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Conversations in Movement: 10 Years of Dance for Health

Conversations in Movement, an exhibition by Artists Lena Yokoyama and Filipa Peirera-Stubbs

24 Jun - October 2024

Addenbrooke's Gallery

A hospital corridor with an exhibition showing patients and staff dancing.
Corridor view of Conversations in Movement

In celebration of its 10th anniversary year, our new exhibition 'Conversations in Movement' spotlights the Dance for Health programme.

Lena Yokoyama, Ward C2 (Sunday 2 June, 2024), Collage and pencil Lena Yokoyama, Ward C2 (Sunday 2 June, 2024), Collage and pencil
Lena Yokoyama, Ward C2 (Sunday 2 June, 2024), Collage and pencil Lena Yokoyama, Ward C2 (Sunday 2 June, 2024), Collage and pencil

Artist Lena Yokoyama has been in residence at the hospital, spending time on multiple wards with lead dance artist Filipa Pereira-Stubbs, clinical staff, patients and their families. Lena has created drawings and live sketches of workshops, dance duets, conversations, sing-alongs and one-to-ones. Lena’s drawings are visual moments of movement, echoing the spirit of the sessions and encapsulating those fleeting and unexpected encounters of emotion which occur when we bring our whole selves to dance.

Lena Yokoyama, Duet - Filipa and Ting, 2024, Pencil and coloured pencil
Lena Yokoyama, Duet - Filipa and Ting, (Wed 22 May, 2024), Pencil and Coloured Pencil

Over the last decade, Dance for Health has become a part of our care at CUH. It is embedded into ward culture and integrated into hospital life. The space it occupies in the day-to-day life of a busy teaching hospital has solidified its position as a leader in the field of hospital-based participatory dance, and it has become one of the longest running hospital dance programmes in the country.

CUH Arts would like to thank all the supporters of Dance for Health across the years, with special thanks to all the ward staff for their ongoing collaborative approach and, of course, to Filipa Pereira-Stubbs who makes this incredible work possible.

Installation photograph of the exhibition Conversations in Movement
Installation photograph of the exhibition Conversations in Movement

The below link will take you to a playlist of favourite songs selected by patients, staff and Filipa, throughout the years of the programme:

Dance for Health Playlist (opens in a new tab)

Lena Yokoyama
Lena Yokoyama sat next to Filipa Pereira-Stubbs
Lena Yokoyama (left) and Filipa Pereira-Stubbs (right)

Lena Yokoyama (she/her) is a Japanese/Austrian illustrator and printmaker based in London. She is part of Isshoo Collective and is represented for illustration work by Grand Matter. Recent clients include The New York Times, Hermès, Red Bull, The Tate, The Guardian, Selfridges, The Quentin Blake Center for Illustration, and Google. A graduate of Camberwell College of Art, she will begin The Royal Drawing Schools’ Drawing Year in Sept 2024.

Lena’s work highlights diversity in a playful and colourful way, inspired by her own experience of growing up in a multicultural environment. Her artwork revolves around visual translation; endeavouring to express movement, meaning, place and narrative through her own mark making. The work builds on the idea that the visual can take language beyond what can be expressed through words alone. Lena’s aesthetic is fun and playful, with imperfections, wonky lines and lots of texture – emphasising those little details that make things feel real.

View Lena's website here (opens in a new tab)

Filipa Pereira-Stubbs
Lena Yokoyama sat next to Filipa Pereira-Stubbs
Lena Yokoyama (left) and Filipa Pereira-Stubbs (right)

Filipa Pereira-Stubbs (she/her) is a dance artist, teacher, research consultant and creative practitioner with thirty years experience in arts and health. Consistently, her projects enable participants to build compassionate and healthier relationships with themselves, their work, their communities and nature. Her work holds inclusivity and integration of the arts at the core, finding inspiration in somatic practice and the process of improvisation & imagination, calibrating and bridging perceived cultural, age and health differences.

Filipa co-founded Rosetta Life, is a founding member of the charity Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination and has devised and delivered many community projects working with children, adults, older people, and in adult education. Her programmes, workshops and talks have been held across UK and internationally, and she is a frequent lecturer on Arts Therapies MA courses. Filipa is a Churchill fellow (2012), holds a masters degree from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and was an undergraduate of the London School of Economics.

View Filipa's website here (opens in a new tab)

Staff look at Lena's drawings
Visitors viewing the Conversations in Movement exhibition