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Going in, I was a little bit timid about the idea of working in a retirement home. I was worried that we would be imposing on the residents rather than entertaining them. I have, as a preschool teacher, taken classes into the nursing homes here in Iceland where the children and the residents would sing together songs that cross generational boundaries, always to great success. But those are small children and I am not, even on my best of days, close to as adorable.

Meeting the Tempest group I was slowly but surely put at ease as they spoke with such grace, passion and expertise about their work and with compassion towards their clients. We were also priveleged to meet with a few ladies that have been participating in their classes and work. Getting to listen to their stories was eye opening and helpful when it came down to designing our own experience to bring to a nursing home. My group (without doubt, the very best group) was born out of neccessity, an extra group was needed so we had all volunteered to defect and form a new group (a supergroup, if you will). We almost instantly came up with a concept we all liked, and worked from that, bouncing ideas off each other. We decided to build on our individual strenghts of music, dance and visual arts and I feel that decision was a big part of our success.

The theme of our project was about being in the moment and flowing with the beat. The experience was timed with a wonderful original score composed by Adriaan, and the movements were suggested by Sunniva who was very perceptive of the abilities and needs of the participants. We felt that the constant presence of cameras would lessen the concept so we opted for capturing the essence of the experience through quick abstract sketches I drew as I observed from the sidelines. This was fun and a little bit different and we were able to share the documentation with the participants afterwards.

We had planned for the routine to be short, only about 15 minutes, as we had been previously told that the residents of this home would be coming in straight from their morning exercise and might be tired. As it turned out we could have gone on for quite a bit longer as everyone was really enjoying themselves. But insted we had time to make conversation and a little bit of inpromptu dancing, which was very well appreciated.

All in all I feel very fortunate to have participated in this project. I am thankful for my wonderful group members, Adriaan and Sunniva and I only wish that we had been able to spend more time discussing the projects and experiences freely amongst ourselves and between groups. I felt a bit rushed as we were pulled from great conversation and into lectures and parlour games that felt a bit disconnected and random. I understand the need to have a plan but when the plan seemes to defeat the purpose a new plan must be made. Besides, every individual in the program was so ambitious and passionate about their art dicipline and so dedicated to conversing with and learning from their collegues that more free time would probably have produced deeper reflection and imaginative dialogue than the schedule made room for.

-AKK

HELSINKI

My Reflections on Pimdi and our work


with the Tempest group

Ariana Katrín Katrínardóttir
Iceland

Reflections – Hildigunnur, Ariana, Íris & Bíbí

Work and preperation with the Tempest group
- The tempest group created a very safe space and approached everything calmly but with genuinve interest.
- Fun and interesting activities that can easily be used in other settings.
- The work with the Tempest group encouraged mindfulness, flow and letting go.
- The exercises where we arranged ourselves in a line could have used more subjective things, to give individuals autonomy (for example arranging oursleves by mood rather than physical features).
- What we learned from the Tempest group is how important it is to created the right environment when you want to do creative fruitful work. They utilised music, lighting and furniture to set the right mood.
- Meeting with the older ladies at the university was very good. It released some tension and anticipation that had built up about meeting with the seniors.

Reflections – Hildigunnur, Ariana, Íris & Bíbí

Work and experience of senior homes
- It was a surreal expeience being allowed to visit the homes, knowing that no one had been allowed to visit for a year and a half.
- Many of us were a bit timid about going, because we did not know what to expect, but once we were there everyones experience was positive.
- The projects sparked conversations between students and seniors.
- Allowing people to be diverse without having to find a common ground. Enjoying the differences.

Reflections – Hildigunnur

Work and preperation with your groups
- Groupwork went really well. There were lots of ideas that we merged into one project.
- Working with individuals who were all from different countries was valuable and gave me insight into their values and cultures.
- We did not have a lot of time to prepare, so it was difficult to execute our ideas in the short time frame, but that meant that we made decisions quickly and did not overthink or complicate things.

Reflections – Hildigunnur, Ariana, Íris & Bíbí

Work and preperation with the Tempest group
• The tempest group created a very safe space and approached everything calmly but with genuinve interest.
• Fun and interesting activities that can easily be used in other settings.
• The work with the Tempest group encouraged mindfulness, flow and letting go.
• The exercises where we arranged ourselves in a line could have used more subjective things, to give individuals autonomy (for example arranging oursleves by mood rather than physical features).
• What we learned from the Tempest group is how important it is to created the right environment when you want to do creative fruitful work. They utilised music, lighting and furniture to set the right mood.
• Meeting with the older ladies at the university was very good. It released some tension and anticipation that had built up about meeting with the seniors.

Reflections – Hildigunnur, Ariana, Íris & Bíbí

Work and experience of senior homes
• It was a surreal expeience being allowed to visit the homes, knowing that no one had been allowed to visit for a year and a half.
• Many of us were a bit timid about going, because we did not know what to expect, but once we were there everyones experience was positive.
• The projects sparked conversations between students and seniors.
• Allowing people to be diverse without having to find a common ground. Enjoying the differences.

Reflections – Hildigunnur

Work and preperation with your groups
• Groupwork went really well. There were lots of ideas that we merged into one project.
• Working with participants all from different countries was valuable and gave me insight into their culture and values.
• We did not have a lot of time to prepare so it was difficult to execute our ideas in the time frame, but that meant that we made decisions quickly and did not overthink or complicate things.