Showing posts with label dancing with parkinson's (toronto). Show all posts

Thursday, June 29, 2017

People with PD

reposted from NBS

Two students pursuing ballet at the highest level

A husband and wife changing their lives through dance

An alumna rediscovering her passion for choreography

United in one incredible performance at NBS' 2017
Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Workshop

Fran & Murray Ellis (Dancers)

"I feel alive. I feel happy. Dance has given me a whole new approach and a desire to keep fighting."

"Fran, are you a dancer?" If you asked me that question three years ago, the answer would have been a flat, "No."

I was so angry when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. I had done everything right my whole life, yet here I was. At the urging of my husband, Murray, I reluctantly attended NBS' weekly Sharing Dance for People with Parkinson's classes - part of the School's Sharing Dance community initiatives. I was worried that going to the classes would mean I was a patient and a victim. And I was definitely not a dancer.

But almost immediately, I saw that the people in the classes weren't victims; they were people - people who live full, enthusiastic lives. Dance opened the door for me to see the possibilities in my life. It helped me feel better physically and emotionally.

Murray benefits from the classes too. He joined after he saw how much dance helped me accept my diagnosis and feel alive again. The classes help him feel supportive in his role as my husband and friend. He sees dance as a universal language that brings all of us together. I can't picture our life without it.

When Rachel Bar asked Murray and me to perform her piece at the Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Workshop, I was thrilled. To share the stage with two incredibly talented young dancers means so much to me. It gives me confidence - it says you CAN dance, you CAN move, you CAN be a valued part of society.

When we take the stage this July, I hope the audience sees that people of all ages and abilities can work together to create beautiful art. I hope they see that I don't let Parkinson's disease define who I am or what I'm capable of.

So go ahead, ask me: "Fran, are you a dancer?"

Absolutely. Are you?

Ryan and Pravda (Dancers)

"I'm learning that there is so much more to dance than perfect technique."

Ryan: I have dedicated my life to dance. I first came to NBS' Professional Ballet/Academic Program in grade six and now, six years later, I'm about to graduate. My instructors have always taught me that artists have an important role to play in society, but dancing with Fran and Murray drives that idea home for me.

The first time I met Fran and Murray, they watched me take class in the same studio that they dance in every week. They were so engaged and supportive. It inspired me to know that all of us dance in the same place, and despite the differences in our ages and reasons for dancing, we understand and respect each other.

Murray said that I have a lot to teach him about dance, but I think it's the other way around. I've already learned that the way dance makes us use our brains and bodies can help people with movement disorders. I learned that dancing together can help reduce feelings of isolation as we age.

More than anything, I learned that I have an important role to play as a dancer that goes far beyond perfecting my technique.

I feel a greater sense of responsibility to make sure that as many people as possible can experience the benefits dance offers. I want more people to see themselves in the art that I create. And I want everyone to know that they are capable of creating beautiful movement.

Maybe I've taught Fran and Murray something about their port de bras, but they have given me a new reason to dance.

Rachel Bar (Choreographer)

"No matter who they are or why they dance, everyone can bring beauty to movement"

I have lived the benefits of dance my whole life. Starting as a student in NBS' Professional Ballet/Academic Program, I loved experimenting and exploring new ideas in the Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Workshop. I carried that passion with me throughout my dance career.

Today, I'm the School's Manager of Health Initiatives and Research, and I'm completing my PhD in Clinical Psychology at Ryerson University. In 2013, I helped NBS start the weekly Sharing Dance for People with Parkinson's classes. I understood the wide-ranging health benefits that the classes offered people like Fran, but I was amazed by how much beauty I encountered each week. I realized that true artistry is not limited to elite dancers - it's in everyone.

I knew I wanted to choreograph a piece exploring this idea, working with dancers of different ages and different stories. The choreography will highlight the unique quality that each dancer brings to the art form, while emphasizing the elements they share. It will be set to live violin and cello, which will inject an energy into the piece that mirrors the way the dancers feel when they perform.

