BIDMC hosts Dance for PD
Mark Morris dancers stretch, breath and dance with Parkinson's patients
Date: 2/5/2010
BIDMC Contact: Kelly Lawman
Phone: 617-667-7305
Email: klawman@bidmc.harvard.edu
More than 50 people affected by Parkinson’s Disease and BIDMC staff gathered on Jan. 27 to stretch, breathe and dance.
Part of the Celebrity Series of Boston in association with Ed Rudman and the Parkinson Disease Center at BIDMC, the event featured two members of the Mark Morris Dance Group who have worked with the Brooklyn Parkinson Group since 2001 offering free dance classes for Parkinson’s patients. The Dance for PD method builds on the idea that professional dancers are movement experts whose knowledge can benefit persons with Parkinson’s disease while addressing PD specific concerns such as balance, flexibility, coordination, gait, social isolation and depression. “Patients with PD can often move more quickly, speak more loudly, and do other things better when their motor systems are activated by cues such as music, rhythm, and dance,” said Daniel Tarsy, MD, director of the Parkinson’s Disease Center at BIDMC.
Mark Morris dancer, David Leventhal, encouraged participants to throw away all their own judgments about what it means to be a dancer. “You won’t get kicked out for not knowing your left foot from your right,” said Leventhal. “Just modify things to make it right for you. Dance shouldn’t hurt.”
Participants started the hour and half session seated doing gentle stretches and breathing exercises accompanied by percussion and flute. “It’s like tai chi,” remarked one participant. After warming up, dancer John Heginbotham picked up the pace invoking more complicated choreography from the Mark Morris dance performance of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Dancers Heginbotham and Leventhal then invited participants to stand and use their chairs for support as they moved gracefully through ballet barre work. The session culminated in a lively piece of choreography from West Side Story with the room dividing into Sharks and Jets complete with toe tapping and finger snapping.
“I tried to keep up. Sometimes I didn’t keep up, but I enjoyed myself anyway and I was very comfortable because I had other people who are suffering from Parkinson’s in the same room, so we could, sort of, exchange and it was great. “said participant Gerald Greenblatt who attended with Gretta, his wife of 57 years.
“The change that I see over time is that people become better dancers,” said Heginbotham, “and they’re more outgoing about deciding what they want to do and actually doing it. It’s total community building and being part of the world and doing stuff that’s valuable and fun.”
Tarsy announced that BIDMC’s Parkinson’s Disease Center will formally study the impact of group activities like dance, chorale singing and Wii fitness programs on the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease with a SING-PD study starting in spring and DANCE-PD following in the summer.
