Festive show created with dementia patients' help

Sarah Boulter, Spiltmilk Dance co-artistic director, said the group wanted to try to "do something different"

A theatre group from Warwickshire is hoping to spread some Christmas cheer by visiting community centres, care homes and hospitals.

Spiltmilk Dance's Wonderland show, which encourages interaction, was developed with help from people who have dementia.

The Leamington Spa group visited the Dorothy Parkes community centre in Smethwick near Birmingham on Tuesday, and has a schedule of 12 care homes to visit plus 10 shows at hospitals in Nuneaton, Nottingham and Leicester.

It is hoped the initiative will open up the arts to adults who cannot get to the theatre.

The Leamington Spa group visited the Dorothy Parkes community centre in Smethwick

Sarah Boulter, Spiitmilk Dance co-artistic director, said: "What more could you want really than a tap-dancing, trumpet-playing Christmas tree?

"Sometimes people can lean very heavily on nostalgia for older adult audiences and that can absolutely work perfectly. But we want to try and do something different that wasn't just that.

"It wasn't about memory... It wasn't about having to look back. It was about living in that moment."

Dorothy Parkes Centre chief executive Rob Bruce said the visitors arrived amid a cost-of-living crisis, with energy prices "sky high".

He added: "What this enables us to do is to bring the community together in a safe space, a warm space, and let them explore and experience something that they may not get the opportunity to do."

One man said: "It's just good to get out and about, for those who can't possibly, and for the theatre to come to them."

A woman added: "I don't see anything like this... it's wonderful."