Resilient Pathway Connections

Resilient Pathway Connections is a project designed to support cancer survivors in West Yorkshire. Resilient Pathway Connections supported and collaborated with breast cancer survivors in West Yorkshire. Balbir Singh Dance Company brought in artists to enhance the recovery experience of the ‘My Breast Cancer Support’ group. The project enabled participants to narrate their lifeexperiences after cancer through their creativity. The company used co-creative methods resonating with their personal experiences to unlock their creativity confidently andfind new forms of expression.

2025 to 2026

Building on the discoveries and lessons learned the past years, we aim to deepen our impact on cancer survivors, patients, and their loved ones through our new initiative, Resilient Voices.
This initiative aims to enhance the holistic recovery experience of cancer patients and survivors, co-create new resources to empower patients, and expand support networks for minority communities, specifically targeting South Asian and migrant cancer patients in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

Health and Wellbeing Film

My Breast Cancer Support, in collaboration with the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust,has produced a new health and wellbeingfilm, recorded in Horbury. This project aimsto support national campaigns promotinghealthier lifestyle choices, particularly forindividuals managing illnesses such ascancer and chronic pain. The session featured contributions from Sanchita Mazumdar and Jayne Dews and support from Balbir Singh Dance Company.

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“It has been quite an experience for me. I want to thank Sara for making me feel so comfortable on the day. We talked about food , chopped vegetables and how the colours affect us in our everyday lives. We cooked together in her kitchen and were not even aware of the filming. Lovely meeting Jayne , walking in the park and chatting like we have known each other for a long time.”

- Sanchita Mazumdar ”

Christmas Brass Band Fundraising Event

To kick start the ongoing collaboration between Balbir Singh Dance Company and My Breast Cancer Support Group we took part in a fundraising Christmas event featuring the West Yorkshire Police Band. The event was joined by the Mayor of Wakefield.

My Hospitals Charity—Hand Across Wakefield

2024 to 2025

While physical exercise can reduce the risk of recurrence, we explored ways to exercise through Indian classical dance and movement. We also broadened the scope of our project by incorporating various creative activities,such as painting, live music, acousmatic music, storytelling, poetry sessions which sparked conversations about shared lived experiences.

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The project is extremely important to people with acancer diagnosis because it gives them a voice, itgives them a medium to express when sometimeswords don’t actually form what is inside.

- Participant ”

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My hopes for the future are that we go fromstrength to strength and that this can also bereplicated in other health areas. We are onlytouching the surface right now, and this could go a long way within the NHS.

- Sara, Participant ”

We hope it improves the feeling of wellbeing but what, more precisely, is its impact?

• It allows the women to explore and articulate their feelings about their condition andtheir lives, often indirectly through creative activities, with each other and with the artists in a safe, supportive environment.

• The forms, whether mudras, dance stories, magnetic poetry, clapping rhythms orcreating an ‘artistic’ map of the walks together, provide frames for the women to express their individual, collaborative and collective experiences, without sitting in a solemn circle earnestly talking about their condition; if there is a circle, it is always moving. There is always a kind of colourful joy in the experience for them, and for the artists, and this is designed to improve feelings of wellbeing.

• It introduces them to new creative activities, some of which are culturally different totheir own background, extending their vocabulary for articulating their feelings about themselves and their condition.

• Practising simple breathing techniques slows the individual and the group down,allowing a strong, quiet focus to develop within the sessions and, hopefully, beyond.

• It deepens their dialogue with each other and helps to create a strong, supportive bondbetween the members of the group and allows new participants to be more quickly integrated since they are gently invited to share their emotions from their first time withthe group.

• It provides the possibility of the women taking chosen activities forward in their owntime; Indian dancing for exercise, breathing techniques, listening to music, creativewriting, drawing or craft activities might become an integral part of their lives. Like theweekly circular walk around the park, there is the opportunity for creativity and the expression of feelings through dance, words and visual art/craft to become a habit andan essential part of fostering wellbeing.

Diving into Acousmatic Music

Balbir Singh Dance Company held a session at Leeds Beckett University, hosted in Professor Nikos Stavropoulos’ acousmatic music studio. During this session, Professor Mark Johnson introduced participants to the world of acousmatic music through an immersive listening experience led by Professor Stavropoulos. The unique sounds and creative techniques sparked meaningful conversations within the cancer support group, as members reflected on how the music evoked memories, emotions, and personal narratives. This shared experience opened up new ways of expressing and connecting thoughts and feelings, laying the groundwork for deeper exploration of music’s role in wellbeing.

Day 1

Day 2

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Both professor Mark and Nikos listened intently to the three of us and the experiences that we havehad, and were able to recount different methodsthat they could use to get information from us. I canremember having a conversation with Professor Mark and something he asked brought tears to my eyes. What they might have felt was quite aninnocuous question took me back to an emotional place. Unveiled something within me.

- Alison, Participant ”

2023 to 2024

Working with a pre-existing group of cancer survivors, BSDC has been accompanying them on their weekly walks, bringing along artists to run workshops that allow the group to express themselves creatively in new ways. When dealing with their health, one of the main problems the group encountered was the lack of information and help that is readily available to those who need it, and they had been left to themselves to set up groups for fellow survivors to be able to support each other. With this project, BSDC want to foster their creativity, hear their stories, and strengthen that sense of community that cancer survivors have already built amongst themselves.

Meeting the Cancer Survivors Group

Sara Williamson was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer in December 2015. Whilst her care plan was originally due to last 12 months, it was ultimately four years before she was finally declared to have "No Evidence of Disease". Sara now devotes her time to various cancer pathways by being active in a number of survivor's groups, sitting on the panel for Living With and Beyond Cancer and has also been involved with Yorkshire Cancer Research for the last 6 years.

Sara is often the Group Spokesperson and has been helping to lead the project. The group meets each Sunday morning at 10am at Carr Lodge Park in Horbury where they do 3 laps, so that everyone can walk at their own pace.

Weekly Crocodile Walks

Workshop Activity

From the 21st January 2024, Balbir Singh Dance Company began inviting artists to accompany the group on their walks, which would then lead into an artist-run workshop afterwards. These have taken many different creative directions, from visual art and photography, through to poetry, music and dance. Something we were eager to encourage was that the workshops would take place at your own pace. If you want to join in then that’s encouraged, but if you just want to sit and observe then that’s okay too. Below are some photos from the various workshops that we have ran so far.

Dance and Movement, with
Devika Rao and Kali Chandrasegaram

Poetry and Visual Arts, with
Adam Strickson and Louise Grassby

Music, with Ford Collier

The exposure to Indian music, its range of instruments and rhythms, mythical stories of their gods and traditions offered a new stimulant to the participants mind. This nurtured a new sense of curiosity unburdened by preconceptions about the arts and intercultural experiences that might typically hinder engagement.

Interactive Photography, with Gavin Joynt

“Just being able to connect with the environmentaround us in the park, the music, the poems,transposes you into a really nice place. It makes us see that there is a new life, a new birth goingforwards.’

- Alison, Participant ”

Dancers

Devika Rao
Kali Chandrasegaram
Sanchita Mazumdar

Musicians

Ford Collier

Poet and Librettist

Adam Strickson

Visual Artists

Louise Grassby

Photographers

Balbir Singh
Devika Rao
Gavin Joynt
Kali Chandrasegaram
Louise Grassby
Minh Nguyen
Morgan Girvin
RPC Participants