From January to July 2025, South East Dance hosted 10 dance sessions for survivors of domestic abuse, in partnership with RISE.

Each session offered a different dance style to try, and sessions were led by a range of amazing dance session leaders. The s tyles included Afro Latin, Zumba, Yoga Dance, and Creative Dancing amongst others. As well as the formally led sessions, one community member also led a belly dancing session.

At the end of each session, there was a half hour of social time, for survivors to connect and reflect which everyone loved. These generally included tea, biscuits and fruit - for the last session, we pushed the boat out a bit and had a delicious, shared lunch.

14 women attended sessions at different points. We also ran one family friendly session, which eight children attended.

The sessions were incredibly powerful. Women reported feeling more connected to each other, as well as an increase in emotional wellbeing after attending. The sessions were fun, and relaxed with no pressure to be anything other than themselves. Here's what some of the participants said about the sessions.

· I loved the sessions, it was ok to be me no matter how I felt.

· I found them beneficial as a way to move emotions through my body – It’s like a reclamation of my body- I feel a sense of freedom afterwards

· Felt good to dance – it was a good workout – nice to have a cup of tea together - get out for a little while and have some time to myself

We're enormously grateful to The Big Give for funding this powerful work, and to South East Dance for delivering it. If you'd like to help us deliver more support for survivors, donate here.