia care creates a holistic approach that enhances the wellbeing of the individual. Even if done in a simple way, it transforms the individual from being sad or depressed or in pain to being happy. Like Jill Hayes said,”Even if movement is minimal it can still be full of meaning and expression.”

The Stars
​

I belong to a group of musicians who do singalong music at long term care centers.  These days we sing outside, from patios through windows, to our friends inside the centers; or remotely by zoom.  But always our hope is the same.  We want our friends in the centers, many with dementia of one sort or another, to relax and have a moment of joy, of fun.  Often as we sing a member of the staff - a nursing assistant, an activities director, a cook who's standing by -- will go over to their tables, take their hands, sway with the music, and get them dancing.  Sometimes the dancing is delightfully raucous.  A moment of holy communion, however named.  

I didn’t have a name for the foot-tapping and dancing until I heard about dance/movement therapy or DMT.  That's what the nursing assistants and staff are doing, whatever words they use.  Here's a good description of DMT offered by Erica Hornthal (LCPC) of the Woman's Alzheimer's Society.  
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Ever wonder how we can effectively communicate with individuals who are living with Alzheimer’s disease? It is possible through the use of alternative approaches and therapies. One such therapy called dance/movement therapy can engage, encourage communication, and provide an outlet for self expression...​In regard to individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease, dance/movement therapy has been effective in stimulating social interaction, enhancing mood, reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms, increasing self-awareness and self-expression.

When the staff help our friends dance and sway to the music, they are my stars.  Their pay is shamefully insufficient to the worth of what they are doing.  If remuneration is at all consonant with the worth of their worth, they should be paid much more than, say, a hedge fund manager or investment banker.  Much more.  
 
*

For my part, as an open and relational (process) theologian, I understand dance-movement therapy as a way of practicing process theology.  We process theologians believe that God’s spirit can and does become enfleshed or embodied in moments of joy between people, and that dancing is an occasion for such joy: a moment of holy communion.  It is not simply we the musicians who practice process theology with our friends; it is they who practice it with us.  You can have dementia and still practice process theology; your dancing and smiling is the practice.  There’s a togetherness in the process; we nourish each other. 

This nourishment need not last very long in order to be important.  After all, doesn’t life itself unfold in moments?  And doesn’t each moment pass away as soon as it happens?  That’s process theology.  Here’s my point: when it comes to practicing process theology through dance/music therapy and music-making, thirty seconds is enough, and this thirty-seconds becomes everlasting in its own way.  It is added to the experience of an everlasting Life in whose heart, so I believe, the universe unfolds.  Process theologians speak of this life as God.  Choose any name you wish: Heaven, the Lord, the Universe, the Good.

My fellow musicians do not use the words like God or Spirit to name what is happening.  They just call it having fun with our friends in the assisted living centers.  That’s good enough. What is important is the joy itself, the dancing and the foot tapping.  When the spirit becomes flesh in foot-tapping, when holy communion emerges, the communion itself is its own reward.  Layers of theology can be added, but the proof is in the pudding or, more accurately, the dancing.

- Jay McDaniel, Feb. 7, 2021
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