Bringing Joy Through Art and Dance

Saturday, January 4th 2025

By: Charlotte Hendrey

Today at Bello Gardens Assisted Living, the residents enjoyed a fun hour of coloring and dancing to music. Coloring is an engaging activity that nearly all the guests can participate in. It calms their minds and also sparks creativity. I have written in previous blog posts about how it is important as a volunteer to be engaged with the guest during activities like coloring. It is equally important to help the guests engage with one another during the activity. For example, today when Ralph was having trouble picking a colored marker, I asked Cesar to show his finished drawing to Ralph to give him some inspiration, which helped Ralph pick the color blue.

On top of that, I like to make fun activities teaching moments for the residents. I ask them if they can name the animals they are coloring, or the colors they are using. For example, I noticed Ralph was having trouble choosing a color for his maple leaf coloring sheet, so I turned it into a teaching moment. I told him about how maple leaves come from maple trees, which is where we get maple syrup. Ralph asked me "what colors are maple leaves?", so I told him about how in the fall they change colors and turn bright red and yellow and orange.

This helps me understand their thinking, which is important for many reasons. First of all, it helps me get to know each guest, which helps me learn how to interact and how not to interact with specific guests. They can have difficulty expressing their thoughts, so talking with them acts as a practice that teaches them to calmly express themselves to me if they want or need something. Even little things like forgetting the name of a color when they are asking for a specific marker can trigger some guests. It's crucial to build trust so that they can let me help them in those situations to avoid frustration.

After we colored, Celma (the care-taker for the guests) turned on some music. We encouraged the guests to stand up and dance with us, and they were delighted to participate. Donna and Ralph held hands and danced together. I danced with Cesar, who seemed to remember all his dance moves.

From what I saw today, dance helps the residents with their muscle memory. Muscle memory is a very strong form of memory that can the brain can access, especially when triggered by music. Certain types of music might trigger the guests' muscle memory, allowing them to remember how they used to dance when they were younger. Music also evidently improves their moods.

Dancing is also an excellent form of exercise for the guests. Charlie, who is sitting on the couch in the middle image, has a hard time standing up or walking. But, he can still move his arms and feet. I noticed that the guests often mirror behavior that they see, and I know that Charlie loves to be included. So I waved my arms in a motion that he was able to replicate, and told him to tap his feet. Soon, Charlie was waving his arms and laughing along with the rest of the guests. At one point, I encouraged the guests to make a dance circle, and together we helped Charlie up and he was able to stand with the help of the other guests.

As I watched the guests laughing and singing and dancing all together, I felt a rush of pure happiness. Bringing people together, whether it is with music, dancing, or coloring, is always a great thing. Their dementia may slow down many aspects of their lives, but they still have fun loving hearts that can be brought together with a little help.