This week marks Creativity & Wellbeing Week 2026, a national celebrating the vital role that creativity, culture and the arts play in supporting health and wellbeing. This year’s theme, Critical Hope, invites us to think about what helps people and communities not only cope with challenges they face, but imagine something better.
Everyday at DanceEast, one thing is made very clear: dancing is great for you. We see it in the confidence people build, the connections they make, and the joy that movement can bring to everyday life.
Before dance becomes a polished piece of choreography, it already exists instinctively in our daily lives. It can look like dancing in the kitchen with your family, shimmying in the living room while you do the ironing, celebrating good news with a little jump of joy, or losing yourself on a dancefloor surrounded by friends. Movement gives us space to express ourselves, connect with others and step outside the pressures of the day.
Movement = medicine
Evidence increasingly shows that activities such as dancing, singing, reading, and taking part in the arts can help people manage stress, reduce isolation and improve quality of life.
Recent research continues to highlight the connection between dance and wellbeing. A recent study shared by FemTech World explored how women over 40 are increasingly turning to rave culture and dancing as a way to support their mental and physical wellbeing, with many of them describing dancing as “as a way to relieve stress and find emotional support.”
Another study by Professor Daisy Fancourt shows that engaging in arts and cultural activities like dancing, singing, painting, and attending cultural events is associated with a slower pace of biological ageing. Together, these findings reinforce something we witness every day: movement can help us feel freer, calmer, energised and more connected to ourselves and to one another.
Across our wider programme, people from all walks of life build confidence and connection. Creativity, wellbeing and socialising are central to the experience, rather than being treated as an “extra”.
Care to Dance is our creative dance programme for people living with dementia and their carers. It’s delivered in community care settings, and through gentle movement it supports their mobility, coordination, balance and mental wellbeing. Similarly, Dance for Parkinson’s, delivered in partnership with English National Ballet, is a class where people living with Parkinson’s can experience the social and physical benefits of movement in a supportive environment led by specialist tutors and volunteers. We also partner with Inside Out Community on Moving Minds, a relaxed class for adults interested in dance as a tool to support their wellbeing and mental health.
At our Centre for Advanced Training (CAT), young dancers are encouraged not only to train technically, but to experiment, collaborate and make work of their own. Alongside their weekly ballet, hip hop and contemporary classes, students explore practices that support individuality, imagination and wellbeing.
This work also connects to something much bigger. DanceEast is leading Norfolk and Suffolk: Region of Creative Health, a new two-year project supported by Arts Council England and developed with the Norfolk & Suffolk Culture Board. The programme brings together partners across culture, health, social care, education and innovation to make arts and cultural activity more accessible through the systems that already support people’s health and wellbeing. It is the first phase of a ten-year vision to establish culture and participation as core health behaviours across the region, helping more people in Norfolk and Suffolk build healthier lives through dance, music, reading, making and other forms of expression. In the context of Creativity & Wellbeing Week, it feels like a powerful example of Critical Hope in action: not only recognising the value of the arts, but working collaboratively to embed that value where it can make the greatest difference.
Everybody dances
Creativity & Wellbeing Week reminds us just how powerful dance can be as an art form. On stages, in studios, community spaces or shared public places; dance exists all around us. Whether you’re watching or taking part; sharing a space and engaging creatively is deeply nourishing and can support our long-term wellbeing.
At DanceEast, everything we do is rooted in the core belief that dance is for everyone. Still, I occasionally overhear new visitors say, “I’m not a good dancer”.
When I first started my role here, having not come from a dance background, I said the same thing too. This Creativity & Wellbeing Week has helped me reflect on how limiting that label can be. For me, ideas often begin in the body. When I feel stuck, I put on some cheerful music (usually an Earth, Wind and Fire classic), have a little boogie, and the ideas start to flow. Sometimes, that spark comes from watching movement unfold. Each season, we welcome people who may never call themselves “dancers”, but who find connection and enrichment through watching the performances at the Jerwood DanceHouse.
Dance is crucial to our lives, because when we move and are moved, we are supported in ways that really matter.
Move | Be Moved
Explore how you can move and be moved at DanceEast via our What’s On page
What's On
