Move with Me

In short

Students developed this idea for an imaginative dialogue with elderly people in care homes during the intensive week in Helsinki, 2021

By Maikki Uotila-Kraatz, Sigurbjörn Ingvarsson and Willette Boersma

Move With Me is a playful but intriguing invitation that asks questions with our dancing movements and could be initiated by the sensory experience of touching an object rather than our partner´s body.  

The participants were invited to hold an object, either a soft, round woolen loop or a hard and dry piece of wood. These objects were connected by a piece of string and each participant could easily feel the tension of the string created by their partner. The smell and tactile experience of the material brought out different reactions in the participants and the dancing pair reacted simultaneously to each other´s movement when a tango-like Finnish folk song was played. 

Various connections were made on multiple levels among the participants whether it was a memory brought out due to the tactile experience of an object, or the physical connection made by the gentle pulling of the string. It was clear that the session offered a sensory experience even to the people who had much difficulty moving.