Abstract
BACKGROUND: Dance is a powerful means to reduce stigma associated with dementia by promoting, preserving, and sustaining human flourishing. However, dance is rarely adopted for this purpose in the context of dementia care; as with other art programming, dance is primarily adopted in dementia care to achieve individual therapeutic or functional needs and outcomes rather than to support access to the art form itself and social engagement through co-creativity. Dance also rarely features in culture change initiatives to raise critical awareness of stigma-related inequities and to foster social justice. In order to promote broad community awareness building, education, and practice change regarding the value of dance for life enrichment, we developed and evaluated a short documentary film – Dancer Not Dementia – about dance for people living with dementia. METHODS: Participants viewed Dancer Not Dementia and participated in either an interview or a focus group discussion immediately following viewing the film and then again 8–12 weeks later. Participants included people living in residential or long-term care, family carers, practitioners, healthcare managers, members of the dance community, government and policy makers, and members of the general public with no relationship to dementia. RESULTS: Our thematic analysis highlights the ways that Dancer Not Dementia challenged stigma by supporting participants’ capacity to see individuals living with dementia as relational as captured in the themes ‘seeing interconnectedness’, ‘new understandings of dance and dementia’, ‘inspiring change’, and ‘aesthetic qualities of the film’. CONCLUSION: This film is positioned to inspire reforms to policy and practice that are urgently needed to challenge entrenched and oppressive attitudes and social relations, and support more inclusive and relational approaches to caring. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-026-26881-9.