Home from Home brings together dancers all aged over 50 in creative collaboration, led by Artistic Director Luca Silvestrini (Protein Dance) to celebrate the talent and creativity of older dancers.
Dancers have devised new work in collaboration with choreographers Alethia Antonia, Alleyne Dance, Laura Anderson, Luke Birch and Molly Wright.
In creating Home from Home, EncoreEast has fostered and developed partnerships between four companies of older dancers and three venues, generating new creative collaborations and exchanges, and increasing the visibility of older people dancing.
Home from Home is devised and produced by EncoreEast; supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, co-commissioned by EncoreEast, DanceEast, The Place and Norwich Theatre.
As part of the ‘Ageing Well Public Talk series’ we are exploring how important it is, over our lifespan, to maintain a well-balanced nutrition and hydration as well as regular physical and social activity in the older age, also known as the ‘Five Pillars of Ageing Well’. As we know we start ageing the moment we are born. It demonstrates more significantly when we reach certain age, the usual benchmark being 65+, but our ageing starts much sooner and the way ageing demonstrates when we are over 65 depends on decisions we have been making over our life span.
The series and related materials such as ‘The Five Pillars of Ageing Well’ (Nutrition, Hydration, Physical, Social and Cognitive Stimulation) became the cornerstones of further engagement with the public, specifically around COVID-19 and the relating self-isolation, which are now available on the Open University website and the Internet.
Creating bridges between communities (in this case: research community researching sometimes in an ‘Ivory tower’ and community of ageing population (for whom it is sometimes very difficult to reach to the findings that ageing related research produced) was the starting point. The overall aim of these series of interventions is to facilitate a step change in user behaviour and support service provision. Self-management and becoming partner in our own health care is an important aspect of these talks. This may have a wider impact in healthcare economies, as ageing and related co-morbidities have a substantial health and economic burden footprint.
I have been presenting the ‘Ageing Well’ Lecture Series in collaboration with Third Age University and Free Time University overseas for the past 17 years and more recently in collaboration with primary care practices, stakeholders and charities in the UK. Currently I am collaborating with Public Health England, Age Scotland, Age UK MK, Public Health Northamptonshire, Camphill MK, Carers in Northamptonshire, UKeMED & Cambridge Medical Academy, East of England Academic Health Science Network and the and Voluntary Health Scotland and other organisations and charities on delivering ‘Ageing Well Public Talks’.
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