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Dance-based interventions are offered to diverse populations experiencing various life challenges. A growing number of studies demonstrate how dance has an impact on different health parameters. However, there are a paucity of studies documenting the content and pedagogy of the dance for health programs. This study examines how six facilitators with different backgrounds foster health and wellbeing through inclusive practices in dance among diverse populations with special needs. To highlight their pedagogical approaches, the data collection included ethnographic observations via video recordings, individual semi-structured interviews providing biographical information, 'look-alike' descriptions of each facilitators' in class behaviour, and verbalisation of an activity with numerous details. A thematic analysis of the entire corpus revealed the strategies used by each facilitator to offer dance as an inclusive artistic practice for everybody and the knowledge informing the adaptation of the dance activities. Regardless of the diverse backgrounds of the facilitators, the results show the importance of crafting dance for health practices and framing emerging knowledge to inform future dance programs and, ultimately providing purposeful activity for enhancing health and wellbeing of people living with different needs. Future studies should examine how craft practices might be constructed as a joint interdisciplinary venture.

Dance as an artform touches the biopsychosocial dimensions of people and as such is increasingly used as a vehicle to improve the quality of life of diverse populations in the community. Yet little is known about how dance classes are experienced by marginalized populations. The purpose of this action research was to explore the potential of dance to contribute to the recovery of women having experienced homelessness. The objectives were to describe: (1) the artistic content (the 'what') and the pedagogical approach (the 'how') of the classes; and (2) the experiences of all the people involved in the action research (women, workers at the women's home, dance facilitators and researcher). Over a three-year period, weekly classes were offered in a women's home. Data was collected through individual interviews, focus groups and observations. A thematic analysis revealed eleven categories of dance activities which were subsequently associated with indicators of recovery. The pedagogical approach was driven by a set of values clearly embedded in the classes; the facilitators deployed numerous adaptations to answers the women's needs. Sufficient evidence supports the claim that dance is a promising practice for individual women's process of recovery. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

This qualitative embedded single-case study sought to describe a dance intervention designed for people in stroke rehabilitation. Recommendations from rehabilitation therapists, and the researcher-dance educator's observations of the therapists' work and of patient participation during the intervention were captured and analyzed, from design to implementation, through various techniques, including a validated descriptive checklist from the health field, namely the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR). This methodology enabled us to describe what 'adapted' dance was in this context, in terms of content and pedagogy, and thus to better distinguish such an intervention from the psychotherapeutic models underlying dance therapy. Thirteen rehabilitation themes emerged from the data to inform the dance content (the 'what' of the intervention), while four pedagogical categories subdivided into modalities portrayed the 'how'. These findings suggest a 'more experientially based' intervention distinct from 'more functionally based' therapies. This paper presents the perceived effectiveness/ineffectiveness of the pedagogical modalities from the researcher-dance educator's perspective and highlights the contribution of somatic-sensitive pedagogy. It concludes with some limitations of the TIDieR, such as its weakness in providing detailed and nuanced movement descriptions, leading the authors to recommend the use of complementary audiovisual data that would likely facilitate knowledge transfer.

Different types of dance initiatives are being designed for people across their entire lifespan, and implemented in a wide range of health and well-being settings. The aims of these initiatives are to improve their physical and mental conditions. Research on the use of dance for health and well-being is also rapidly gaining momentum which suggests a need to value and assess the process (the dance intervention) as much as the product (the results of the research). In this position paper, I critically examine some of these issues from my own research experiences anchored in a feminist poststructuralist perspective. Using the apparently simplistic WH questions (what, where, who, when, whose) and examples from my own research, I present an overview of the field and propose some directions to take for the future. Despite the fact that the paper is anchored in the Canadian society, I believe it can find resonance in many different other cultures since the questions being asked are generic and therefore invite for contextual answers.