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Theater meets dementia

The opportunity to open new spaces for reflection and action.

Cost

3500.- CHF

Credits

10 ECTS

Language

ITA/FR

Teacher conductors

Rita Pezzati
Professor, Psychologist-psychotherapist

Dante Carbini
Actor, Neo-Reichian Breath/Bodywork

If you are interested in this course, write to us at fc.accademiadimitri@supsi.ch and we will give you more information.

Targets

  • Broadening our gaze to that part of aging that brings with it unexpected changes linked to a trend of cognitive decline but that, as James McKillop says, a person who lives this experience: "I can assure you that, no matter how bad you feel at first, it is still possible to live a quality life even when you have dementia. It may not be the life you had before, but it is a life full of promise..."

  • Recognize that the possibility of interacting with the other in respect of the reception of his condition of Life starts first of all from a dimension of listening to themselves and the promotion of their physical, psychological and emotional balance. This awareness promotes a state of well-being that allows you to access a free and independent space, where you can both feel welcomed and safe together with the other.

  • Find through the comparison with the theatrical and artistic gaze, the possibilities to transmit your own feeling and interact with sensitivity, delicacy, precision and firmness to live together a pleasant and maybe regenerating experience for all.

  • Provide a small set of essential knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease (and other forms of cognitive decline) and the different ways of meeting with people with dementia: thanks to the experiences proposed in this course we will try to build bridges between what we are and offer as a space of tuning and meeting (each with its uniqueness) in welcoming and listening to the expression of their Being of every person affected by dementia

  • Building tools to recognize the identity that persists despite the advance of neurodegenerative disease passing from interlocutor to interrator

To whom it is addressed

  • Social and health workers, doctors, social workers, nursing assistants, medical staff, psychologists, psychotherapists, counselors, animators, specialists in activation and educators eager to introduce in their professional interaction communicative skills enriched by a theatrical and artistic look and a deep listening to themselves.

  • Actors, poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, artists who bring or wish to bring their professionalism in the support of dementia in a polite way to the condition and needs of people living with this condition, to create accurate and sustainable proposals.

  • And also to those who are experiencing at first hand the dementia at the beginning or full-blown, of a close person and are eager to recognize the relational channels still available to interact and acquire communicative skills receptive and expressive necessary both to support one’s own emotional response and to respond adequately in interaction and to seize the opportunities still present in this new proposal of Life.

Methodology

  • Knowledge of the biological, psychological and emotional condition in people with dementia, to understand how the condition of a person with dementia irreversibly changes his life.

  • Exploration of the perception of our own "feeling" also using techniques related to practices of "Neo Reichian breath/ bodywork", which will allow us to explore our breathing space.

  • Comparison with the world of Theatre using some elements of a theatrical pedagogy that will accompany us to the discovery and development of individual expressive skills in interaction with each other.

  • Meeting with professionals of Plastic Art and Music to recognize the gaze and listening from a perspective that integrates in our practice also a wider artistic dimension.

  • Confrontation-direct encounter with people suffering from dementia. A meeting accompanied and supported both in the field and with individual and group supervision.

Duration and calendar

  • The integral path consist of 4 quarterly intensive residential weekends, interspersed with monthly one-day meetings.

  • The total hours comprises practical and theoretical training and the preparation of one’s final work, the form and content of which will be determined during the training period according to the interests and curiosities of each individual participant.

  • The CAS schedules are flexible and can vary between 5 and 7 hours per day depending on the possibilities and needs of conductors and participants.

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