Gators get their groove on during Dance for Life program

March 6, 2009

Dance for Life, a free, therapeutic dance program for people with Parkinson’s disease, offers University of Florida students, faculty, staff and UF Movement Disorders Center (MDC) patients an opportunity to come together and dance.

Dance for Life is designed to reduce motor and non-motor symptoms and enhance the well-being of Parkinson’s disease patients.

Program partners for Dance for Life include MDC and the UF College of Fine Arts’ Center for the Arts in Healthcare (CAHRE).

“Dance for Life not only fits within the mission and goals of the program’s partners, but also highlights the benefits of dance for Parkinson’s patients,” said Jill Sonke-Henderson, who serves as director of CAHRE, assistant director of Shands Arts in Medicine and co-director of Dance for Life.

Dr. Hubert Fernandez, associate professor of UF’s department of neurology and co-director of both MDC and Dance for Life, said the program assists Parkinson’s disease patients with non-motor (mental) symptoms, including depression and anxiety, as well as motor symptoms such as coordination difficulties and gait freezing. Gait freezing is when lack of coordination inhibits the movement of a certain body part.

Dancing helps patients use visual cues and develop muscle memory to overcome gait freezing. Movement becomes second nature, so patients are able to walk without conscious effort, Fernandez said.

Music is also good therapy for depression and anxiety. The program provides patients with muscle therapy, rigorous exercise, and visual and auditory cuing in a fun way, he said.

The MDC refers patients to the program, but anyone with Parkinson’s disease is welcome.

The new Dance for Life program began on Jan. 26 with approximately 12 older participants and 10 UF students. Weekly classes will continue each Monday until April 20 — with the exception of no class on March 9. A culminating event is scheduled to take place in late April.

The sessions are held from 1 to 2:15 p.m. at the UF Orthopaedic Institute’s Biomechanics and Motion Analysis Laboratory, 3450 Hull Road off 34th Street.

Classes are led by Kelly Cawthon, UF School of Theatre and Dance professor, and Lauren Arce, Artist in Residence for Shands Arts in Medicine. Student-leaders assist as part of the School of Theatre and Dance teaching-methods course.

“The collaboration between the students and the older participants is just rich and wonderful,” Sonke-Henderson said.

“Dance for Life gives students a sense of bringing their art out of the studio and into the world,” she said. Any UF student may volunteer for the program by calling Shands Arts in Medicine at 352-265-0151 or by e-mailing Sonke-Henderson at jsonke@ufl.edu.

Patients’ friends and family members are encouraged to attend and participate in an informal performance at the culminating event in April, she said. The event date has not yet been determined.

It is possible that faculty and staff may join in the performance to show patients that “we’re all in this together,” Fernandez said. “You dance, and we’ll dance for you.”