The In Cahoots Collective: towards inspirational practice

Coaten R, Pasiecznik Parsons M, Gill B (2024) The In Cahoots Collective: towards inspirational practice.  Journal of Dementia Care 32(6)14.

Richard Coaten, Maria Pasiecznik Parsons and Bridget Gill describe a dance and movement residency run by an international partnership in West Yorkshire.

In Cahoots Collective – moving towards inspirational practice in Creative Health’ International Movement, Music & Dance Residency in partnership with Spectrum People, Wakefield, September 23rd to 27th 2024 https://spectrumpeople.org.uk/ 

In 2023, two arts therapists from the Netherlands – Job Cornelissen (dance) & Jantje Van Der Wurff (music) – applied to and were awarded funding by the Dutch Cultural Participation Fund (DCPF) to work with UK based colleague Dr Richard Coaten (dance movement psychotherapist) on a week-long movement and dance-based residency involving those living with dementia and their carers in West Yorkshire since the county is seen by the DCPF as a beacon of innovative practices in Creative Health. They called themselves the In Cahoots Collective (ICC), having worked internationally together before. Bridget Gill, chief officer of Spectrum People, was to support this and kindly offered the charity as a facilitator to provide the necessary structure and administration. A Made in Wakefield Culture Grant bid was successful. This was ideal, since Spectrum People has strong links with a number of local organisations, people living with dementia, their carers, volunteers and others.

Our Key Objectives

  • Revitalise use of multi-disciplinary practices in this work e.g. use of movement, dance, play and live music.
  • Revitalise importance of intuitive and improvisatory practices in dementia care including performance and performative aspects in what In Cahoots Collective do.
  • Renegotiate shared spaces where we connect and the sensorial channels we use, while maintaining relationship and personhood.
  • Offer training and development opportunities to VCSE and other staff in community settings together with arts therapists, creative health practitioners across all art-forms, especially movement and dance.
  • Explore further opportunities for international collaboration in creative health and well-being practices and particularly between Wakefield, West Yorkshire and the Netherlands.

What happened?

The week began with a masterclass from ICC on the Monday for fourteen creatives. Some were dancers, others art therapists, including one newly qualified dance movement psychotherapist, and activity co-ordinators. This was followed by morning and afternoon sessions for the rest of the week in different locations throughout the district. Each session lasted around an hour and a half. There was an expectation that those attending the masterclass would also attend sessions during the rest of the week. This helped understanding of the work in practice and built confidence regarding the effective transfer of knowledge between training, theory and practice. On the Friday afternoon, there was a moving celebration event of what had been achieved, with 90 plus attenders. Masterclass, sessions and celebration were filmed as a legacy of the week to be shared going forward.

Results

All attending the sessions had an experience very different from a more traditional approach to seated movement and music type work. It also involved song and reminiscence that became woven improvisationally into the emerging themes for each one, each session being unique. In one participant’s words, “It reclaimed nice memories”.

The masterclass laid the foundations for an improvisational approach with a focus on how live music and its strong dynamics, together with rhythmic movement and dance, combine to bring out the “creative” best, including the arts therapists delivering the practice to creative practitioners and other arts therapists from different disciplines:  

I felt growth in us as participants in the masterclass, in the participants of the workshops, and it seemed even in the ways the therapists were engaging!

It was an incredible creative experience, run by talented and inspirational experts that will stay in my memory for a long time.

Of particular relevance: the week was a collaboration between highly experienced arts therapists and creative practitioners, facilitated by a local charity and promoting further engagement, dialogue and collaboration; a successful creative health initiative with people living with dementia and their carers.