A 12-minute documentary that captures the inside story of an intergenerational dance program uniting Rhode Island seniors, Brown University undergraduates and future physicians will screen next month at the Newport Art Museum, giving audiences a close-up look at how movement is being woven into medical education.
“Dance for All People — A Movement and Medicine Duet” will be shown Saturday, May 2, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the museum’s Ilgenfritz Gallery at 76 Bellevue Ave. The event, presented in partnership with The Learning Center at Channing Memorial Church, is free and open to the public.
The micro-documentary, by filmmaker Deanna Camputaro of D Camp Photography & Filmmaking LLC, follows Rachel Balaban and DAPpers, short for Dance for All People — an intergenerational dance program that brings together Rhode Island seniors, Brown undergraduates, students from the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University and community dance ensembles of all ages.
Balaban, a dancer and teaching artist, founded DAPpers in 2013 as a multigenerational dance class designed for people with movement challenges and aging bodies. The program operates on the belief that every person can find vitality, creativity and joy in their own body, and it welcomes people of all ages, abilities and identities.
Balaban also serves as teaching associate and artist-in-residence at the Warren Alpert Medical School, where she works with the assistant dean of well-being on arts-based initiatives supporting medical students, residents and fellows. From 2013 to 2022, she was co-founder and co-director of Artists and Scientists as Partners at Brown, a two-semester academic program — developed with Julie Adams Strandberg — that explored the impact of the arts on people with Parkinson’s disease and autism spectrum disorder.
Camputaro, a freelance photographer and short filmmaker, has worked on film sets for AFRI and is a photographer and filmmaker for Dancing Legacy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she produced a breakout short film compiling work from 60 dancers between Florida and New York. She spent 40 years teaching visual art, photography and dance, and founded the multi-arts program Human Creativity, which was named one of the country’s top 10 best-practices programs by the Arts Education Partnership.
“I am an investigator with my lens,” Camputaro has said of her approach. “I want to find the story that unfolds. Sometimes this is very different from the one I planned.”
Following the screening, members of DAPpers, medical students and physicians will join a talk-back with the audience about the connection between the arts and health.
“Rachel Balaban and DAPpers remind us that movement is medicine, and that joy has no age limit,” said Gayle Hanrahan of The Learning Center at Channing Memorial Church. “We are thrilled to bring this inspiring story to share with our community at the Newport Art Museum.”
The film was produced by Camputaro and Balaban, with an original score by Michael DeQuattro and production support from Annie Deng and Ludin Garcia. Dance Alliance is serving as the project’s fiscal agent.
Admission is free, but space is limited. RSVPs are encouraged at newportartmuseum.org. More information about DAPpers is available at documentingdappers.com or on Instagram and Facebook at @documentingdappers.
