Parkinson's dance class helps keep things moving
“The goal is that it becomes unconscious, as you get used to it you don’t need to think about it anymore.”
Katie Tranzillo leads the Parkinson's dance class
Posted: 12 June 2009
MIDDLETOWN — Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 10 years ago, Nancy Benedict now uses a wheelchair just about all the time. Occasionally, she can get around with the help of a walker.
But the 63-year-old Benedict was on her feet on a recent afternoon at Vinnie’s Jump and Jive, a dance hall run by Middletown’s Community Health Center.
“It feels good to move,” said Benedict, a Coventry resident.
Those with Parkinson’s have been traveling from around the state to participate in the weekly Dancing With Parkinson’s classes, set up by the Connecticut Parkinson’s Working Group.
“This gives you much more coordination,” said Jeff Lincoln, a Guilford resident. “You end up doing things you thought you could never do.”
Parkinson’s is a progressive movement disorder that affects about a million Americans, mostly those after the age of 50.There’s no cure or known cause for the disease, which results from the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine, which is needed for muscle movement and other activities. Major symptoms include trembling of the hands, legs, arms and jaw, rigidity, a slowness of movement called bradykinesia, and impaired balance and coordination.
Using dance is an unconventional approach that aims to promote coordination and movement. Exercises include mirroring, in which partners sit or stand across from one another, with the leader improvising movement and the partner following.
“Hopefully, the music inspires you a certain way,” said Katie Tranzillo, the dance instructor.
“The goal is that it becomes unconscious, as you get used to it you don’t need to think about it anymore,” she said.
Tranzillo has been leading the Parkinson’s dance classes since October. The Connecticut Parkinson’s Working Group contacted her because of her dance program, Shake Your Soul, which employs diverse elements like yoga, Qi gong, jazz and modern dance to encourage creativity, balance and flexibility.
The approach she leads for Parkinson’s sufferers was pioneered by the Brooklyn Parkinson Group and the Mark Morris Dance Group, a Brooklyn-based modern dance company. Participants can experience the joy of interacting with music as well as benefit from exercise and the mental demands of dance. There’s also the benefit of socializing.
“I want them to be enjoying movement and enjoy moving to music,” said Tranzillo, a North Haven resident.
The program has proven so popular that an additional dance group will be starting in New London, said Lincoln.
The dance classes help build on what Tranzillo called body memory.
“Most of what you learn is long term,” she said, though there are also participants who experience improvement during the course of a single session.
Music selections the other afternoon ranged from Pachelbel’s Canon to Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.”
“I spend a lot of time choosing music for specific movements,” said Tranzillo.
More information about Tranzillo’s dance offerings is online, at www.joyfuldancing.com
The Connecticut Parkinson’s Working Group is on the Web at cpwg2000.org.
Submitted by Jeff Kurz on Fri, 06/12/2009 - 18:18
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