Our dedicated team of instructors are available in Danvers, Gloucester, Hamilton and Marblehead to lead regular weekly ability-and-study-based exercise programs throughout the summer months, as well as boxing in Salem.
We encourage you to continue building resources and to remain physically active this summer. Goal-setting is a good concept to try! Click here to look at our Class Times and Locations page on this site and along with your regular weekly class, why not make one of your goals an additional visit to one of our other locations in a different town. It’s a great way to build physical strength, to meet new people who share similar challenges, and to learn different movement techniques from each of our instructors.
Make it a point to ask a friend or family member to join you in any kind of safe activity that puts Parkinson’s where it belongs more often…taking a “back seat” to whatever provides you with a sense of accomplishment, wonder, and lighthearted joy. Balance your summer days between relaxing and keeping active!
Our hands and fingers mimicked fireworks exploding all around us…and then turned into raindrops trickling down and creating puddles. Our arms became soaring bird wings…and then moved our bodies as if part of a swim team practicing a variety of strokes. We formed the angles created by a city skyline…and then swayed side to side and in circles as if trees blown by storm winds. We stood and moved randomly about the room…as if on a crowded city sidewalk or inching along in a hallway toward a jam-packed sporting event. We’d move to a verbal cue however we interpreted it, and then quickly transform into something else suggested by the leader. It was as much a session in cognitive training as it was being physically involved.
Improvisation – invention, making it up as you go along, creativeness, imagination.
Under the guidance of our guest, Wake Forest University Associate Professor of Dance Christina Soriano, who visited with us on June 6th from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, our instructors had the benefit of her years of research into the effect of improvised movement on neurological conditions. Among a wide-ranging multitude of credits, she has served as a guest presenter at the Davis Phinney Foundation, and as a panelist at the 2013 World Parkinson Congress on the subject of “Creativity and Parkinson’s Disease.
(visit her web site: http://www.improvment.us/#welcome)
Once again, we’re grateful to Tracy Valletti, Community Relations Coordinator at CareOne in Peabody, for arranging to have us gather in space at their facility on Route 114 across from the North Shore Shopping Mall. It was fun having Tracy join us during the training session…and she also provided refreshments for all of us to enjoy afterward.
We’re looking forward to sharing what we’ve learned with present and future members of both our exercise and movement classes! As you move toward making a decision to visit any of our classes (see the Class Locations page on the web site), let your home become a make-shift dance studio! Put on some music and just let yourself move around in whatever ways provide you with some moments of feeling free and happy! Take those definitions for the word “improvisation” to heart and try it!
Our Parkinson’s Fitness team is excited about having Associate Professor of Dance, Christina Soriano, from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina visit with us on June 6th for an exchange of ideas regarding the connection between the arts and various neurodegenerative diseases.
Professor Soriano has extensive teaching and training backgrounds. She has served as a guest presenter at the Davis Phinney Foundation in Charlotte, North Carolina and as a panelist at the 2013 World Parkinson Congress on the subject of “Creativity and Parkinson’s Disease”. She has been a featured speaker at the Arts in Medicine Summit at the University of North Carolina Asheville, has taught workshops with arts practitioners in England, and has participated in the LEAD Conference (Leadership Exchange in Arts & Disabilities), held in Washington DC.
A symposium titled “Aging Re-Imagined” was held March 17 and 18 this year. Chaired by Professor Soriano, it brought together more than 300 faculty, staff, students and members of the Winston-Salem community to discuss the topic of aging. Leading scholars, artists, medical professionals and researchers shared insight on how people age and how society thinks and feels about aging. The event featured national speakers and highlighted research being conducted by Wake Forest faculty.
The following summarization describes Professor Soriano’s philosophy about improvisational movement:
“What does improvisational dance look like and why do I value it? The only constant in our lives is change. As we improvise, we discover who we are and what we care about. Movement habits form, and then they are disrupted. For older adults, the ability to navigate changes in routine can be more complicated. My improvisational dance strategies in class enable students to self-generate functional and expressive movement, with no worries about doing it “wrong.” Through a series of often rapidly delivered exercises that challenge cognition as much as physical function, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s patients and undergraduates alike are encouraged to create their personal movement universes. Their bodies make shapes, shift and redirect in space, exploring different speeds and levels of effort along the way. Often, a problem is presented like: “travel from point A to point B in the room but pause along the way and make a reaching gesture followed by a circular shape with your bodies.” Without fail, multiple clever and surprising versions of these prompts result. The class community is a supportive and engaging one.”
“The freedom to move easily and adapt to real life challenges is a fundamental part of the human experience. Movement freedom allows individuals to enjoy a sense of agency and thrive in an ever-changing environment. As we age, being spontaneous can get harder, especially for someone with a neurodegenerative disease.”
BRAIN: Improvisation is cognitively challenging and requires spontaneous decisions.
BODY: Dance has been shown to decrease fall risk and help with balance.
WELLNESS: Group classes encourage socialization and an overall sense of well-being.
Education, like life itself, is an ongoing, ever-changing process. In our mission to learn as much as we can from colleagues old and new, each of us who instructs or volunteers with the Parkinson’s Fitness programs will create new concepts to try as the result of Professor Soriano’s visit in June. We can hardly wait to share them!
