MEDIA RELEASE Wednesday May 4, 2022
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It’s all suds and laughter as comical performance duo entertains care home residents and children
- Pandemic-born window cleaning act reaches residents up close while keeping them safe inside
When a pair of window cleaners visited Balhousie Care homes, it wasn’t just the windows that were left sparkling.
“Buff and Sheen” arrived in Dundee in a flurry of colour, dance, music, suds and slapstick, entertaining care home residents and lproocal kids and leaving behind nothing but big smiles and laughter.
The award-winning performance duo, accompanied by their sidekick “Dazzle”, visited the popular Balhousie Clement Park and Balhousie St. Ronan’s in Dundee, where staff members’ children and grandchildren joined in the fun. Then they headed to Balhousie Moyness in Broughty Ferry where they were joined by children from a local nursery.
The result was a day of intergenerational activity that benefited both residents and local children.
Buff and Sheen’s visits were part of a national tour by the group, which made the BBC’s “Best of the Fringe” 2021. Redefining ‘good, clean fun’, the act is the brainchild of performance company MoonSlide. Developed during the pandemic to bring joy and laughter to care home residents and school and nursery children, their slapstick fun and games are viewed through a window, reaching people up close whilst keeping everyone safe inside. And the windows get cleaned too!
Balhousie Care Group is the only care home provider to be officially partnering with Moonslide on their tour, which continues this week.
Balhousie Care Group’s Brand and Communications Manager Gillian Drummond said: “We loved this idea from the off. Not only does it re-ignite and develop important community links, particularly post-lockdown, but it also provides invaluable intergenerational connections and stimulation and cognitive benefits for our residents. Balhousie is excited to be partnering with MoonSlide to bring the highly inventive Buff and Sheen to our care homes.”
Said MoonSlide performer, Alex McCabe: “We’re so delighted to work with Balhousie Care Group as the official care home partner and to entertain their wonderful residents and staff. Seeing the reactions from residents and their interactions with the kids is just priceless.”
For more information about Balhousie Care Group visit www.balhousiecare.co.uk
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For media enquiries please contact Gillian Drummond on 01738 254254, 07365 284994 or gillian.drummond@balhousiecare.co.uk
Photo captions: Buff, Sheen and Dazzle perform for care home residents at Balhousie St Ronan’s in Dundee; the group at Balhousie Clement Park in Dundee with Activities Coordinator Hannah Maria Clark; the group and children from Tots Academy Nursery visit Balhousie Moyness in Broughty Ferry.
About Balhousie Care Group
Balhousie Care Group was formed 30 years ago to fill a gap in quality residential care in North East Scotland. Today, with 26 homes in the area, it is one of the leading providers of care for the elderly in Scotland, providing care to over 900 residents.
Balhousie Care prides itself on its person-centred approach to care. Putting people right at the forefront of everything they do; it’s inclusive of everyone. They capture this philosophy through the roll out of ‘Together We’re Great’, an initiative which recognises the skills, talents, attributes and support areas for each and every person involved in the organisation. Together We’re Great aims to value individuality and promote excellence across the organisation.
A Participation Charter – a first-of-its-kind in the care home sector – commits to residents getting a bigger say than ever in the care they receive, from writing care home policies to recruiting staff.
Balhousie Care Group is the recipient of numerous awards. These include three Scottish Care Awards, a 2021 Great British Care Award, 2022 s1Jobs Recruitment Award, 2019 Growth Business and 2018 Service Business of the Year at The Courier Business Awards, 2019 Growth Business of the Year Perthshire Chamber of Commerce STAR Award, and SME Scotland Business Man of the Year 2019 for Chairman Tony Banks.
About MoonSlide
MoonSlide creates performances that meld the mysterious and surreal with the uproarious and farcical. We aim to be very broadly accessible for society’s youngest and oldest members, all the while challenging perceptions of what performance can be. MoonSlide is committed to engaging marginalised groups and connecting disconnected communities through the non-verbal languages of movement, humour and humanity. We are a neuro-diverse company and work to reach neuro-diverse audiences and participants. Based under one roof, the company can rehearse and collaborate during times of social distancing.
Suzi Cunningham brings to the duo a long-term practice as a dance performer, improviser and maker. Her solo practice has developed to create, design and present challenging, political solo work and bespoke responses to environments. She has significant training in dance and butoh, physical theatre, street theatre, walk-about performance and clown and has presented 3 separate works at Dance Live (Aberdeen), Hidden Door (Edinburgh), Festival Mirabilia (Italy) and was chosen as Surges’ Rising Voice for ‘Eidos’ in Manipulate Festival 2020. With Eaten, she collaborated and performed with Mamoru Iriguchi, touring widely across the UK and beyond for 3 years for young audiences and families. Suzi is a trained Dance for Parkinsons teacher and fully qualified dance psychotherapist facilitating regular workshops for people with disabilities.
Alex McCabe brings to the duo expertise in dance, inclusive participatory practice and site-specific performance in domestic space. He has a parallel background as a professional musician on multiple instruments and therefore collaborates extensively in international hybrid dance/music projects (British ParaOrchestra, Marc Brew Company, Wexford Festival Opera; Teatro Reggio; Japan Opera Foundation). He has worked on many successful works for young audiences (Caroline Bowditch Company, Curious Seed, Barrowlands Ballet, Independance) and is an Imaginate Launchpad Artist. He choreographs longterm with Scottish Opera’s company for people living with dementia and Paragon’s inclusive youth dance company. He is a co-creator and co-lead artist on international anti-ableist collaboration SIIATE (2019-2022), supported by the British Council.
For more information about Moonslide, visit https://moonslide.weebly.com/
