Reflecting on the Dance On Festival: Yoon Chung Kim
Note from Dance Exchange communications manager, Amanda Newman: Our Dance Exchange team has spent much of the past month reflecting on our recent Dance On Festival—and we’ve invited Festival artists, contributors, and participants to do the same. In partnership with Gay Hanna, a member of our Creative Aging Advisory Board, we’ve invited a couple of students in the Master of Science in Aging and Health program at Georgetown University to reflect on and write about their experience attending the Festival.
Below, we hear from Yoon Chung Kim. Yoon has a background in finance, international studies, and counseling psychology prior to coming to the US. After training as a gerontologist in the Master of Aging & Health program at Georgetown University, Yoon will be continuing to study the health and well-being of older adults at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health this fall.
The World Health Organization describes health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." As one grows older, the opportunities for social engagement, physical activities, and mental exercise diminish due to retirement, narrowing of networks, lack of transportation, limited physical activities, and heightened risk of infectious diseases. During a pandemic, Dance Exchange demonstrated innovative ways to engage individuals of all ages and backgrounds at the Dance On Festival. The Dance On Festival inspired dancers and non-dancers to Dance On to express creativity and resilience through dance and movement in a virtual environment while maintaining health and safety during a global health crisis.
Being a non-dancer, I have to admit I was a little nervous about dancing at the festival. Nonetheless, a couple of hours into it, I discovered myself expressing creativity in ways I had not done in many years. Although my moves and jumps may have been premature, I was able to express myself in whatever way I wanted to and at the same time enjoy the music and interact with people from all over the world. Not only was I engaging in physical activity and socially connecting during the sessions, but I was also exercising my cognitive muscles in choreographing, memorizing my partner's moves, and mirroring them. In response to the prompts, I had to stimulate neural activities to think of ways to express myself through dance and make connections between the past to the present. I was reflecting on and talking about my thoughts and feelings in ways that enhanced my creativity and lifted my spirits.
While some believe creativity declines with age, the paradigm is shifting away from viewing the aging process as a time of loss and challenge to viewing it as a time of resilience, generativity, and asset building. Gene Cohen, a pioneer in geriatric mental health, the founding director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University, and a leader at the National Institute of Mental Health, led the Creativity and Aging Study, revealing that participatory arts programs had powerful positive effects on older adults.
Older adults who participated in the arts programs reported better health, fewer doctor visits, less medication usage, more positive responses on mental health measures, and more involvement in overall activities. Scientists noted an interesting phenomenon in people of midlife and later-life: simultaneous bilateral brain involvement, which enables integration of the left and right hemispheres of the brain as a compensatory response to the needs of the brain. This is just like the brain moving to all-wheel drive. Engagement in every form of art utilizes simultaneous bilateral brain involvement and integrates left- and right-brain capacities. These activities are described as "chocolate to the brain" in the way that the brain savors them.
As a gerontologist, I search for ways to improve the lives of older adults through various means. While honoring the contribution and wisdom of older adults, Dance Exchange encouraged intergenerational participation by involving people of all ages, international connections as I met participants from three continents during my sessions, and engagement from all backgrounds, including people of diverse disciplines and fields. Another moment I will cherish from the Dance On Festival is watching videos of the history and the mission of Dance Exchange. Visiting artists danced together in congregate settings where residents oftentimes feel isolated and lack the opportunity for the warmness of touch. The artists empowered and gave a sense of agency to older adults by inspiring them to express creativity and lead the movement. The residents' faces lit up and brightened the area as they felt connected to the community and the world.
I believe Dance Exchange and its programs will make significant contributions to improving health and well-being in its efforts to include people of all ages, cultures, races and ethnicities, and physical and mental abilities. Furthermore, Dance Exchange will advance preserving the personhood of individuals at all levels of care and promote person-centeredness in all stages of life, enabling individuals to lead a dignified and meaningful life.
References
Cohen, G. (2006). Research on creativity and aging: The positive impact of the arts on health and illness. Generations, 30(1), 7-15.
W.H.O. (1946). Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.