Dancing with Gertrude

Since September 2023, Fernando Martín, one of the Company's performers, has been running monthly workshops for senior citizens at the Résidence Sainte Gertrude, a social welfare led nursing home in the neighbourhood of Les Marolles in Brussels, where the Company is based. His practice of Shiatsu enables him to gently ease, lighten and loosen the mechanics of the body.

In a circle, the residents harmonise their movements with those of the dancer, who sometimes guides them by touch or by mirroring the movements spontaneously suggested by the participants. He invites them to use dance and movement as a means of communication and of connecting socially: a rocking movement, a touch, a desire to sway to the music, to feel yourself vibrate, pulse and breathe.

This is done to music of their choice, music that often brings back memories and reflects the multicultural nature of the group. So, sometimes, the singing mixes with the dancing, which transforms into pleasure the emotional charge triggered by the combination of gesture and memory.

 

The workshops are run as part of the Théâtre Les Tanneurs mediation project, with the support of the CPAS of the City of Brussels.