Help Us to deliver Dance 4 Us!

Dance Therapy NZ offers dance and arts therapy programmes for children and adults throughout Auckland with satellite groups in other regions. Its adult dance therapy programme, Dance 4 Us, has been offered since 2013.

Dance 4 Us is a weekly drop-in dance movement therapy group for youth and adults with special needs and disabilities, including Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome and cognitive delays. Dance 4 Us provides engaging and creative activities for youth and adults who are often not able to attend mainstream dance classes, and may not have other opportunities for creative development and expression.

Through shared-movement and dance, Dance 4 Us participants have the chance to engage in a fun physical activity. They are able to explore their own unique talents and creative strengths, while developing their sense of belonging and community identity.

The programme has proved so popular that some participants return week after week and have developed strong relationships with the therapy team and the other participants. The group numbers have had an astronomical increase from 253 attendances in the 2015 financial year to 1,168 attendances in the 2016 financial year - a 361% increase in numbers!

We desperately need funds to add more sessions to meet the demand of 30+ clients per session. The groups run at low cost, but the costs for venue hire, therapist and assistants’ fees, programme co-ordination, advertising and equipment all add up! In fact, it costs around $32,640.72 per year for just two groups -- and with the constant increase in numbers, our wish is to be able to meet our community’s needs by offering more groups so more people can attend!

Here’s what a couple of carers have said about the sessions:

“At Dance 4 Us there is no judgement on people with disabilities/special needs. The people that attend have so much fun. The therapists are awesome.”

“Dance 4 Us is an amazing resource to the community with disabilities. Great to have a programme that is so affordable.”

Here’s a story from a Dance 4 Us Therapist: “During the Dance 4 Us West sessions, clients often enact movement and dance to a story. One of the clients got so excited by this activity that he wrote a script himself and brought it along to a session for the group to dance to. Writing a story was something brand new for him and now the whole group will benefit from his fresh story -- ‘Where the wild things are- revisited’. We will now have a story around his story!”