Staff across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are being given the chance to dance at the Tramway in Glasgow – thanks to a collaboration with Scottish Ballet.
The event will be part of the Healing Arts Scotland Festival in August, and will be the culmination of a programme in which Scottish Ballet has been working with the NHSGGC Arts in Health Improvement programme, with support from the Active Staff team, to provide online movement and dance sessions for staff within the health board and our partner Health and Social Care Partnerships.
As part of preparations for the festival, Scottish Ballet came to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in April, to film staff alongside representatives from Scottish Ballet, and Community and Health Dancers from Scottish Ballet’s neurological and youth programmes as they performed a specially commissioned routine to celebrate the power of the arts to connect communities and bring arts and health together.
Before their performance, the participants had learned the routine during their online sessions, and the finished product will be part of a one-minute film involving dancers from all over Scotland, to mark the opening of Healing Arts Scotland.
The NHSGGC group will also get the chance to take part in a live dance and music performance at the Tramway – the Glasgow base for Scottish Ballet – on 21st August as part of Healing Arts Scotland.
Jackie Sands, Senior Arts and Health Improvement Leadat NHSGGC, who developed the partnership with Scottish Ballet, has taken part in the Scottish Ballet dance and movement sessions and was one of those to dance at the QEUH in April. She said: “Through our Arts in Health and Active Staff programmes, NHSGGC is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of its staff, and this collaboration with Scottish Ballet has been a particular success.
“Being part of Healing Arts Scotland will be a wonderful experience, and we are keen to get more staff involved. We will be holding more movement and dance sessions with Scottish Ballet, so there is plenty of time for colleagues to come forward and join in the fun.”
Healing Arts Scotland 2024 is a national weeklong celebration of arts and health, delivered by Scottish Ballet in partnership with the Jameel Arts and Health Lab, World Health Organisation, Edinburgh International Festival, NHS Lothian Charity, NHS Glasgow and Clyde, Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland, National Galleries Scotland and multiple Scottish collaborators.
For more information on NHSGGC’s Active Staff programme, go to: Active Staff – NHSGGC
