Communicating Through Unique Creative Dance for Elderly

Korea, which already showed signs of ageing population back in 2000, is one of the countries with the fastest increase in the number of elderly. With the increase of aged persons, who tend to be marginalized within the family as well as in society, issues regarding them have become urgent challenges in Korean society. A section on creative dancing for the elderly was provided for the first time in the arts lecturers training program, and it is highly significant in the sense that it aims to widen the basis for ‘silver’culture to flourish.

New alternatives to rapidly changing culture for the elderly

“Step, step, step! The basic thing about creative dancing is being comfortable. Imagine your body is the body of an elderly person. Look from their perspective. It’s good to repeat a variety of steps repetitiously.” 31 arts lecturers form one large circle. Even after trotting and moving only lightly, their faces are already sweating. These lecturers are participating in ‘Dance with steps’ class, which is being taught as part of a program for lecturers in creative dancing for the elderly. They come up with impromptu dance steps and try hard to come up with easier and more comfortable ways of keeping up with the 3-beat rhythm of ‘walk, run, stop’. Anyone who has experience in teaching the elderly will know, but these days, programs in welfare centers are quite diverse and well-designed, so participants have higher expectations than before. Nonetheless, creative dancing can be an unfamiliar and awkward territory for senior citizens,who tend to be more used to passively following along according to a fixed schedule. “There’s been a lot of traditional Korean dance classes for old people. But when it comes to creative dancing, many thought it would be too difficult. So what we need to do in class is to, first of all, try breaking out of that shell. It might be a little awkward and difficult at first, but after a while, they’ll feel really fulfilled and great. Dancing is not merely for certain groups of people. Approach it with sincerity. It’s your role to make dancing into something anyone can enjoy even the elderly.” Kim Ja-young is a trainer for teachers and she has implemented more than 30 sessions of creative dancing classes for the elderly, at the Gwangju-Jeonla Dance Education Center. She believes that old people are completely capable of creative dancing. She says that because creative dancing is not easy, teachers should not say to think or say creative dancing is unmanageable. “Unlike schools, it’s difficult to maintain continuity with classes in welfare centers. But I would like for you to teach everyone with confidence that they really can make it. It would also be nice if welfare centers can set up a system to connect and access creative dancing for the elderly.”

Time to recognize educational values of creative dancing for the elderly

Since ancient times, Koreans were well-known for their artistic talent. If we look at the moves of old women and men learning traditional Korean dances such as the mask dance, fan dance, small-drum dance, flower crown dance and the scarf dance, it is evident that Koreans indeed like to dance, sing and enjoy themselves. One the other hand, when it comes to creative dancing, the elderly might reject it because only cues are given and the dance has to be self-choreographed. This means that teachers can also become discouraged and have a hard time. Therefore, continuous education that allows the elderly to gain self-confidence especially needed. “Most of the elderly don’t like to move from one spot to another. What should I do then?” “Is free creative dancing realistically possible to teach to old men and women, who are uncomfortable with expressing themselves?” Arts teachers who face the actual challenge of teaching to the elderly face can inevitably have these doubts. The reason peopleare biased that old people will be unable to do creative dancing is simply because theyhave never tried it before and are thus afraid. It is up to the teachers to get these old men and women, who have much richer life experience than the younger generation, to express their inner beauty and to boost confidence. Teachers also have to fix a time, duration and place of a program that will maximize effect and come up with education methods that are different from existing ones. Also, a teacher should always remember to communicate with the participants. “It definitely won’t be easy. But what we should remember is, who’s able to do creative dancing in the first place? It’s not just a specific group of people that are able to do creative dancing. Children, the elderly, men, women – everyone has the right to enjoy it.” Kim Ja-young is truly happy to see that her dance classes for the elderly is paying off. One time, she had given her students “tree” as a theme and then watched them gather in a circle, with some crouching down to become the root and some expressing branches and leaves. Fellow arts lecturers at the training session listened to her experiences and were deeply engrossed in thought. The training program, consisting of 20 sessions, was a time for arts lecturers to contemplate on what they were learning and how they were going to implement what they had learned. Clearly, the program was anoccasion to face and learn new challenges, as well as one to see and feel many things, and as a result,become more enriched.