Health & Wellness

photo credit Deeply Rooted Productions

Founded in 1995 by dancers Kevin Iega Jeff and Gary Abbott, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater teaches and performs dance as creative expression and community and spiritual healing. Jeff calls it “world class art from a grassroots perspective.”

Working within an African American dance aesthetic, Deeply Rooted explores topics as varied as the Somali civil war and famine, the quest to live in the face of AIDS, and early-twentieth-century African American cultures. Jeff and Abbott’s choreography stresses both technical virtuosity and the deep exploration of character and community. As one dancer explains regarding Deeply Rooted’s Life, which deals with personal struggles to live with AIDS, “I know I’m telling experiences of things I see every day. Right outside these doors, there’s some things about this piece that are going on.”

photo credit Dances for A Variable Population

Dancers dressed in vibrant red move across The High Line, an elevated historic rail line turned public park in Manhattan’s West Side, enticing passersby to stop and look at the beautiful performance. Half of the dancers seem to be young, fit, and professionally trained. The other half move more slowly, some dancing in place, and some sitting. In fact, they are all older adults.

Dance artist Naomi Goldberg Haas founded and directs Dances For A Variable Population (DVP), a dance company whose goal is to erase the borders between dancers and audience through its unique choreography and dance company, comprising adults 24 to 82 years of age.  Haas enjoys site-specific dance performances, which place the audience and dancers of all ages in the same space. She says, “[In these] new conceptions of shared space, we celebrate how dance can be a vehicle for wellness and expression for seniors, persons with disabilities, youth, and regular folk; how dance can change from an ‘under-exposed’ art form in a community to become an active tool for community participation, enthusiasm, and social interaction.”

photo credit Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

“The process of working in the Garden has a therapeutic effect: as the plants grow, so does the self-esteem of the older adult volunteers.”—Director, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens are unique not only for their use of solar and wind energy to enhance sustainability, but also because of their workforce, in which many volunteers are older adults, individuals with disabilities, and at-risk youth. According to Gardens staff, 90 percent of the physical labor is done by volunteers. The Gardens are an invaluable resource to the Cheyenne community, offering all the attractions of a beautiful environment, as well as occasions for structured, meaningful, and healthful activity for members of the community. 

Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) releases Arts Organizations and Public Health, a guide to creating partnerships between art and health organizations. This primer was designed for the arts organization that wishes to initiate programming focused on local health issues, or create partnerships with health groups in order to best meet the needs of the community. Arts Organizations and Public Health identifies best practices of diverse arts organizations from around the United States to inform this work. The best practices can be used as references, and are cited throughout the publication to correlate with text.

Age Friendly Cities

Rapidly urbanizing world populations are also rapidly aging. The number of people aged over 60 worldwide is expected to double from 11 percent to 22 percent by 2050 [i]. The need to adapt cities to meet the needs of an aging population is more important now than ever, and creating connected cities accessible for all ages is an integral part of responding to these demographic shifts. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been at the forefront of fostering responsible policymaking and networking related to aging in cities, and organized its Age Friendly Cities Project [ii] in 2005.