Parkinson’s Fitness ability-based exercise and arts programs include classes in movement and dance in a fun, welcoming, and safe environment. Instructors Dianna Daly and Lisa Vincent are trained in the Dance for PD curriculum, in collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson’s Group.
Class members are guided through exercises designed to enhance and maintain mobility, flexibility, balance, coordination, and strength. All movements are easily modifiable for various levels of capability. Our instructors support and encourage participants to meet their mobility goals by incorporating a variety of music, storytelling, and movement styles from around the world. In this social, creative outlet, participants can discover or rediscover the joy of movement.
Care providers, family members, or supporting friends are welcome to attend, although not required. All are welcome; no previous dance experience required!
Click on our Class Times and Locations page on the web site…and then set a new goal and visit a class soon!
Edgar A. Guest (born August 20, 1881 in Birmingham, England – died August 5, 1959 in Detroit, Michigan) was an English-born American poet popular in the first half of the 20th century. He was known as the “People’s Poet”. We liked his poem titled “Defeat” and hope you will find wisdom in its simplicity.
No one is beat till he quits,
No one is through till he stops,
No matter how hard Failure hits,
No matter how often he drops,
A fellow’s not down till he lies
In the dust and refuses to rise.
Fate can slam him and bang him around,
And batter his frame till he’s sore.
But she never can say that he’s downed
While he bobs up serenely for more.
A fellow’s not dead till he dies,
Nor beat till no longer he tries.
Salem News staff writer Arianna MacNeill did a wonderful…and accurate!…job of presenting our programs to a wide North Shore audience. She and staff photographer Ken Yuszkus captured not only the physical faces of some of our class members, but also created a window for the public to glance through and gain better awareness about life with Parkinson’s disease.
If you haven’t seen the article, please visit this Salem News site:
http://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/fitness-movement/article_6bfc6310-912d-590c-9023-fc63a389d232.html
Thank you, Arianna, Ken, and the Salem News for helping us share opportunities for empowering people with Parkinson’s to keep this G.O.A.L. = Go On Actively Living!
As a Parkinson’s Fitness volunteer for the past three years, I’ve learned so much while helping shape the mission Linda and Keith Hall work continuously to share among people on the North Shore. On behalf of the many wonderful lives they have touched…and from me as a friend and team partner…this quote by William Arthur Ward sums up beautifully what many of us would like Linda and Keith to know…
“A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.”
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward
And so we want to share our gratitude about three very special people who have made it possible for Parkinson’s Fitness to share its mission throughout the North Shore communities and beyond. We think of these businesswomen as major foundation stones in our continuing program-building process.
Three years ago, as we recognized the importance of creating program visibility, we turned to Marblehead web designer Annie Clifford, founder of Clifford Web and Video Services (www.cliffordwebandvideo.com). Aware of Annie’s listening skills in helping clients shape the direction in which they want to present their information to the public, she was able to piece together all of our “we-want-to” visions into our first Parkinson’s Fitness web site. Annie not only played an important part in introducing us to a wider audience, she remains in an even more important role…she’s our friend! We welcome anyone considering Annie as their webmaster to contact us as references!
Recently, two new women – Kimberley Ballard and Jennifer Gonyea from Clarity Collaborative – have colorfully and creatively raised the visibility bar again by re-designing our web site to showcase our broadened definition of Parkinson’s “fitness”. Presenting motivating, ability-based physical exercise in a variety of locations will always remain our primary intention. Additionally, complementary forms of body movement, voice projection using music therapy, an incremental series of fine-motor and cognition-enhancing arts, and interactive socialization require their share of the visibility spotlight as well. So, a big public thank-you to Kimberley and Jennifer for all their recent efforts behind the scenes on our behalf!
Wow! What a class we had with instructor Lauren Caso on February 2nd!
All of us played identical instruments at the same time…first the gankogui (double bell), then the axatse (gourd rattle) and finally the kagan (baby drum, although they’re not so small!) so that we are becoming more in unison as we play the various rhythms used for each instrument. We’re working on connecting all of them into an interlocking, cohesive sound.
And then it was up on our feet and learning initial African circle dance motions! Trying those steps to authentic music recorded “in the field” was an excellent balance exercise…we’re not saying it was easy, but there was a great combination of concentration and laughter! We can hardly wait to try putting it together again next week!
That old saying that good things come in small packages fits our new friend Lauren. She may be small in size, but her instructing talent and patience level is as big as her heart!
The first in our six-week therapeutic drumming series began on January 26th and the room provided for us at CareOne at Peabody vibrated with rhythm!
Instructor Lauren Caso was full of enthusiasm and a fun and patient leader as a combination of 11 men and women tried three very different kinds of African instruments from Lauren’s diverse percussion collection.
We frequently read that as we age, we should constantly try something new to keep all of our brain and body cells firing. We CERTAINLY had the serotonin and dopamine levels in our brains reaching new heights on Tuesday!
Marilyn demonstrated one particular rhythm to the Friday exercise class members in Danvers, and further explained that when you allow yourself to think over what we learned during drumming, the rhythm actually “comes back”…now whether it’s 100% correct is another whole question! But we’ll try it again at our next class on February 2nd!
