Woodbury House learn how to belly dance

Residents and care teams at Woodbury House Care Home in Swallowfield, recently hosted a “carry on learning” event for families, friends and neighbours in the local community.

The event, organised by the magic moments club co-ordinators, aims to make lifelong learning a reality by creating a stimulating and engaging programme of activities.

The benefits of continuous learning are well documented. In one recent research study, a group of adults, aged 56-86, tasked with learning three to five new classes weekly for three months saw their cognitive abilities increase to levels similar to those of middle-aged adults.

The event took place on the 26th October and we invited Maria, a belly dancer, and Alisha, a magician, to help us learn something new. Maria is from Reminisce Entertainment and she taught us how to belly dance. Our residents were invited to join in with Maria, she showed us how to move our shoulders with the music to include those who were unable to stand due to mobility. Belly dancing brought smiles to everyone’s faces and filled the room with laughter. Some of our residents were complete naturals and picked it up very quickly!

To help recharge our residents and their guests after a tiring morning, we treated them to some delicious food prepared by our lovely chefs Bimila and Amilcar.

After the interval, everyone was full of energy and ready to carry on learning. Alisha, our magician for the day, was also from Reminisce Entertainment and impressed us all with some amazing magic tricks. We were all blown away! After her performance she shared with us how easy the tricks actually were to create, it was all through the art of deception. We all tried to learn some tricks and master the art of deception so we could be as impressive as Alisha. It was great fun to learn new skills and it’s safe to say we all had a wonderful day!

Samantha Bell, home manager, said “As I walked through the door the atmosphere was fantastic! The residents were dancing along with smiles on their faces, to experience that first hand was special. I would like to thank all of those that made our creative learning event a success for our residents and families.”

Tammy, magic moment's club coordinator, said: “To see everyone enjoying themselves as they danced along with Maria, and the amazement on the faces as Alisha showed us some tricks was priceless. Woodbury House would like to take this opportunity to thanks Lynne and Claire, the organisers at Reminisce Entertainment for their continuing support.”

click here for more details or to contact Woodbury House Care Centre