Senior Women’s Dance: From Pleasure to Emancipation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to capture older adult women’s experience of dance. To this purpose, a qualitative research study was carried out with members of the ‘Gracje’ dance group. The study used Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action as its theoretical underpinnings. The focus was on the models of action and validity claims expressed in language (narrative). In this theoretical framework, dancing activity has been shown as promoting not only physical health and mental wellbeing but also social involvement. Our study has found that, in and through dance, the older adults primarily realised their claims to pleasure, attractiveness, health and emancipation. This has considerably improved their bodily capacity and increased their self-esteem. However, what the older adults themselves find most important is that the realisation of these claims beneficially affects their interactions in family and neighbourly communities and facilitates their engagement in volunteer activities, helping people at risk of exclusion due to age and/or disability.