An Invitation to Connect
Balbir Singh Dance Company: An Invitation to Connect, by Alice Thwaite
An Invitation to Connect
When I first came across Balbir Singh, I was working as the National Centre for Creative Health as the Creative Health Associate for the North East & Yorkshire, keen to explore projects that were being delivered on my patch in order to raise the profile of creative health in the NHS.
Balbir, a dancer with a background in Kathak and contemporary dance, set up Balbir Singh Dance Company in Leeds over thirty years ago. The Company has evolved to develop a large number of cross-artform collaborations, with a focus on working with underserved communities. Balbir returns to the same communities over time, allowing relationships to develop gradually. He was recently awarded an MBE in recognition of his contribution to dance, but as he reflects, art rarely happens in isolation, it grows through relationships.
I was invited to attend a workshop at the Botanical gardens in Durham, as part of the Unmasking Pain project. Unmasking Pain offered alternative approaches to chronic pain without a medicalised perspective, which explored the use of creative interventions in pain management. The workshop was one of a series which brought people together who were living with chronic pain to witness a dance performance and explore their own creativity. What has stayed with me was the gentle nature of the invitation to move, how the musician who accompanied the dancers was able to improvise and respond to the movements of those involved, creating a special atmosphere where people relaxed and enjoyed the moment. The research data has been powerful ‘ I realise I do not need to rely on pain medication now, I can use other methods to take my mind off the pain’
Click here to read the Unmasking Pain Report
This work has led to the Company delivering sessions at St Thomas’ hospital in London as part of their residential INPUT pain management course, with a variety of artists delivering. The approach fits well with the psychologically informed model the clinicians use – Acceptance Commitment Therapy with its emphasis on being ‘open, aware and doing what matters’. Rosie Cruickshank, the Highly Specialist Physiotherapist who works with the artists as part of the programme, said she was struck by the artists’ approach – how skilled they were at inviting people to engage rather than teaching or telling. It has had an impact on both patients and staff. “It was better for me than just talking”. ‘That’s what I think is the power of creativity is like, it’s another form of medicine’. It has supported the staff to try different things, giving patients more options. It has helped staff value creative interventions as part of treatment and has framed pain differently. They noticed that creative activity works well in the group environment, but can also help after the sessions ‘Since the session (I) did some artwork and found it very gentle, very relaxing, very healing’.
Unmasking Pain has had some key outcomes: participants felt more confident in managing pain without medication and reliance on pain medication decreased; walking activity, general health and sleep quality increased and all physiological benefits of the programme were maintained after completion for at least three months; patients Pain Catastrophising Scores (PCS) decreased and they had new ways to articulate and manage pain.
I trust that with the recent publication of Daisy Fancourt’s Art Cure, which explores the huge amounts of evidence of the positive impact that creativity has on patients, will prove we are at a tipping point and that artists will be regularly involved in delivering in health settings in the future. There are estimated to be more than 300 communities in twenty eight countries offering Dance for Parkinson’s programmes globally, reaching over 10,000 patients already. The latest announcement about the new Creative Health Associates programme is an indication that the Integrated Care Boards are beginning to understand the value.
Through this project Balbir has developed a deep interest in how creativity can support health, which is also reflected in working with artists who are living with pain to explore how this impacts their creative lives. It is also reflected in the Company’s work with creative ageing, as Balbir says “We value the knowledge and experience of older artists and continue to work with them, sometimes when they are overlooked or lose confidence to find ways of continued engagement in the arts sector”. A recent major research study (UK Household Longitudinal Study, UCL May 2026) found that active engagement in arts and cultural activities slows biological ageing and offers benefits comparable to weekly exercise. Arts activities have been shown to reduce stress, lower inflammation and improve cardiovascular disease risk.
It is heartening to witness Balbir Singh Dance Company's commitment to those who have least access to the arts, and I am excited to see where the work takes them next.
When I first came across Balbir Singh, I was working as the National Centre for Creative Health as the Creative Health Associate for the North East & Yorkshire, keen to explore projects that were being delivered on my patch in order to raise the profile of creative health in the NHS.
Balbir, a dancer with a background in Kathak and contemporary dance, set up Balbir Singh Dance Company in Leeds over thirty years ago. The Company has evolved to develop a large number of cross-artform collaborations, with a focus on working with underserved communities. Balbir returns to the same communities over time, allowing relationships to develop gradually. He was recently awarded an MBE in recognition of his contribution to dance, but as he reflects, art rarely happens in isolation, it grows through relationships.
I was invited to attend a workshop at the Botanical gardens in Durham, as part of the Unmasking Pain project. Unmasking Pain offered alternative approaches to chronic pain without a medicalised perspective, which explored the use of creative interventions in pain management. The workshop was one of a series which brought people together who were living with chronic pain to witness a dance performance and explore their own creativity. What has stayed with me was the gentle nature of the invitation to move, how the musician who accompanied the dancers was able to improvise and respond to the movements of those involved, creating a special atmosphere where people relaxed and enjoyed the moment. The research data has been powerful ‘ I realise I do not need to rely on pain medication now, I can use other methods to take my mind off the pain’
Click here to read the Unmasking Pain Report
This work has led to the Company delivering sessions at St Thomas’ hospital in London as part of their residential INPUT pain management course, with a variety of artists delivering. The approach fits well with the psychologically informed model the clinicians use – Acceptance Commitment Therapy with its emphasis on being ‘open, aware and doing what matters’. Rosie Cruickshank, the Highly Specialist Physiotherapist who works with the artists as part of the programme, said she was struck by the artists’ approach – how skilled they were at inviting people to engage rather than teaching or telling. It has had an impact on both patients and staff. “It was better for me than just talking”. ‘That’s what I think is the power of creativity is like, it’s another form of medicine’. It has supported the staff to try different things, giving patients more options. It has helped staff value creative interventions as part of treatment and has framed pain differently. They noticed that creative activity works well in the group environment, but can also help after the sessions ‘Since the session (I) did some artwork and found it very gentle, very relaxing, very healing’.
Unmasking Pain has had some key outcomes: participants felt more confident in managing pain without medication and reliance on pain medication decreased; walking activity, general health and sleep quality increased and all physiological benefits of the programme were maintained after completion for at least three months; patients Pain Catastrophising Scores (PCS) decreased and they had new ways to articulate and manage pain.
I trust that with the recent publication of Daisy Fancourt’s Art Cure, which explores the huge amounts of evidence of the positive impact that creativity has on patients, will prove we are at a tipping point and that artists will be regularly involved in delivering in health settings in the future. There are estimated to be more than 300 communities in twenty eight countries offering Dance for Parkinson’s programmes globally, reaching over 10,000 patients already. The latest announcement about the new Creative Health Associates programme is an indication that the Integrated Care Boards are beginning to understand the value.
Through this project Balbir has developed a deep interest in how creativity can support health, which is also reflected in working with artists who are living with pain to explore how this impacts their creative lives. It is also reflected in the Company’s work with creative ageing, as Balbir says “We value the knowledge and experience of older artists and continue to work with them, sometimes when they are overlooked or lose confidence to find ways of continued engagement in the arts sector”. A recent major research study (UK Household Longitudinal Study, UCL May 2026) found that active engagement in arts and cultural activities slows biological ageing and offers benefits comparable to weekly exercise. Arts activities have been shown to reduce stress, lower inflammation and improve cardiovascular disease risk.
It is heartening to witness Balbir Singh Dance Company's commitment to those who have least access to the arts, and I am excited to see where the work takes them next.
Alice Thwaite