MOVEMENT
We all move to the beat of an unfathomable melody Though her mother’s carers encouraged
non-movement, Shireen knew that she needed to dance. She was right; after starting a regular wu tao routine, her mother truly came alive again.
by Shireen Tripp
W
hat a difference the walker made for the elderly lady who had suffered the effects of
multiple silent strokes. She had wheels to move. As night folded into day, and day folded into night, her energy seamlessly flowed from her to her walker. Movement had made her come alive again. “She's old”, they said. “Old people
shouldn't be expected to dance. They like to sleep all day long. They like to sit all day in their comfy chair. Your mum too should be allowed to do that”. And so the carers made her ‘more
comfortable’ to encourage non-movement because that's what old people do, isn't it? It's also easier to manage. The carers’ mindsets were immovable,
stuck and rusted through lack of their own movement. It was easier for the daughter to rush home from work to perform her elderly mother's music and movement therapy (wu tao) herself, than to shift an embedded, immovable status quo. To dislodge the carers' embedded mindsets was simply too hard. Their default stance was that she might fall – even though the elderly lady
60 JUNE 2017
barely weighed more than a 12-year- old. The likelihood of falling during this customised, choreographed music and movement therapy was nearly zero. The truth was that it was easier for
them not to move from their belief system. Belief systems are the hardest to move. This was 'new'. None of the other clients had asked them to dance. They didn’t do 'new'. It was against their workplace health and safety regulations. The daughter would flick on the music the minute she returned from work.
She would bend down to a seemingly sleeping old lady and clasp her tiny hands. Locked in her daughter’s arms, the mother lifted herself up, opened her eyes, and smiled. The two would gently sway and twist to the music. A physiotherapist had at first looked over her shoulder to check that she was doing no harm with the wu tao movements, which had been especially customised to the elderly lady's needs. The daughter blended these to music,
especially composed for movement therapy. She held her mother's hand now, as her mother once held hers. She willed life into her mother, as her mother once willed life into her. The daughter was trained and licensed
in wu tao. The daughter brought knowledge, training, commitment, ingenuity, and imagination to convince the carers that movement should be incorporated into her mother's care plan, but to no avail. “Hold my mum”, she implored. “Feel
the music wash over her, through her, and drench her in its life-giving force”.
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