I hope the audience leaves seeing more beauty in themselves and the world. I hope they realize how dance connects us all.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Dancing with Parkinson's research Something about dancing seems to rewire the brain and create new pathways that control movement

our lab work profiled with Sarah's class
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/parkinson-dance-1.3832945

Dancing with Parkinson's research

Something about dancing seems to rewire the brain and create new pathways that control movement

By Ioanna Roumeliotis, CBC News Posted: Jan 23, 2017 9:00 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 23, 2017 9:00 PM ET

Alice-Betty Rustin and Charles Dennis participate in a Dancing with Parkinson's research project. He says it would be great to be part of the victory over the disease. (David Donnelly/CBC)

His body doesn't move quite so naturally anymore. His limbs often feel stiff. Every movement is an exercise of will. But when he's dancing to the strains of a soft waltz, 60-year-old Charles Dennis gets lost in the rhythm and for a brief moment forgets how desperately he wants to keep moving.

Dance lesson0:21

"I find myself really getting caught up in the music and you forget about, you forget about having to make the movement, to be sure your arm is getting the message from your brain to move this way," says Dennis who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease last year.

Choking back a sob, he adds, "They don't know what causes it. It'd be great to be part of the victory over it."

Fighting this0:32

Parkinson's is a neurological disorder that progressively robs a person's ability to move. It also affects co-ordination, balance, strength and can interfere with the ability to speak clearly.

For nearly a decade Sarah Robichaud, a classically trained dancer, founder and instructor with Dancing with Parkinson's, has been seeing what scientists are now trying to prove.

"Anecdotally, what the students tell us and what we see, maybe, you know, new neuro-pathways are being created," says Robichaud, "because people sometimes who walk in with walkers, who are very unstable, halfway through the class will start waltzing through the room unassisted."

Renewed brain activity

The scientific explanation for why that is happening is now emerging. Joseph De Souza is a neuroscientist from Toronto's York University. For the last three years, he and his researchers have been tracking the brainwaves of dozens of people in Robichaud's dance classes.

Volunteers undergo a brain scan before and after a one-hour dance class. They also perform a series of physical tests to measure the impact the classes have on their gait and coordination.

"Almost everyone that participates in the classes notice improvement in movements, claim improvement in quality of life and in mood, like emotion," says DeSouza. "What we're interested in is seeing how in the brain or where in the brain it's changing over time."

There is evidence already that exercise, especially strenuous activity, builds muscle and brain power in people with Parkinson's. The data on dancing is preliminary but also promising.

DeSouza recently presented his early findings at an international conference on Parkinson's.

People sometimes walk in with walkers and halfway through the class will start waltzing through the room unassisted, says Sarah Robichaud. (David Donnelly/CBC)

He's found a one hour dance class results in a boost in alpha brain waves. That renewed brain activity may explain why most volunteers show an improvement in their balance and gait after a class.

DeSouza says he wants to determine what that does to the progression of the disease.

"We want to see whether it's a neuroprotective thing that's happening as a function of dance. So, we're not only interested in what's happening in the brain, but how it's happening and whether it's neuroprotective over time."

DeSouza's research is still in its infancy and his sample size is small. About 50 people with Parkinson's are in the study. But what he's learned is already informing experts in the field.

Dr. Galit Kleiner runs the Movement Disorder Clinic at Toronto's Baycrest Hospital. She's on top of all the medical interventions that help her patients, mostly medications that help with tremors.

"There's sort of an internal rhythm in all of us, but especially in Parkinson's patients that rhythm is impaired. The motor circuits of actually moving are intact, but the accessing of those circuits may not be intact. And, so, music and even pacing with a metronome, may be able to access those motor pathways."

Recommends to patients

Kleiner says there aren't huge clinical trials to draw on, to prove how well non-medical therapies work. And she's not waiting for them. She says the emerging research on therapies like dancing is good enough and she recommends it to her patients because it seems to help and already proves it gives people hope.

