Embodied Agency Through Play: Rethinking Participation in Dementia Care
Lunchtime Sessions 1
17 November, 2026 1:20 – 2:05 pmElectronic Posters
Elaine Harvey is the founding director of Moving Minds and a creative practitioner rooted in arts for social justice. With over 25 years’ experience as a dance and theatre artist, university lecturer, and community practitioner, her work is driven by a belief that creativity can challenge inequalities, amplify lived experience, and reimagine how we understand health and care.
Her practice spans a wide range of settings, bringing people together through collaborative, socially engaged arts projects and creating spaces where movement becomes a way to express, question, and reclaim personal narratives often shaped by illness.
Elaine founded Moving Minds on the principle that people are experts in their own lives. She sees dance not only as a tool for wellbeing, but as a radical, collective act—one that resists narrow medicalised views of the body and opens up more human, inclusive ways of thinking about health, identity, and agency.
Stephen is a state registered occupational therapist with over 35 year experience in working with people with dementia, learning disabilities, children and adults with mental health issues. Much of that time his practice has incorporated dance, music and creative arts. He has been a part of Moving Minds since its inception.
Stephen is currently a senior lecturer in occupational therapy at York St John University and in his teaching, therapy practice and research his passion has been for developing ways of meaningfully connecting with, empowering and enabling people who have dementia and carers. Stephen is also a Dementia Friends Ambassador.
Stephen Wey
Senior Lecturer, Occupational Therapy, School of Health Sciences
York St John University
Stephen is a state registered occupational therapist with over 35 year experience in working with people with dementia, learning disabilities, children and adults with mental health issues. Much of that time his practice has incorporated dance, music and creative arts. He has been a part of Moving Minds since its inception.
Stephen is currently a senior lecturer in occupational therapy at York St John University and in his teaching, therapy practice and research his passion has been for developing ways of meaningfully connecting with, empowering and enabling people who have dementia and carers. Stephen is also a Dementia Friends Ambassador.
Summary
This interactive workshop explores how playful, movement-based approaches can support agency, self-expression and social connection for people living with dementia. Drawing on Moving Minds’ practice delivering dance programmes in community and care settings in the North of England, the session will examine how play and dance create opportunities for participation that are not reliant on memory, language or task completion.