Jennifer Speiden will teach a series of three Dance for Parkinson’s pilot classes in Blacksburg, VA starting June 10. Sponsored by Inner Awareness and the YMCA at Virginia Tech, and hosted at the Y, the class will be offered free of charge and will take place on two additional dates over the summer: July 8 and August 12. Speiden will bring elements of contemporary, social and world dances into the class as well as integrate her extensive movement knowledge and experience as a physical therapist, registered yoga teacher, Pilates instructor and professional dance performer and educator. For more information about the pilot classes, please click here or visit the Inner Awareness website.
Fourteen members of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group participated in a special Dance for PD demonstration class as part of the Parkinson’s Unity Walk on April 16. With David Leventhal leading the class and William Wade on electric piano, BPG members braved unseasonably cold weather to dance together on a stage at one end of Find A Cure Boulevard, near the Central Park Bandshell. An audience of walkers from all over the world cheered them on. To see clips from the demo, and interviews from the day, please click here. The Unity Walk is the largest grassroots event to raise Parkinson’s awareness and funds to find a cure. Since 1994, families, friends, caregivers and representatives from the Walk’s sponsors and seven major U.S. Parkinson’s foundations have gathered once a year in unity, with 100% of donations going directly to Parkinson’s disease research. For more information about the event, or to donate, please click here.
Maithily Bhupatkar and Hrishikesh Pawar lead a demo class during a Parkinson’s seminar in Mumbai, India.
Maithily Bhupatkar and Hrishikesh Pawar, who have collaborated with the Mark Morris Dance Group/Brooklyn Parkinson Group Dance for PD program to set up India’s first Dance for PD classes in Pune, conducted a demo class at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital’s Annual Seminar on April 10, 2011. The seminar, held in Mumbai on World Parkinson’s Disease Day, attracted approximately 500 people with Parkinson’s, families and medical staff. Speakers addressed a variety of topics, including stem cell research, deep brain stimulation, the social and emotional effects of PD, and recommended Physical Therapy exercises. Then Bhupatkar and Pawar conducted a 20-minute demo of the dance class they launched in the Fall of 2010 at the Sancheti Hospital after Bhupatkar studied and trained in Brooklyn. “The demo was extremely well received at the conference,” Bhupatkar said. “We were very pleased to share this process with so many patients.” For more information about the Pune program, please click here.
Dance for PD arrives in Chester County April 26 when a new program launches at The Rock School West. The class, offered in collaboration with Penn Medicine and The Parkinson Council, and made possible by a generous donation from Karen Jacobson Milberg, and will take place Tuesdays from 1:00-2:30. Local organizers Karen Lynch and Du-Can Chan attended a Dance for PD pilot class in Philadelphia in late 2010 and got inspired to build a team to explore the possibility of a class in West Chester, which is about 32 miles outside of Philadelphia. They were encouraged in their efforts by Julie Stutzbach, Outreach Coordinator at Penn Medicine’s Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center, and Wendy Lewis, Executive Director of The Parkinson Council. Stutzbach and Lewis included the Chester County program as part of a wider effort to launch Dance for PD in the Greater Philadelphia area. On April 1, founding teacher David Leventhal presented a demo class in West Chester for 26 participants, many of whom signed up for the ongoing classes after the event. “We feel strongly that Dance for PD shouldn’t only be available for people who live in or can get to large cities,” Leventhal said. “We’re committed to helping suburban and rural communities find ways to bring this kind of arts activity to their populations so that people with PD in smaller towns have access to first-rate dance programs.” For registration information, please click here.
Karen Lynch (left), Wendy Lewis, Du-Can Chan (front) and David Leventhal
DanceVision and The Parkinson Alliance are teaming up to offer a 6-week Dance for Parkinson series Thursdays from 1-2:15 at the Princeton Dance and Theater Studio in Forrestal Village. The launch of the Princeton program comes after a pilot class, led by Dance for PD founding teacher John Heginbotham and David Leventhal, brought more than 30 participants into PDT’s studios in January. Three Princeton dance teachers, led by Marie Alonzo Snyder, then attended a Dance for PD training workshop in Philadelphia. Snyder, along with Debra Keller and Linda Mannheim, will be leading the Princeton classes. “I am thrilled to see a class for this special population offered in the Princeton area,” Snyder said. “To be able to share our love for dancing and movement with individual’s with Parkinson’s is a gift to us. As dancers we tend to focus on what we can’t do or as teacher we tend to expect students to strive for an ideal perfection and in this class I look forward to simply bring back the joy of dancing and the beauty of movement in every form to all the participants.” For more information about the class, please click here.
