We have worked with some wonderful theatre companies and organisations who have helped bring joy onto our hospital wards. We have had live and interactive theatre performances on our Paediatric wards at St Mary’s from Box Tale Soup and Little Angel Theatre who both use the magic of puppetry within their performances. Captain Fantastic helped us continue theatre-based entertainment to children receiving treatment at our trust during the pandemic, through running live virtual magic shows over Zoom.
We also collaborated with our dementia care team and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on an intergenerational project. Arts, gardening and process-drama workshops were delivered with local school children and our Medicine for the Elderly patients, encouraging the two generations to make connections and get creative together!
Akademi
South Asian dance company Akademi’s project Dance Well brings music and dance to care homes, day centres and hospitals. Akademi dance artists visited our patients in an elderly rehabilitation unit, using South Asian dance to complement their physical rehabilitation. The programme aimed to promote greater social engagement and well-being amongst older adults, to increase health and fitness in the aging community and to offer those living with dementia the chance to engage with creative and cultural material.
During the pandemic in order to continue bringing the benefits of dance to our patients, Akademi created a library of recorded dance classes which you can watch here, in our Art Resource Library.