International Journal of Education & the Arts

Citation: Iranzo-Domingo, M., & Cañabate, D. (2024). Study of a social dance project within a theatrical context for third and fourth age persons. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 25(8). http://doi.org/10.26209/ijea25n8

This article adheres to UN guidelines concerning the Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030) which aim to improve the lives of the older population. The objective of this study is to show how social dance with artistic-scenic purposes for a socially vulnerable group of older adults (third and fourth age) contributes to active ageing from social and health perspectives. The sample comes from a social group for the over-60s years and forms part of an artistic-community project in which participant observation has been carried out for five years. To obtain more data from the sample group, an ad hoc measurement instrument is developed based on a specific literature review on the topic. The results show that dance, group, and stage performance are a vital driver for members. The analysis shows that individual perspectives are higher than group perspectives. The research provides evidence that social dance groups improve motor expressiveness, stimulate the ability to think, memorize and create, among other aspects.