Please check out this story from the PBS NewsHour about how dance can be used to improve the lives of people with Parkinson's disease.
I wrote about a local version of a similar kind of program back in 2008, sponsored by Ed Rudman, one of our former Board chairs. It is wonderful to see this expand to other settings. The group Dance for Parkinson's has "classes right now in about 14 states, from California to Washington State to Texas . . . all the way down to Florida."
My father died of this disease back in 1992, and there was nothing like this available where he lived. As I watch these dancers, I have to express great admiration and appreciation to the professionals and volunteers who have made these programs available.
As noted in the story, "Joy, it's not a quality you associate often with Parkinson's. And, yet, it is what you see here. There are people in this class whose condition limits how they move, but not their smile or spirit."
I say "Bravo!" and "Encore!"
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Hi Paul! We started up a dance class for people with Parkinson's back in January. In August we had a teacher training at our new Lineage Performing Arts Center with David Leventhal of Mark Morris Dance Group that was truly inspiring! My step-mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's a couple years ago and she has been our star student! If you know of anyone in the Los Angeles area that might be interested in a class, visit www.lineagedance.org.
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