CAN dance really help people with dementia? That’s the thinking behind a ground-breaking two-day national conference that opens at Liverpool’s Bluecoat on Friday.

With talks from experts in the field, specially commissioned dance works and films, the two-day conference, Memory, will examine all aspects of the subject.

The man given the task of delivering the keynote speech on Friday is Dr Richard Coaten, perhaps the country’s leading specialist in the field.

Dr Coaten, a doctor of philosophy – “I am an academic, not a medical doctor” – was also a dancer and came across the power of dance in regard to dementia almost by accident.

In 1985, as a dancer, he was working for Age Concern in Sheffield with older active people.

“Social services suggested that what I was doing might work in care homes, so I did that. What about working with more confused people, they asked?

“I had never done that before, but I adapted what I learned and found an absolute joy in working with people with dementia.”

As well as lecturing on the subject, he works in three day centres in South West Yorkshire. “The people know me and enjoy coming to the sessions. They reminisce, sing, they tell stories trying to keep alive all the faculties they have.”

Dr Coaten says his sessions can bring back memories of those with dementia, the dances often a form of reminiscence.