It’s a compelling thought. The academic links between performance and health are being strengthened with the unveiling of a new course at Edge Hill that will give drama and dance students the chance to explore opportunities in the healthcare sector.

Performance and Health is due for launch in 2010 and should open new avenues of interest for Edge Hill’s performing arts students. And far from being a highly specialised niche, it is potentially a growth sector, according to Phil Christopher, the University’s Head of Performing Arts.

He said: “There are various areas where performance can be useful in a health context. There is a big emphasis on dance being a way to tackle obesity, for example, and it may also help some mental health problems. Drama can be used particularly well with young audiences, perhaps to deliver health promotion messages in schools, and performance practitioners can work alongside clinical staff in many aspects of supporting illness or managing recovery.

“It is a fairly new area but one which I believe will grow. The launch of the new course complements our existing approach. We always encourage our students to see performance in its widest sense because they might end up as teachers or as youth workers; we know that performing arts graduates don’t only aspire to be theatre directors or to be appearing in the West End. Their chosen careers can be very varied.”

Combining performing arts and health issues may be new for higher education, but the government has already thrown its weight behind a campaign to strengthen the links between the two sectors. The Department of Health and Arts Council England collaborated on a publication called Dance and Health, which outlines the benefits of dance as a way to stay healthy.

The new Performance and Health option at Edge Hill is not a training course for therapists and is not a professional qualification in its own right, but rather a chance for performing arts students to use applied performance in the non-traditional context of health.

Phil added: “Our graduates can go on to follow many career paths and should be aware of the connections performance arts can have with the health sector, because it could open up previously unexplored opportunities. I think there is growing interest in what we are doing, even though the connections between performance arts and health may not be immediately obvious to many.

“Because of that, our task now is to communicate the aims of our new course, to explain just what it is all about and which students might benefit. It’s an exciting development for performance arts practitioners and for the department.”

In addition to the launch of Performance and Health, the department has a foundation degree in Theatre, Applied Drama and Creativity, offering students an opportunity to develop vocational skills. Edge Hill also won a grant from the Knowledge Transfer Fund to help create an online applied performance network, hosted by social networking site Ning, and will hold a mini-conference for its 100-plus members, employers and other professionals.

A Dramatic Experience

A recent example of how to combine theatre with the caring professions involved using drama in the social work setting. It clearly demonstrated the power of performance in communicating messages to diverse audiences.

The project at Edge Hill focused on a case study developed by the service user and carer consultancy group, which has been working with staff and first year BA social work students. They developed a scenario based on real life experiences, which was then adapted by the performing arts students.

Dr Valerie Gant, from the Department of Social and Psychological Sciences at Edge Hill, said: “It was a really powerful piece of community drama which engaged with both the students and the service users and carers who attended.

“The drama offered them all a chance to experience some of the challenges faced by social workers in contemporary society and explore ways of working with people in a variety of difficult situations.”

The feedback from the audience was extremely positive and it is hoped that this type of collaboration will be repeated in future years.