Slowing Parkinson’s progression through dance

Wouldn't it be so dramatic if we looked away, away, away from your partner? Play a little footsie. We always say that as soon as you walk through that door, you are now an artist. There are no patients in this room. You will not see patients dancing. You will see artists, which means that you are able to express yourself in a way that feels good to you. Big, small, fast, slow. It doesn't matter what you do, it is the right choice. Because as an artist, every choice that you make is uniquely yours and your own form of self-expression. So yes, we have people who do this class. In wheelchairs, with walkers, we have people who sit, stand, and honestly, people who even do this class online. We have an online class 365 days a year from their bed. Some people, when they're recovering from surgery or they're down with a cold, they don't want to miss seeing their dance family. They don't want to miss that boost, that sort of dopamine, all those feel-good chemicals that flood through your body when you exercise and when you see people that you really enjoy seeing. Who's gonna sing with me? Put up your hands. Are you ready? We're gonna take this show on the road. y'all my name. Dancing is a really holistic art form which means that it involves the brain, the body, and the spirit. Right? So, the body. Dancers, we're always working on increasing our range of motion and amplitude and balance, coordination, posture, expression, all of those things. Right? So that's what dance does sort of physically through the body. Cognitively, when we're learning steps, following steps, mirroring steps, creating steps, remembering them, it's like we're making the brain work like a Sudoku puzzle all of the time. So we're improving our cognition, building our cognitive reserves, and increasing our neuroplasticity, right? People with Parkinson's, Things come in physically, they come in emotionally, and they start to get smaller socially. So to have a place where you are expanding physically, expanding your heart emotionally, and connecting to community. Everything that Parkinson's is and sort of takes away, dance gives back. It gives back that amplitude, it gives back that expression, and it gives that way to connect with members of your community and form friendships and like, who doesn't want that?