The Dancing Heart™: Vital Elders Moving in Community

Watch the video of our program by CLICKING HERE

Helping to shape the field of Creative Aging

The Dancing Heart is an award winning, evidence-based arts program and a best practice model for working with frail elders. We invite older adults and their family members and caregivers to help co-create a new vision of dance--one that is inclusive of all ages, all bodies, and many different ways of moving, exploring the "language of dance" through movement improvisation, the interweaving of dance and story, and the collaborative development of choreography that draws on their memories and life experiences.  It is designed to to create a sense of community and well-being in participants of all ages, and from all walks of life. We bring The Dancing Heart weekly to long term care facilities, adult day cares, and senior community centers, working most often with elders diagnosed with dementia, where we see improvements in flexibility, energy, balance, memory and socialization of older, frail adults. We have received local and national recognition for our innovative Dancing Heart model.

We are part of the emerging national field of Creative Aging, working alongside professionals in the arts, health care, social service and community development to raise awareness about the importance of creative involvement across the lifespan. Our culture is witnessing a paradigm shift in attitudes related to aging. We are moving away from a model that assumes the inevitability of declining health and isolation toward a strengths-based approach that focuses on potential, vital engagement, health maintenance and prevention, and continued connections to community.

The Dancing Heart is featured in the November 2011 AARP Bulletin article Artists Bring Creative Aging to Care Facilities

In June, 2011, Kairos Dance Theatre was on TPT-Channel 2 for the Minnesota Original show. The segment featured Ida Arbeit's Last performance. It aired on Thursday June 16, 2011 at 7:30pm. You can find it archived after the air date, by searching for the episode: Episode #240 MN Opera Resident Artist Program, Kairos Dance Theatre + Low

In May, 2011, The Dancing Heart™ and Kairos Dance Theatre were filmed for a national PBS special by Leo Eaton called Arts & The Mind. The special is set to air in the Spring of 2012.

In February, 2011, The Dancing Heart™ was featured on WCCO, Minneapolis, MN. You can see and read the story: Minneapolis Dance Company Helps Elderly Dance Again

In the Autumn of 2010, our Director, Maria Genné wrote an article for Animated, a magazine from The Foundation for Community Dance. Read her article HERE

In November, 2008, the Dancing Heart was featured on KTTC-TV, Rochester, MN.  You can still read the story:  Never Too Young to Dance

Watch "The Moment, with Ida"  featuring the late, great, Ida Arbeit.

Read about The Dancing Heart™ in the 2008 Fall issue of the LLI Review.

Kairos Dance Theatre is supported by:

The MetLife Foundation Creative Aging Program is funded by MetLife Foundation and administered by the National Guild for Community Arts Education.

Kairos Dance Theatre's, The Dancing Heart™ program at Struthers Parkinson's Center is supported by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council with funds appropriated by the Minnesota Legislature.

Kairos Dance Theatre is a fiscal year 2010-2011 recipient of an Arts Learning grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008

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