Care to Dance and Dance to Care: Some Dance to Remember: Lessons from and for Irish dance arising from the introduction of an adaptive Céilí intervention for people living with dementia

Care professionals practice within a number of spaces, sometimes without being aware of the diversity of their work or what they feel comfortable bringing to their engagement with others. The use of self, in all aspects of creativity, connection and personality, is core to the professional identity of care professionals, especially for social care workers and therapeutic activity professionals working in the dementia care sector. While education and training programmes for social care workers usually include at least one module on creative studies, some students and emerging professionals may feel less than confident when engaging in or leading dance and movement-based therapeutic interventions, especially those who may not have an extensive dance background. This paper aims to examine the challenges for facilitators of dance/movement and other arts-based interventions within a social care education programme in Ireland, and how this interdisciplinary research project may influence future directions in education and training.