Dancing during COVID-19 crisis | Dancing for Well-Being

Sadly we had to suspend our group sessions in March 2020 because of the Coronavirus crisis and for 14 long months we tried to find ways to cope. At long last we were able to restart our groups on 17th May 2021. This page tells the story about what went on in Dancing for Well-Being during that difficult time.

We kept in touch with members and volunteers throughout this period with regular phone calls, emails and occasional visits. With some brilliant contributions from everyone in the groups we were able to put together a fun Christmas newsletter to lift our spirits. And, thanks to funding support from NYCC Stronger Communities, we were able to give everyone a small Easter gift.

Among the many sayings being bandied about to give us hope and strength, was a lovely one that is particularly relevant to all of us in Dancing for Well-Being –

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”

To help members and volunteers keep dancing and lift their spirits we successfully applied for funding to provide them with their own bag of colourful props – pompoms, shaker eggs, scarves and ribbon sticks. Now the groups have restarted everyone brings their prop bags with them so we can all enjoy dancing with the props again together.

Here’s Anne Cliff (from the Monday Friends Meeting House group) delighted to be receiving her prop bag from Nicola – Ta da!

We were very grateful to Persimmon Homes, Two Ridings Community Foundation, and Sport England (through North Yorkshire Sport) for the funding that made this possible. And we’d like to say a big thank you to the staff at the Hospital & Medical Care Association (HMCA) in Knaresborough, to the National Lottery, to Localgiving & the Postcode Community Trust, and to Groundwork UK Tesco for their support too.

At home we used our props when listening to music or when we joined in Thursday Zoom sessions. Also, Jackie, Nicola and Jann from our staff team, together with Bilton group volunteer Fiona, filmed some sessions of dances with props so members and volunteers could dance with us any time by clicking on any of the sessions below.

We invited members and volunteers to send us photos of themselves dancing with the props at home.

Here are Chris Matthews from the Friends Meeting House group with her pompoms and Pat Littlewood from the Tuesday Knaresborough group with her ribbon sticks. Keeeep dancing ladies!

And here are Kate (left) from our Friends Meeting House group with her friend Esther (right) taking part in one of our Prop Dances films –

Kate said “The films on YouTube are so convenient for doing whenever you like and the dances are FUN!”. Esther said ” It was challenging, but enjoyable”. Kate often attended our weekly Zoom sessions as well and enjoyed the interaction and social side of these.

We ran Facebook sessions over the Spring and Summer 2020 and these are still available of course, so you can have a go at them now too. Just click on – https://www.facebook.com/dancingforwellbeing/?modal=admin_todo_tour – to get onto our page. Please note that you don’t need a Facebook account to be able to access these sessions. We’ve also put a selection of our favourites below, which you can access by clicking on these links –

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/1237519833251424

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/2726686487440658

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/3112712075458331/

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/3073837492682899

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/2345212469118558

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/694128178085804

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/267508887775522

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/562322181100555

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/159597225308876

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/265527694711418

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/949712735529938

https://www.facebook.com/376754599551498/videos/918716101974568