Parkinson's Dance Therapy

Dance has been around for a long time, it is older than many other popular sports we have. It takes on the physical capacity to be labeled as a sport, and yet in most cases, it is not. It is one of the few activities that is both a sport and an art, but it is given very little respect as a sport. Dance has evolved in a number of ways throughout time, but it has always been through a meaning. Whether that be dancing for love or faith, or dancing for first place.

Why do people dance? Dance can be used as an everyday activity for young teens or kids to have fun and enjoy being on stage. Another reason is that dance is a way for those who struggle with anxiety to be able to dance away their anxiety and be relaxed for a few hours. Many people believe that dance is just for children because children tend to have the energy and confidence to dance and go on stage. What the society does not know is that dancing is not just for young people, many older women and men enjoy dance just as much as kids do. Some men and women (including kids) suffer from anxiety and attending the dance class helps them and relaxes them. Dancing does help people deal with their anxiety because it helps calm the mind and boosts self confidence.

“Dancer’s are the athletes of God,” Albert Einstein said. Dance has many structures to it; there is modern, ballet, contemporary, and tap just to name a few. Dancing should be recognized as a sport. Dancing has the same components as a sport does; dance improves memory, balance and coordination, and it provides a mental escape.

In an article by Maria Barrios, she expresses the importance and benefits of dancing. She points out that certain types of dance can be a fun total body workout. I definitely agree because of my personal experience with dancing. After an hour long dance class I feel sweaty and tired then a few minutes later I feel energized like I could do it again. Barrios also points out that dance not only benefits your body but also your mentality.

Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age; but they die young. And dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals because dance is a song of the body, either of joy or pain. Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health — it rusts your spirit and your hips.

Despite this, choreography has been a useful technique to help those suffering with Alzheimer’s, and currently allows the body space (Kloetzel, M., 2009). Firstly, what is choreography? Choreography is a series of movements, within all forms of dancing. As Marina O`Rourke (2015) explained “Dance offers a unique fitness experience, encompassing strength, balance, posture, focus and flexibility”. For example, the usual physical exercises helps with building muscle strength and controlling chronic diseases, while mental workout helps with the memory and focus on fighting disease such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. Because choreography is technique that makes one unwillingly memorize dance steps, there is no age limit on the benefits. Marina

My senior year I got into band and became a majorette.Being a majorette had changed a lot of things it pushes me to keep everything up and together.When I dance I stop thinking about all my problems.I let them out and it's just for once the world make sense and everything is better.I feel that without dancing sometimes I can over stress myself and make things harder than there

Dance has been a natural movement form since the beginning of time. The origin of dance is unknown, just as the knowledge of the benefits of dance are unknown to many in our society. Many people do not enjoy dancing and also do not fully understand the positive benefits that come from dancing. Researchers such as Edwards, Duberg, and many more have found countless mental and emotional benefits of dance that originate from movement patterns, brain connections, and even expressions of emotion. Many are aware of the physical benefits of dance, but beyond the physical benefits of dance, there are also emotional and mental benefits that come from dance as well.

Dance is my therapy. Ever since I was a little girl, I have known that I was going to live the rest of my life dancing. Anytime I find myself in a bad mood, I dance, and all of a sudden I feel happy again. My body is completely aware of when I stop dancing for a period of time. Usually, Christmas break is the worst because of the cold and lack of outdoor activities. If I spend the majority of my time relaxing and doing nothing, my body does not like it. I go from constant movement, all day and every day, the demanding, physical toll of dancing my body endures, to complete relaxation is like running a marathon and then going to sleep immediately after crossing the finish line. After I spend the two weeks of Christmas break doing nothing, not only have I lost a lot of strength and flexibility, but I have lost an even larger amount of motivation and passion. Once I start back to dance, I reconnect with the passion and love I have for it.

Furthermore cognitive control and supervisory attentional system were developed so that the regulation and control of cognitive processes were improved. (Duchesne, et al., 2015). Research has shown that the aerobic capacity of an individual with Parkinson’s Disease will not decrease if they continue with regular aerobic exercise and aerobic capacity can actually still be increased. The main reason for reduced aerobic capacity in patients with Parkinson’s Disease is because they stop exercising due to a perceived reduction in quality of life (Canning, Alison, Allen, & Groeller, 1997). Hackney and Earhart (2009) demonstrated that 20 lessons of the dance tango, a form of aerobic exercise, improved overall health related quality of life for those affected by Parkinson’s disease. This is because the tango has shown to improve axial impairment, walking backward and allow problem solving, also the music from the tango acted as music therapy, reducing depression. (Hackney & Earhart,

One of the earliest studies found examined the benefits of dance for a person with PD was in 1989, by Beth Kaplan Westbrook and Helen McKibben. The study compared the benefits of a six-week period dance/movement session to an exercise group. The authors detected improvements during the one-hour dance session than the exercise group. Another article in the field of dance and Parkinson is a preliminary study published in 2007. The small sample “investigated and compared the effects of dance and strength/flexibility exercise on functional mobility in people with PD” (Hackney et al. 5). Nineteen subjects were recruited with PD and randomly assigned to either a tango or exercise class. The participants completed a total of twenty classes and were

Dance movement therapy (DMT) is one of the fastest growing forms of interactive therapy offered today, and understandably so. According to the American Dance Therapy Association, DMT is the “psychotherapeutic use of movement and dance to support intellectual, emotional, and motor functions in the body. As a form of expressive therapy, DMT looks at the correlation between movement and emotion.” DMT has been proven beneficial to various individuals, whether they are suffering from cancer, post traumatic stress disorder, or childhood obesity.

A recent study by Aguiar, da Rocha, and Morris (2016) took different studies on dance and Parkinson’s disease and compared the results. The studies that were compared were a multitude of different dance styles including tango and the foxtrot. The idea behind the study was to learn if the style of dance effects the outcome of the results. What they found was that these styles were safe for people who are diagnosed with mild and moderate Parkinson’s disease. The outcomes were the increase in the ability of walking and quality of life. Participants became more social through the duration of the different studies indicating that dance could affect social abilities and confidence. The different

A series of set of movements to music, either alone or with a partner. That is the definition of dancing. Dancing is a way to express one's feeling and to get active.

First, dancing is one of my favorites hobbies. For centuries, dance manuals and other writings have lauded the health benefits of dancing, usually as physical exercise. We've