John and David lead a pilot class at DanceVision in January. (Photo: Gloria Hansen)
Atlanta-based Brooks & Company Dance is offering an 11-week Dance for Parkinson’s class at the brand new, state-of-the-art Atlanta Ballet Michael C. Carlos Center for Dance. The class will be taught by Joanna Brooks, founder and director of Brooks & Company Dance (BCD), who trained at the Dance for PD® workshop in Brooklyn in 2009. Thanks to a grant from the Mitchell Foundation, the class is free for participants and their caregivers. Brooks & Company Dance is a concert modern dance company known in Atlanta for their haunting narrative ballets. “We’re thrilled to begin a new Dance for Parkinson’s program since ending the monthly class last June,” said Joanna Brooks, the company’s artistic director. For more information, contact BCD at (404) 590-0730 or by clicking here.
Members of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group will participate in a demonstration Dance for PD class at the 2011 Unity Walk in New York’s Central Park on Saturday, April 16. The Unity Walk is the largest grassroots event to raise Parkinson’s awareness and funds to find a cure. Since 1994, families, friends, caregivers and representatives from the Walk’s sponsors and seven major U.S. Parkinson’s foundations have gathered once a year in unity, with 100% of donations going directly to Parkinson’s disease research. While more than 10,000 people are expected to turn out for the event, many others raise funds from home and support the Walk without ever coming to Central Park. Faculty from the Mark Morris Dance Group will lead the Dance for PD demo class, which will also feature live musical accompaniment. Click on the logo above for more information, or call 866-PUW-WALK (866-789-9255)
Overlook Hospital in Summit is launching a new Dancing for Parkinson’s Disease class taught by Michelle de Fremery, a dancer with the New Jersey Ballet who trained at a Dance for PD® workshop in Brooklyn last year. The class is part of the Overlook Hospital’s Wellness and Support Program and will take place on eight consecutive Thursdays starting March 17. The program aims to give those coping with Parkinson’s disease, patients and caregivers an opportunity to express themselves, enjoy a sense of grace and play with music and movement. De Fremery has danced with New Jersey Ballet for several years performing principal roles in ballets such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Nutcracker and Rodeo. She holds a BA in psychology from UC Berkeley and is a trained massage therapist certified in Neuromuscular Therapy. For more information, please see class listing here.
Two pilot dance programs for people with Parkinson’s are launching in the Daytona area in March. The Ormond Beach Family YMCA and the Port Orange Family YMCA, in association with the Parkinson Association of Greater Daytona Beach, are rolling out a series of four pilot classes in two different locations. All registrants will be able to participate at one or both venues, and caregivers will be welcome to attend and participate in the introductory classes at no extra charge. The program launch comes six weeks after local teachers attended an in-house Dance for PD® training workshop at the Ormond Beach YMCA, led by Dance for PD program manager David Leventhal.
“We look forward to piloting this class at the Ormond Beach Family YMCA and Port Orange Family YMCA and eventually offering it throughout the county,” said Teresa Rogers, President and CEO of the Volusia Flagler Family YMCA. “The Y is committed to helping people in the community improve their well-being and this program will benefit both people with Parkinson’s Disease and their caregivers.”
Vince Kinsler, President of the Parkinson Association of Greater Daytona Beach concurred: “I’m very much looking forward to bringing this program to the Parkinson community and watching it develop and grow.”
For more information, please visit the listings page.
See a short video about the launch of the Daytona program.
Invertigo Dance Theatre, in collaboration with Moving Body Pilates, will launch a pilot series of Dancing Through Parkinson’s classes in West Los Angeles in March 2011. Teachers Laura Karlin, Andrea Hodos, Linda Berghoff and Sofia Klass, all of whom trained with Dance for PD founders from the Mark Morris Dance Group and Brooklyn Parkinson Group, will offer a weekly class for people with Parkinson’s, their families and friends at the Electric Lodge in Venice. Starting a class is “is a long-standing dream of ours,” said Karlin, the artistic director of Invertigo Dance Theatre. “Our class emphasizes community, inspiration and renewed joy through movement. We teach a variety of dance forms to encourage stability and balance, increase flexibility, keep your mind limber and leave you feeling inspired,” Karlin said. Co-teacher Andrea Hodos, a local dance artist and the owner of Moving Body Pilates, is a member of the Agility Program Trainers and Pilates Instructors Group at the Parkinson’s Center of Oregon at Oregon Health and Science University, which gives her access to the most current research on Pilates and PD. For more information about the classes, please click here.
Fourteen members of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group participated in a special Dance for PD demonstration class as part of the Parkinson’s Unity Walk on April 16. With David Leventhal leading the class and William Wade on electric piano, BPG members braved unseasonably cold weather to dance together on a stage at one end of Find A Cure Boulevard, near the Central Park Bandshell. An audience of walkers from all over the world cheered them on. To see clips from the demo, and interviews from the day, please click 
