Improvising on the ward: Exploring somatic dance and potential in paediatric health care

This article documents the pilot From Where You Are project, which researched the effects of improvised, somatic dance practice with children and young people on the Neuromedical and Oncology wards of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital (AHCH), UK, in 2008–2009. It considers how the non-judgemental, inclusive and implicitly phenomenological methodology of dance improvisers, whose practice is informed by somatic and environmental approaches, is particularly appropriate and successful in a clinical setting. This is substantiated through an interpretive phenomenological approach, incorporating first-person description and case studies, and provides tangible evidence of the benefits of this practice in paediatric health care.