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SB Health

A National Centre for Dance Health

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Did you know Scottish Ballet offers innovative dance programmes that can improve health and wellbeing? We are a National Centre for Dance Health and have been creating wellbeing experiences since 2013 – bringing joy across generations in Scotland, the UK and internationally.

The SB Health team engages with communities in Scotland and beyond through our classes, health resources, online programmes and research studies.

The links between the arts and health are long established, not only in creating the environment for good health to flourish, but in supporting people with long term conditions. Scottish Ballet are leading exponents of this approach, and I am immensely proud to be attending and supporting Healing Arts Scotland week to learn more about how we can make the most of this fantastic opportunity to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

Sir Gregor Smith, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer

What do we do?

SB Health is made up of pioneering multigenerational dance programmes that offer creative experiences to improve the health of those involved.

We lift themes and movements from our productions to inspire creativity, nurturing the dancer in everyone, creating space away from diagnoses and life’s challenges.

Scottish Ballet’s Dance Health programme has been made possible by the generous support of Scottish Government, Baillie Gifford (Scottish Ballet’s Neurological Dance Health partner), trusts, foundations, Rose Fund, Sue & Graeme Sloan, and our patrons.

Download our flyer to find out more about what we do and how you can get involved.

SB Health flyer pdf

SB Health flyer plain text

Overview

Watch our film below to learn more about our innovative programmes.

Neurological Conditions

 

Central to SB Health is our dance health strand which includes three programmes for people living with neurological conditions: Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and dementia.

Each class is created and delivered by an award-winning dance health team that is made up of full-time dance education professionals, who have become trained specialists within this area.

Long Covid

 

Long Covid continues to impact the lives of over 150,000 people in Scotland. This programme offers specialist physical and emotional support for people living with long Covid.

Social Prescribing

Scottish Ballet’s approach to social prescribing aligns with Scottish Government’s ‘Realistic Medicine’ approach, acknowledging that there are many circumstances where a non-medical intervention may deliver better outcomes with less risk. We are proud to be partnering with the Health & Social Care Alliance Scotland to explore pathways that seek to place our dance health neurological programmes into mainstream health and social care settings.

We welcome referrals by health professionals to our programmes.

Make a referral

Health and Social Care Professionals

Health at Hand® offers movement based, activity for health and social care professionals to combat physical and emotional stress.

Created in collaboration with NHS Scotland and Scottish Government.

Reduced Mobility

A series of interactive digital dance films and audio resources for people with reduced mobility to enjoy at home, in care homes and in hospitals, or to share with their companions or carers.

Includes a British Sign Language (BSL) resource as part of our project with integrated work from Deaf performer Amy Murray.

Young People

SB Health supports young people in two ground-breaking initiatives.

 

Research and Evaluation

 

To develop and evaluate the impact of our programmes and practice, we work closely with academics, health professionals, partners and people with lived experience across Scotland and beyond.

Established in 2020, our SB Health research committee helps us to maintain rigour across our dance health research and evaluation projects.

Read evaluation reports

Healing Arts Scotland