Dancing as therapy in Cork's Valley View Day Centre

Claire O’Sullivan discovers a class that uses dance as a vehicle to communicate therapy.

THERE’S a man in a Munster Rugby jersey standing alone on the wooden veranda as I make my way up the steps to the day centre. Staring into space, he looks wretched, barely registering the presence of the half dozen people who troop in the door past him.

The Valley View Day Centre is a bright, warm, friendly space with taupe walls, a brown porcelain-tiled fireplace, and floor to ceiling windows that look out onto the lawns that make up much of the enormous St Stephen’s Hospital complex.