Greg Aldridge bends down Sept. 19 during a dance class for people with Parkinson's disease and similar illnesses offered by Oklahoma City Ballet. [Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman]
As the infectious Latin rhythms of the Miami Sound Machine blasted through the speakers, Greg Aldridge followed Gloria Estefan's commands to do the “Conga,” marching to the beat, pinwheeling his fists and swiveling his hips.
“Show me your best moves,” dance teacher Erica Portell urged. “Woo! You have got moves!”
While Aldridge and several of his classmates let the music get them to their feet and moving around the studio, others continued to conga in their folding chairs, the walkers many of them use pushed to the side as they felt the rhythm of the beat.
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“There might be days that I can't stand. … But that's what's nice, too, is that everybody's in different stages, and everybody knows that everybody has different times (that are hard),” Aldridge said, catching his breath after the class ended. “Music helps a ton, and any movement. Any exercise is good for you. That's one of the things that I've done that has helped through these 13 years: I exercise daily. … It makes such a huge difference in how I move, my outlook. It's helped slow my progression down, they say, so I stick with it.”
The Oklahoma City resident is one of several regular attendees at Oklahoma City Ballet's new weekly Dance for Parkinson's, a free Tuesday afternoon class for people with Parkinson's disease and similar disorders, as well as their caregivers. In partnership with the Parkinson Foundation of Oklahoma, OKC Ballet began offering the hourlong sessions in September.
“We've had really great turnout and really great response. One of the biggest things we keep hearing is that Erica is the best person to be teaching it. They love her,” OKC Ballet Outreach Coordinator Stephanie Pitts said. “They get to come and just let it go, and as you saw, some of them really let it go, which I love.”
While a pianist played the familiarly jazz tune “The Girl from Ipanema,” Portell led about 16 students at a recent Tuesday class through a seated tap dance routine, alternating heel taps with jazz hands.
“Then, when you do Fosse hands, it's kind of like you're petting a cat,” Portell said, purring as she referred to famous choreographer Bob Fosse. “There you go. Pet the cat. Meow.”
A lifelong dancer, Portell said she has long been intrigued with how dance can benefit populations that don't normally do it, although her interest intensified because of her father.
“My dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's about 11 years ago, and when he was younger, he was an amazing tap dancer. As he started to lose his ability to do day-to-day activities, he still retained the ability to dance, and music would really help him. In fact, if we would sing ‘Stayin' Alive,' he could walk without stumbling, tripping, falling,” she said.
“One of the main things you notice first with Parkinson's is that you lose fluidity. Everything becomes sort of rigid, and tripping, sort of stutter-stepping and freezing are some of the most common motor complaints. If you look at the way a dancer moves, everything that trains a dancer takes that away from your body: We make you fluid and stretchy and coordinated.”
Parkinson's disease is a chronic and progressive movement disorder that involves the malfunction and death of vital nerve cells in the brain. Nearly 1 million people in the U.S. are living with Parkinson's disease. There are treatments but no cure.
As Portell researched the benefits of dance for people with Parkinson's, she learned about the award-winning Dance for PD program created by David Leventhal at Mark Morris Dance Group in New York City. When she started teaching at OKC Ballet, which boasts a growing slate of outreach programs, she pitched the idea of beginning a similar class.
The nonprofit arts organization received an Elderly Services iFund grant from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation that allowed Portell to travel to Brooklyn in August to train through Leventhal's program.
“When I went to the training in New York, I was excited about it from the dance aspect. But when I watched how David Leventhal interacted with people in the class, they were people to him, not patients or broken things. He took them seriously, he took himself seriously teaching it. It wasn't patronizing or watered down. It was a people experience, and it really reminded me of my dad,” Portell said, adding that her father, D.J. Brower, was diagnosed when he was in his mid-50s, which is relatively young.
“I think people expect it to be presented as therapy or as, ‘we're going to fix you.' It's not that at all. It's not, ‘You have Parkinson's and you're going to dance so we can fix you.' It's, ‘You have Parkinson's, and you're going to some dancing.' When they come in, it's very accessible. It's presented as if they've never danced before, but it's not watered down and babyfied. And it's not therapy. Nobody is a patient in this class, and nobody needs to be fixed. We focus on the aesthetics of making something beautiful and interacting with music.”
Beyond ballet
Although the class is offered at OKC Ballet's new Susan E. Brackett Dance Center, the sessions cover a variety of dance styles. During the recent session, Portell led the group through a ballet-based port de bras exercise, encouraging them to move their arms as if they were picking up a baby, popping bubbles and flying like a bird. But she also had them striking dramatic poses through a seated flamenco and encouraged those who felt like standing to cha-cha-cha to Michael Buble's “Sway,” while Pitts continued to demonstrate the seated version of the Cuban dance.
“The quality of movement is still emphasized. So, you're not talking down to them, you're not making it silly, but it's fun,” Pitts said. “And they have choices. If they feel good, they can do the walking around. But if they start getting tired, they can follow me and do the seated (version).”
OKC Ballet staffers were surprised when the first class in September drew more than 20 attendees, and the Dance for Parkinson's sessions have continued to average about that many students. The iFund grant helps keep the classes free, and the partnership with the local Parkinson Foundation helps funnel participants into the program.
“I was at the World Parkinson Congress last year, and this program received a national award in the Parkinson's community. So, we were really excited to be able to be a part of bringing this to Oklahoma City,” said Bruce McIntyre, executive director of the Parkinson Foundation of Oklahoma.
“A lot of Parkinson patients do tend to spend a large amount of time home and alone and a little bit limited in what they're able to get out and do. The average age of onset is 62. Most people live a normal life span, but what's really affected is the quality of life. So, this is the perfect opportunity, at the perfect price, to be able to get out and engage with just some lovely people doing things that are good for you.”
Still moving
Although the cause of Parkinson's remains unknown, experts agree that it is crucial for people with the disease to keep moving as much as they can for as long as they can. Aldridge, who was diagnosed 13 years ago at the age of 48, said he is always looking for a new way to exercise, so he was intrigued when he heard about the dance class.
“They told me, ‘Come to one and see what it's like.' It's not at all what I expected. Not at all. I didn't know what it was going to be like, really, but I thought they might like show you some dance moves and you might dance together with your partner, something like that. I didn't know we were going to be exercising the whole time, which I love. It's great,” the retiree said.
“It's always good for you to do something new — and it's good for this, too,” he added, tapping his temple. “There's some cognitive things that go with Parkinson's.”
Although learning dance helps with common Parkinson's symptoms like loss of fluidity, coordination and balance, Portell said the class is open to people with other illnesses. Schoolteacher Lisa Cornwell, 55, who has Stage IV bone cancer, said she learned about the class through Portell's outreach activities at Crutcho Elementary.
“I thought, ‘Oh, this would be perfect for me,' because I just need to start doing some more stuff that I just don't do at home,” said Cornwell, who has been battling cancer for 12 years. “I've noticed through the years that my movement is starting to become more and more limited in my hips and joints ... and that's probably from long-terms steroids and chemo and everything.”
Once she got to boogie with an older gentleman through a “Soul Train”-style dance to Earth, Wind & Fire's funky “September,” she knew the class was for her.
“He just had this big old smile on his face … and we were holding hands and going down the line. And it was just the sweetest thing ever. I thought, ‘Oh, I gotta come back,' ” Cornwell said. “I'm really glad that I started it.”
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-ballet-offers-class-for-people-with-parkinsons-disease/article/5567961
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