Express yourself: how a charity is using dance to improve mental health


Ten young people from Manchester mental health charity 42nd Street are struggling to spin their legs around their bodies while keeping their hands anchored to the studio floor as they’ve been shown. Instructor Kevin Turner stops them and explodes into his own demonstration of high-speed repetitions of the sequence, while they watch in astonishment.

“Look, my legs are all over the place,” Turner pants mid-dance. “They are going like crazy. When I was ill, I often felt that things were happening that were out of my control. Can anyone else relate to that?”

Turner, 34, sits down, perspiring, among the group of young people aged 16 to 25. Several hands go up hesitantly, and a young woman quietly says, “I can”.

Turner founded Manchester-based Company Chameleon in 2007 with his friend Anthony Missen. Their aim was to make hard-hitting contemporary dance exploring the reality of being male in greater Manchester. Turner has bipolar disorder, as does at least one of the youngsters in this workshop, and he has told them his diagnosis.

Three years ago, Turner was sectioned and spent more than a month in the hospital and almost a year working his way back to the physical and mental health he needs to perform.

He wants the young people he’s teaching today to see that they can use dance to explore their own mental health problems and the impact on the people around them. Most of them have never danced before, but 42nd Street is convinced that dance can help build trust and confidence, without the need for words.

Turner’s latest work, Witness, performed by Company Chameleon’s five dancers, portrays his own experiences of his breakdown and the perspective of his friends and family. It is premiering at Plymouth University on 19 October and touring until the end of November. Each performance will be supplemented by a workshop with schools, colleges and youth groups.

Sitting in his baggy trousers and T-shirt, this “lad” from Stretford, is clearly in control of himself and is a powerful image of hope for the young people he teaches. His demonstration was not some kind of ego trip, but to help them tap into the shared emotions of breakdown and give them the confidence to use their bodies to tell their own stories. They start by using exercises, sections from Witness and their own moves.

“Where dance is different from simply doing exercise – which of course makes you feel good because of the endorphins – is that it helps you to use the physical to experience your internal world,” says Turner. 

He believes his own mental health problems started when he was a teenager, but he did not recognise depression and tried to ignore it until it was no longer possible.

Dancing helped him handle the pain of his parents’ divorce from the age of eight when he became a member of the Trafford Youth Dance Theatre. He argues that young people need to be aware of how creative movement can support good mental health.

Recent figures suggest that last year, nearly a quarter of a million children and young people were in contact with mental health services for issues such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders. But research also shows that 28% of children referred for support in England – including some who had attempted suicide – received no help in 2015.

The number of referrals to 42nd Street is high. The charity, which has been running for almost four decades, is commissioned by the NHS to provide mental health support, including counselling, to young people across Manchester. However, advisers are having to tell suicidal young people they will have to wait more than four months for one-to-one support.

“It’s not something we are happy about,” says chief executive Simone Spray. She also worries about the short length of therapy, when it does happen, leaving young people without support before they are properly well. The charity’s solution is to invest heavily in the arts – including the new Horsfall Centre for performance, opening in December – to give young people what Spray calls “wrap-around support”.

Spray says: “There is nothing fluffy about this. Dance work like this should be recognised as a pre-crisis intervention because it has such a positive impact on some young people.” In her view, it can prevent them needing to access therapy at all, or at least keep them feeling better until more formal help is available.

The young people in Turner’s workshop seem relaxed and focused. Kelly (not her real name) has bipolar disorder and was initially afraid she would not be able to do the exercises, but now she is beaming and keen to continue. “This has really drawn me in. At first, I thought OMG! But now I’d like to do it again. People see bipolar as a joke, but Kevin has shared what happened to him and it’s helped us express the way we feel.”

Health and Wellbeing