Written by Karen Kovacs Dydzuhn Friday, 21 September 2012 10:30

Although people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease face many physical challenges, this oft debilitating illness cannot rob its victims of the joy of dancing. Moreover, when patients engage in creative movements set to music on a regular basis, there are inevitably great improvements to their overall physicality and brain functions.

Recent research has shown a strong correlation between dancing and short- and long- improvements in the range of motion, gait, balance, hand movements and rigidity in facial muscles for those diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, said Dr. J. Antonelle de Marcaida of Eastern Connecticut Neurology Specialists.

Marcaida led a discussion about the relationship between dance and Parkinson's disease during the Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD program at Fairfield University.

Led by David Leventhal of the Mark Morris Dance Group, more than 50 individuals with Parkinson's and their care partners participated in two dance sessions at Fairfield's Quick Center for the Arts. A company dancer for 14 years, Leventhal is pleased to devote himself full time to this program since his retirement last year. Since 2011, Dance for PD classes have been held in the United States and abroad.

"The dancers in the class are so eager to learn, so open and so courageous to the way they approach the movements," Leventhal explained.

After the Mark Morris Dance Group performed to an enthusiastic crowd at the Quick Center Saturday, the company's founder, Mark Morris, answered questions from the audience. About Dance for PD, Morris said those with Parkinson's disease do not leave the dance class feeling the way they did when they first walked in the doors of the Brooklyn studio.

"It's a 'fix' in that they want more of it," Morris said.

Accompanied by a pianist playing an eclectic mix of music show tunes, standards and classical participants begin the class in a seated position. Leventhal said that if they chose, they could experience the entire class in the chair.

"This is a dance class and we are here to have fun," he said. "And, you know your bodies best. So, if something doesn't feel right, don't do it, or modify it."

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Dancing through Parkinson's