The Dance for PD program completed two international tours that delivered training workshops and informational presentations in Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Holland.

In May, a whirlwind, eight-day training tour of Australia included Dance for PD workshops for more than 30 dancers and dance teachers in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, dramatically increasing the Australian dance community's capacity to work with persons with Parkinson’s in cities around the country. Teachers from Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Brisbane and other areas of the country were represented. “The trip was a tremendous success,” Leventhal said. “Despite the size of Australia, I felt we were able to make a significant impact because dance teachers from many different population centers are passionate about bringing the program back to their communities.” For more information, please click here.

In June, David Leventhal and Olie Westheimer joined teachers from the Dance for Parkinson's Network UK to help facilitate an intensive two-day training workshop for teachers and practitioners from the UK, Germany, and Italy. The workshop, co-presented by Dance for PD, the Network, and Dance Umbrella, and hosted by University of Roehampton, shared best practices from two continents with experienced teachers, and provided a chance to hear perspectives from a diverse field of speakers, including Ken Bartlett, Creative Director of the Foundation for Community Dance, who spoke articulately about the artistic imperative of the program. You can see the full workshop agenda here.

In June, members of the Toronto-based Dancing with Parkinson's (a Dance for PD partner) joined young students from two Toronto elementary schools to perform adapted excerpts from Mark Morris' L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato as part of Mark Morris Dance Group's performance residency at the Luminato Festival. With a full orchestra (The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Chamber Choir and soloists conducted by Jane Glover), costumes and a live audience, L'Allegro Movement Project built upon the success of the Dance for PD in Performance event in Brooklyn last November (see Newsflash 8), creating an inter-generational initiative that allowed Parkinson's dancers and young students to explore the expressive vocabulary of Morris' masterpiece. Mark Morris Dance Group dancers and Dance for PD staff facilitated the planning and rehearsal process in collaboration with Dancing with Parkinson's and Luminato Festival.

“L'Allegro Movement Project has been an epic adventure for all of our participants,” says Toronto Dancing with Parkinson’s founder Sarah Robichaud. “Dancing with the children has certainly made our students feel part of a large, beautiful artistic community.”

“This large-scale inter-generational Education and Outreach project explores the multi-disciplinary richness of Mark Morris’ L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and creates opportunities for collaboration that connects the participants through shared arts experiences, while reflecting personal and community narrative,” said Jessica Dargo Caplan, Director of Education and Community Outreach for Luminato. “On a personal note, it has been incredibly inspiring to be involved in the development of this beautiful project, and observe the authentic, ongoing exchange between the participants.”

To read an article about the project, please click here.

New film: Dancer, choreographer and Parkinson's movement teacher Pamela Quinn has produced a new short dance film featuring a duet she choreographed for herself and David Leventhal. The film was selected as one of the top 12 selections for the World Parkinson Congress' film competition. See the film here. Meanwhile, Pam's article "Dancing with Outliers" was published in Neurology Now. In the essay, Quinn, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's 16 years ago, credits her experience and skills as a dancer with her ability to manage and inhibit her symptoms to a greater extent than many of her fellow patients. Read the essay

Scientific perspectives: A new study published in the journal Neurology found that exposure to bug and weed killers and solvents may play a role in the development of Parkinson’s.
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Scientific perspectives: Researchers at Princeton University recently discovered that exercise creates vibrant new brain cells — and then shuts them down when they shouldn’t be in action.
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Rats Can't Dance
Dance for PD members listened last year with interest during a phone seminar as dance research Sara Houston, from University of Roehampton, discussed her multi-year project with English National Ballet's Dance for Parkinson's program. Sara was the keynote speaker at the first Artists and Scientists as Partners (ASaP) symposium at Brown University in March 2013 and has made her talk, entitled Rats Can’t Dance: Challenges to researching dance for people with Parkinson’s Disease, specially available to Dance for PD members. Log in to read under Featured Articles.