Senior Women’s Dance: From Pleasure to Emancipation

Krzysztof Pezdek, Wojciech Doliński and Agnieszka Zygmont
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Krzysztof Pezdek: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland
Wojciech Doliński: Institute of Sociology, University of Wrocław, 50-137 Wroclaw, Poland
Agnieszka Zygmont: Department of Physiotherapy, Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-16

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.

Keywords: older adult women; dance; Habermas; qualitative research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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