I
recently visited the University of Hertfordshire to attend
their conference on dance and
Parkinson’s hosted by Dr
Peter Lovatt and Dr Lucy Annett.
Dancing as a treatment for Parkinson’s is attracting more and more
interest. Many people who attend classes claim that the benefits to them are
transformational. Surprisingly, there is very little research in this area,
what there is can be ambiguous and my impression beforehand was that
‘mainstream’ researchers do not really take this subject seriously.
One
area that they have got exactly right is in working with the local community of
people with Parkinson’s. Subsidised dance classes are run by the university and
this provides a pool of potential participants for research. As part of the
conference four people with Parkinson’s told their own stories and these were
very powerful. Half way through the day there was the inevitable practical
session, led by Meryl Kiddier, that the entire room joined in with. Dance is something that anyone
can benefit from.
Emma Stack from the University of Southampton gave an overview of Parkinson’s
as related to exercise and coping strategies more generally. Sara
Houston from the University of
Roehampton talked about the aesthetics of dance for people with Parkinson’s and
her mixed method approach to ascertain the inner feelings of people taking part
in dance classes. The notion that people with Parkinson’s can become more
creative was also discussed. Gillian Murphy from the Hertfordshire Community
NHS Trust talked about the STABLE project, where participants are encouraged to
make exaggerated movements that help them to overcome some of the problems of
Parkinson’s. I wrote about neuro-plasticity a while back and this is one area
that has embraced this concept, although it does feel like an approach that is
struggling to find a scientific hook on which to place itself.
Towards the end of the conference one question that was asked was “Do you think that neuro-plasticity, creativity and divergent thinking are related in people with Parkinson’s?” I think the answer was yes.
Towards the end of the conference one question that was asked was “Do you think that neuro-plasticity, creativity and divergent thinking are related in people with Parkinson’s?” I think the answer was yes.
This blog post originally appeared in Parkinson's Blog - Thoughts about Parkinson's disease by Richard Windle
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