An unusual way of helping the grief process after the death of a child.
How do you tell your 9 year old daughter that her 8 year old brother is terminally ill? How do you communicate with his best friends, his school teacher and the rest of your community? And how will they respond?
These questions were among the many that Joshua's family were faced with when their only son, aged 8, was diagnosed with a brain stem tumour and died just 21 days later.
As his parents struggled to come to terms with the diagnosis, they found themselves faced with the task of breaking the news to other families. They visited their son’s school and wrote to all the parents themselves to let them know as much as they could and hoped they would be able to support their children through his illness and sudden death. They explained that they continued to hope and were thankful for 8 wonderful years with Joshua.
Joshua's family discovered through their experience that there is a great need for us all to learn how to connect with those facing loss personally, as well as those around them affected by the loss. More importantly, they saw a great opportunity to help resource teachers to educate children on the subject of loss and death, at the same time giving them insight about the journey of life, our ultimate destination and how death affects us all. Teachers would then be equipped with training and resources to manage better when a loss occurs.
In light of this, the family approached the charity cre8.ed (a Christian educational arts charity), and asked them to consider providing schools with education and resources to help staff and students discuss the issues involved in bereavement. cre8.ed responded by forming a collaboration with Springs Dance Company (Europe's foremost Christian Dance Company) to create a visual presentation that would encourage the whole school community to consider the issues involved in loss.
"The Loss of Someone Special" is a proactive, curriculum-linked project designed for primary school pupils to explore and respond to the wide issues surrounding loss. This can be from the death of a pet, a best friend moving away, the perceived loss of family life through divorce or separation to the deeper issues of the death of a close family member or friend. The aim is to help school children learn to cope with loss in a healthy way as early as possible in their lives.
“Waterbugs and Dragonflies” by Doris Stickney is a delightfully simple story for young children. By using the analogy of the water bugs short life under the water and their emergence as dragonflies into the bright sunlit world above the water, it provides many basic truths surrounding loss and death for children to explore, with help.
Springs Dance Company and cre8.ed, with permission from the publishers, have interpreted this story into a powerful dance presentation to tackle the sensitive subject of loss. The professional dance presentation lasts about 20 minutes, is light, friendly and fun whilst designed to draw awareness to the different responses children may experience when bereaved, as well as to think about how they can support each other in difficult times.
The performance is accompanied by
guidelines offered for teachers to prepare pupils prior to the dance presentation;
discussion materials that help children to talk openly about the issues raised;
dance and art workshops with Springs Dance Company members and cre8.ed visual artists, and,
follow-up resources that include visual art-based lessons for teachers to use in the classroom, as appropriate.
If you would like to know more about the project, you can contact cre8.ed or Springs Dance Company at the addresses below.
cre8.ed
PO Box 496, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3GP
Tel: 01494 882073 Fax: 01494 883062 Email: admin@cre8ed.com
Web: www.cre8ed.com
Registered Charity No 1102 836
Springs Dance Company
10 College Road, The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent ME4 4QW
Tel: +44 (0) 1634 817523, Email: SpringsDC@aol.com,
Web: www.springsdancecompany.org.uk,
Registered Charity No 326521
© 2005 Newsline