Cultural Rights, Well-being and Democracy in Elderly Care: The Dance Ambassadors as a Case Study

The aim of this article is to introduce how the Dance Ambassadors are perceived by nursing staff and supervisors in institutions of elderly care. The Dance Ambassadors are a dance-based service concept offered in various social contexts by the Dance Centre of Western Finland. Three central themes were identified in the perspectives of nursing staff: dance as a form of rehabilitation and support, dance as a contribution to a meaningful life, and participation in dance as a basic right. In the research, a multi-sited dance ethnographic approach was adopted to collect data. Then a thematic analysis was conducted in tandem with a descriptive-interpretative mixed methods approach to code and interpret the data. Social and theoretical frames as well as key concepts including cultural rights and cultural well-being are introduced in the article. In the discussion, some critical concerns are highlighted regarding the rehabilitation discourse in relation to dance in elderly care contexts and the unequal access to dance for people in late adulthood, which stands in stark contrast to the Constitution and its emphasis on human rights and equal treatment. Some suggestions are provided to improve the situation.