Queensland Ballet Brings Hope, Healing, and Connection to Queensland this Brain Injury Awareness Week

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This Brain Injury Awareness Week (18–24 August 2025), Queensland Ballet, with collaborative support from Synapse and NIISQ will deliver a program of free community dance workshops as part of its Ballet for Brain Injury initiative, offering more people the chance to move, connect, and improve their wellbeing in a space that’s supportive, creative, and joyful.  

Since launching in 2021, Queensland Ballet has held over 550 Ballet for Brain Injury classes at its home in West End. This tailored program, underpinned by research, allows participants living with acquired brain injuries and their loved ones to enjoy the benefits of movement and dance. Classes run weekly on Saturdays from 10:15 am to 11:15 am at the Thomas Dixon Centre and are accompanied by live piano music, a unique offering not often available to most community dance classes. Dance has been shown to help people surviving brain injury to re-inhabit their bodies and cope with emotional, cognitive, and physical impairments.  

“We see the incredible impact of this weekly program, with our participants sharing that attending classes helps to improve their overall mood and outlook on life and oftentimes even their perspective on living with brain injury. Our classes promote connection through community, helping to reduce the sense of isolation that many people living with brain injury experience,” Queensland Ballet Community and Dance Health Manager Mimi Van Buuren, shared. 

“As a Teaching Artist and Dancer, I have experienced firsthand the power of dance to connect us to our emotions and personal creative expression. It’s this sense of freedom through movement that our highly skilled Teaching Artists foster for participants in every class.”