Social connection0:38

It's harder to measure optimism but DeSouza is convinced the emotional boost a group offers plays a role. And he and his team want to keep following the volunteers for at least five more years, to see if the positive effects last. Ultimately the goal is to identify markers, or patterns that will predict Parkinson and allow for early interventions, like dancing.

As for Dennis, the disease is still an unfamiliar companion and he still struggles with what the future may hold. And though his hope wavers at times, dancing he says is an exercise of faith and a belief the science will follow.

Die with Parkinson's0:22

Thursday, February 9, 2017

First National Symposium for Dance and Well-Being

reposted from
http://www.thedancecurrent.com/news-article/first-national-symposium-dance-and-well-being

The next meeting will be in montreal on may 24-26 2018 not 2017 as in article below

NEWS

First National Symposium for Dance and Well-Being

By Ruth Madden

National Centre for Dance-Therapy / Photo by Damian Siqueiros, zetaproduction
National Centre for Dance-Therapy / Photo by Damian Siqueiros, zetaproduction

“Movement isn’t something we do; it is something we are.” – Glenna Batson

The first national symposium for dance and well-being took place November 4-5, 2016, in Toronto at Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS). It was hosted by the National Centre for Dance Therapy (NCDT), a division of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal.

Founded three years ago, NCDT is a leader in dance/movement therapy research, education and community outreach in Canada. Progress with the Canadian centre has been much-anticipated given that the American Dance Therapy Association was established in the United States in 1966,while the United Kingdom established its association in 1982 and the European Association for Dance Movement Therapy was founded in 1994. Principles of dance/movement therapy are universally applied to using the body, its movement and the art of dance to assist integrating the emotional, physical, cognitive and social aspects of human beings. The symposium highlighted the work already underway across Canada and a future of possibilities. Attendees were engaged with keynote speakers, discussion groups, workshops and the sharing of research. Scientists, researchers, a variety of therapists, artists and dancers all attended and presented at the inaugural event. The symposium continued to expand the spectrum of “dance and …” highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of this holistic art form.

Sarah Berry, PhD from McGill, presented her research on dance therapy and mental health, asserting the need of the “critical friendship” between dance and science. This was a common theme throughout the weekend, suggesting that any distance between the two is slowly dissipating as the fields find more common ground. Additional research professionals shared their findings from within the rehabilitation setting, using dance/movement therapy with persons with a physical disability, with children who have a hereditary peripheral neuropathy, as well as for balance, gait and functional mobility in neurological patients.

David Leventhal, director of Dance for PD (Parkinson’s disease) at Mark Morris Dance Group, Sarah Robichaud, founder and president of Dancing with Parkinson’s, and NBS teachers Angie Seto and Ashleigh Powell led a demo class on November 5 with people living with Parkinson’s and caregivers of the Dancing with Parkinson’s program. Using live musical accompaniment, it presented those who attended the workshop with a real experience of how a class looks and feels.

On November 5, Patricia P. Capello from Brooklyn, NY, led a workshop on dance/movement therapy with adult psychiatric clients. Rosamaria Ricart of Montréal explored the intervention for people living with an autism spectrum disorder, stressing the importance of incorporating the clients’ support networks such as family and caregivers. More workshops brought focus into communities, rehabilitation settings, persons with disabilities, chair dance and older adults with neurodegenerative diseases like PD, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The final discussion panel encouraged finding a movement vocabulary that could effectively communicate, develop and validate those aspects of dance that are fleeting, mysterious and often subjectively experienced or witnessed. Whereas science relies on valid and reliable systems of measuring and recording data, dance is cherished as a moment in time that can never be entirely recreated, often only remembered within one’s own embodied consciousness.

The community can look forward to more collaboration, research and trained dance therapists as NCDT just created the first master’s degree program in dance therapy in Canada. Planning for the follow up to this first national symposium is already underway, and it is slated to take place in Montréal in 2017.

Posted November 23, 2016

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Dancing with Parkinson's research

reposted from