Verses Versus Adversity
The project also inspires participants to learn 5 minute StorYoga meditation ‘flows’ which aim to move the heart, mind and soul, encouraging people to celebrate the story of who they are and who they can be.
Dancing words and StorYoga
Our creative director was once a world class gymnast, winning a scholarship to train in Russia at the age of 14yrs.
Trouble with arthritis in later life led her to want to develop a form of exercise that could capture her own imagination like gymnastics had, but be gentler on the joints and have a poetic quality to move both body and soul. If this could help her, she knew it could also help the numerous people we work with in our communities, whose poor physical health results in poor mental health (and vice versa) and is further exacerbated by the fact that many of them live in one of the top 2% most deprived areas of the country.
And so StoYoga was developed.
Our Creative Director as a gymnast
Performing at the World Championships
Dancing words in Newlyn gallery
Verses Versus Adversity at a Dementia Conference
StorYoga-succesful pilot
Our Creative Director drew on all her knowledge of gymnastics and traditional yoga, but added to the mix a poetic imagination that could make each ‘flow’ completely original. We were then lucky enough to receive funding from Versus Arthritis and Sport England to pilot the idea and incorporate within it our popular workshop activity of instant song writing.
We had discovered, over the course of 25 years, that being given the opportunity to see one’s ideas turned into instant songs was the one thing that absolutely everybody loved regardless of age, background or ability. People’s joy was palpable and it was often expressed with a little dance of delight during the songs.
We realised that people were dancing without even realising it and that we could build on this to further develop our dancing words/storYoga project and help people discover that exercise can be fun and meaningful rather than being a chore.
Children Ambassadors
To help us, we have enlisted the help of the schoolchildren we are working with. They are sharing what they have learnt with older members of their families and friends inspiring them to get involved in this new form of yoga that brings people together and makes people feel better in mind, body and spirit.
Inspired by our intergenerational CreativiTEA Parties, we are now combining this idea with Verses Versus Adversity- dancing words and StorYoga to create the CreativiTEA Dance programme of events. These aim to bring together all ages in the community, inspiring everyone involved to both move and be moved.
If you’d like to find out more about holding a CreativiTEA Dance in your community, do get in touch!
