At Cahors hospital, Myriam Djillali comes to give dance lessons every Wednesday at noon. A welcome parenthesis for experienced caregivers.
At 12:15 p.m., they drop the white coat and the medical shoes. On the first floor of the Cahors hospital, in the former geriatrics department, caregivers have been dancing every Wednesday at noon for more than a month. There, far from the operating rooms, Myriam Djillali, the president of the association Actuel danse, teaches them ragga steps. “The Covid was complicated for caregivers, we are coming out of two exhausting years, I wanted to share my work, my joy, give them strength”, explains the dance teacher in Cahors who intervenes on a voluntary basis. “Initially, I thought of doing ground movements with them, rather slow, rather in the gym spirit, I groped, and then I very quickly understood that they needed to evacuate”, confides Myriam. So the sessions became much more energetic. And the music too: Bruno Mars, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys…
This Wednesday is their sixth class, on an empty stomach. “We only have a 45-minute break so we eat quickly afterwards,” says Nadia, who works in general management. Eating a sandwich on the go in ten minutes, no big deal. She wouldn’t miss those dance classes for the world. “I think of something else, I cut and in addition I spend myself”, she summarizes. After a quick five-minute warm-up, it takes at least that to leave the worries behind, the caregivers resume the steps of last week. The choreography takes shape. Myriam sets the pace: “We’re going to do eight counts with this movement, and one and two and three jump four”.
Team spirit
At the end of the class, during the stretches, the minds are almost already elsewhere. You have to put on your clogs, put on the mask. Go back to face. “I feel better, more focused, calmer, more positive too,” adds Nadia. She is her ten other colleagues – a doctor, an executive assistant, a clinical research associate … – who did not necessarily rub shoulders until now have created a hard core. “I met colleagues here that I did not know, it must be said that each service has its own treatment room and its own team”, assures Tristan in the communication department. Myriam’s dance classes have opened up the different departments and fostered team spirit.
Nicole is a nurse in the wound and healing department. At the end of the course, she goes back to consultation, her head empty. “We have become a sports team, there is emulation, exchanges and contacts, ties reunited at work”, she slips. “I realized at the beginning of the sessions that the staff worked quite individually and did not necessarily meet in the corridors of the hospital, whatever the pathologies that were faced, we should not feel alone”, specifies Myriam. His classes are scheduled until June. But caregivers are asking for more. So, maybe in the fall…
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