Helga Deasy
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Breathing, Moving, Being
Creative Movement Project at
​Marymount University Hospital and Hospice
From 2013-2014 Helga facilitated 'Breathing, Moving, Being’, a creative movement project that offered people with life limiting illness at Marymount University Hospital and Hospice in Cork the opportunity to engage artistically and creatively through the language of movement as a medium of expression, communication and connection.
It aimed to enable people 
who are frail and limited in their movements to communicate and express through movement, breath, touch and imagery in order to find connection to self and others. 
Specifically the work focused on:
  • Awakening sensory awareness to support participants into finding a more connected sense of self
  • Creating a communicative space where meeting and exchange takes place through the moving body
  • Providing a platform for older people to express themselves and be recognized for who they are
  • Promoting well-being by reducing stress levels through the calming effect of breath, touch and movement
Focusing on artistic process, context and intent, ‘Breathing, Moving, Being’ followed a person-centred approach in order to meet people where they are in the here and now and to facilitate a meaningful creative engagement.
The central elements of the work included:
  • Movement as creative expression and a form of non-verbal communication
  • Touch as a form of communication and connection
  • Breath as a means to reawaken sensory awareness
  • Imagery as inspiration to discover personal movement ​
‘Breathing, Moving, Being’ supported participants in discovering movements long deemed lost, and they shared images, movements, stories and sensations. Engaging creatively and being witnessed as a whole person rather than a patient, allowed participants to experience a feeling of normality and to connect to the wider fields of their lives.

Participants' comments:
"This is nice, it brings a bit of life back into me"
"There is a lightness in the movement"
"You are transferring energy to me… you see, I’m in a lot of pain, not so much physically, but mentally, and that is just as bad. This music and the movement, it helps take your mind of things, it eases the pain."
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  • Home
  • About
  • Choreography
    • Cura
    • State of Flux
    • Helica
    • Erin Connolly and the Children of Lir
    • Past Tundra
    • When I'm here, I remember you
    • Longing Belonging
    • Traces of the Hand
  • Socially Engaged Dance
    • Selected Projects >
      • Of Bluebells and Butterflies
      • To Motherhood
      • Up to the Elbow
      • Twisted
      • Nelken Line
    • Dance and Health >
      • Creative Enquiry: Arts & Older People
      • Fuse Arts & Health
      • Breathing, Moving, Being
    • Dance in Education
  • Contact