Project Focus
Exploring movement and cultural identity for mental health support.
Supporting Themes
Cultural safety, peer support, belonging, accessibility
About the Project
This co-designed dance project used African cultural dance to support mental and physical wellbeing. The project was delivered by mental health professionals, creative practitioners, and people with lived experience. The sessions focused on shared movement, music, and informal support, helping to build belonging and reduce isolation.
The use of dance transcended language and literacy barriers while building connection, confidence, and creating joy. The project modelled effective cross-sector partnerships between health professionals and communities. Movement became a shared language, one that welcomed difference and allowed participants to engage on their own terms. The environment was emotionally safe and culturally grounded, with trusted facilitators and peers offering encouragement and support.
One woman, recently arrived in the UK as a French-speaking asylum seeker from the DRC, joined Ephrata’s creative wellbeing sessions with low confidence and physical fatigue. At first unsure about the dance-led activity, she slowly began to connect, helped by the African music, cultural familiarity, and warmth of the multilingual team.
Over the following weeks, she danced freely, co-led a warm-up, and shared her own music with the group. She said the sessions helped her feel more like herself and gave her energy and pride.
“I used to hide away. Now I dance like I remember who I am.”
Facilitators observed a transformation in her confidence and mood. She started encouraging others to join, expressed interest in peer leadership, and said she no longer felt alone.
Her story illustrates how identity-affirming creative practice, grounded in cultural relevance and emotional safety, can reduce isolation and support wellbeing for displaced women.
