Funded under: EU

Start date 01 December 2022     End date 30 November 2025

The main goal of AA@THE project is to establish a protocol that promotes and preserves a high quality of life for healthy older adults in the framework of an active and healthy aging.
To achieve this, an e-health ecosystem will be developed and tested in order to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of existing healthcare services and to promote healthy behaviours.

In the framework of the above activities, the DMT@AA@THE subproject is a pilot study aiming at investigating  the effectiveness of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT).
DMT uses body movements to promote personal and social well-being. This is achieved by stimulating the harmonization of the individual's mental, somatic and relational manifestations through the creative use of movement improvisation and free dance during group sessions (ADTA-American Dance Therapy Association, 2014). However, by one hand, the improvement of the present evaluations, which could result in being too dependent on the DMT professional, is needed and, on the other hand, there is a lack of a software tool supporting the DMT professional in both evaluation and management of the group.

In this activity, we will start investigating the first aspect to select the best measures and statistical indices supporting a more objective evaluation of DMT sessions. These indices are derived from statistical analyses of physiological signals and body movements. At a later stage of the project, we will address the design and development of a software prototype to be made available as a support tool for DMT professionals.