For this week’s second music therapy singing session, the word “back” refers to a simple song we learned as children and how practicing it can affect the “future” for the use of our voices.
At one point, seventeen men and women divided into three sections to sing the simple musical round, “Frere Jacques”. That song is the “back” part…back to childhood, when most of us learned that song during music class in elementary school or at camp.
The “future” is what we’re singing toward, including improved voice projection, better breathing stamina, stronger swallowing muscles, and more relaxed facial expressions.
Here are the lyrics…why not invite someone to sing it as a round with you!
“Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les Matines! Sonnez les Matines!
Ding, dang, dong! Ding, dang, dong!”
After that exercise, we sang songs made familiar by John Denver, Julie Andrews, Mitch Miller, Peter, Paul & Mary, and others! Come join us for what comes next!
Our class members are doing just what the doctor ordered – enjoying life! They’re sailing, swimming, fishing, winning golf tournaments, camping, entertaining out-of-town family and friends, sitting in front of the air conditioners and fans…and those are just a FEW of the activities still taking place due to September’s warm days and nights!
We’ve re-scheduled boxing until October. Keep an eye toward emails and blog posts for notifications of the start date!
“He who sings scares away his woes.”
This title quote by Miguel deCervantes Saavedra describes how we felt today!
Twenty people came to the first of five newly created weekly August group singing sessions today in Beverly. For an hour, we sang and laughed and shared and learned together. Our creative, engaging director, Emily Interrante, led us in vocal exercises that can help counter the affects Parkinson’s has on voice projection, swallowing issues, facial muscles and breathing.
Try one of the tongue-twisters we practiced using different rhythm and tone scales: “Mommy made me mush my m&m’s!” Faster and faster, higher and lower we went…pretty much like being on a roller coaster ride, as one participant described it! Maybe we’ll try Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life”, especially the verse that begins with “I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king….” Run those words together with emphasis on puffing a breath out through the lips when singing the words that start with the letter “p” – do it a number of times, as it makes good use of the lip muscles that aid in making regular speaking conversation.
Lots of music titles were suggested and we’ll be busy printing lyrics for the upcoming weeks. So much joy-full (spelling intended!) sound filled the room today. We’re all looking forward to returning to see what comes next!
Consider the following exchange quoted in a Neurology Now magazine interview. The article was titled “Unchained by Melody” and referred to findings by the late world-famous neurologist, Oliver Sacks.
Neurology Now: What do we know about the effects of music upon people with Parkinson’s?
Oliver Sacks: “In general, when one has a disease of the basal ganglia – such as Parkinson’s – and low levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, the flow of movement, speech, thought, and feeling has either stopped or takes on a stuttering, sputtering quality. Music can reorganize this and give the people a pattern and timing and rhythm. So, in this way, I think of music as a sort of prosthesis for the injured part of the brain.”
Equally interesting is the following information from an April 2016 write-up in Medical News Today about the effect of music on Parkinson’s (for the full article, visit http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/309140.php):
“Impairments in breathing and voice are also substantial hurdles that cause a significant drop in quality of life.
Voice impairments impact 60-80% of Parkinson’s patients. Their voice can become monotone and display less variety in volume; there may also be a reduced vocal intensity and pitch, and a harsh, breathy voice.
Standard Parkinson’s treatments do not target these aspects with the same level of success as the motor symptoms.”
Our Parkinson’s Fitness programming is initiating a new pilot choral group for North Shore Parkinson’s residents for the five Monday afternoons in August. To address facial, swallowing and vocal issues, as well as to foster joy and friendship, our team has partnered with music and neurologic music therapist, Emily Interrante, who lives and practices in the Cape Ann area. Here are the particulars:
Where: Beverly Council on Aging, second floor (parking and entrance in rear of building), 90 Colon Street, Beverly
Dates: Mondays – August 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29
Time: 2:15 to 3:30 PM – please arrive by 2:15 to “settle in” before the warm-up and singing begins at 2:30
Cost: Initial five weeks are free of charge!
No prior singing or music-reading experience is necessary. Family members and other support providers are invited to join in this joyful experience.
To register, please email: Parkinsonsfitness@gmail.com or phone Parkinson’s Fitness at 781-631-7221 or 781-572-5918
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!
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.”
