TYPE OF WORK
Participatory theatre, music, dance and cross artform practice.

TARGET GROUPS
Works in urban areas with older people from diverse backgrounds and with different abilities and with people who have profound disabilities and challenging behaviour.

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
UK

COMPANY POLICY
To support sustained engagement by marginalised groups and individuals. The work addresses how people who have been systematically excluded from our society can be supported to reconnect into mainstream cultural life. The practice brings together practitioners, including dancers, martial arts specialists, physiotherapists, actors, directors, speech and language therapists, musicians, visual artists, digital artists and occupational therapists.

Entelechy delivers ACD training to practitioners in the arts, social care and health sectors that addresses the cultural exclusion of marginalised groups.

SCALE OF PROJECTS
Number of practitioners: 1-10
Number of participants: 1-70
Preparation time: 1 month - 3 years
Contact time: 1 afternoon /week - 6hours/day for 18 days

PERMANENT STAFF
David Slater, Director
Rebecca Swift, Combined Arts Director
Julia Honess, Older People's Programme Co-ordinator
Peter Smith, Advocacy Co-ordination
Mara de With, Cultural Consultant

Beyond the Tea Dance (UK, 1999-ongoing)
Entelechy takes a conventional and recognised form, the Tea Dance, and turns it on its head. Older people from different communities, including older African-Caribbean people, elders with learning disabilities, older Latin American people are involved in a weekly programme of arts activities and large scale multimedia music theatre events which take the form into the 21st century. The work gives a context for people from similar generations, who have had very different journeys and life stories, to share their experiences and recognise those of others. Beyond the Tea Dance happens in health and arts centres, in people's sitting rooms, in parks, cafes and community centres. Events create a chance to explore new experiences, new relationships, new aesthetic possibilities, through music, dance, storytelling, encounter and exchange.

Ambient Jam (UK, 1995-ongoing)
Ambient Jam is a multimedia, movement and music improvisation event. Through long-term creative relationships and exchange, a space is created where non-verbal artforms, sensory intelligence, and the spontaneous moment are celebrated. Different arts aesthetics, hidden narratives, and social possibilities arise from the connection between artists, movers , musicians, and listeners with and without complex disabilities and sensory impairments, support staff, and local volunteers. Landscapes shift, wordless stories unfold, and people move through journeys. Ambient Jam is a fortnightly event with an experienced team of visual artists, dancers and live musicians, which aims to establish an open space through improvisation for people to make choices about their own creative actions.

Fear of the Unknown 2
Fear of the Unkown is a series of theatre events devised and performed by a group of older people from diverse communities addressing fears and concerns about growing older in urban areas (South-east London, UK, November-December 2003)