Though she’s always danced, Barbara Salsberg Mathews found a more urgent reason to take classes a few years ago.
“I just thought, ‘I better break out and start dancing, because Parkinson’s can’t stop me from dancing,'” said Salsberg Mathews, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2020.
Over the years, as symptoms of muscle weakness and stiffness have settled into her body, the 67-year-old says dance makes her feel like herself again.
“When I’m lost in the music, so to speak, I feel freer, my range and fluidity of my movement just comes right back,” she said.
And growing evidence suggests that dance can help slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. It’s because of that research that experts are launching a national online arts hub that aims to connect Parkinson’s patients across Canada to different programs, like singing and dancing.
Rebecca Barnstaple, an assistant professor of theatre at the University of Guelph, is leading the launch of the online arts hub.
“If participating in something like dance can help someone feel better, even as they’re living with a neurodegenerative condition, then that’s what I hope to be able to promote,” she said.
Her project is part of a broader movement toward social prescribing, which focuses on using social services to improve overall well-being and fill in some gaps within the healthcare system.
“When someone feels or is told or knows they have a movement disorder, they think dance is not for them,” Barnstable said.
“But this is exactly the moment when we should dance.”
Parkinson’s cases expected to grow
Right now, more than 110,000 Canadians are living with Parkinson’s disease — a number that’s expected to grow to more than 150,000 in less than 10 years, according to Parkinson’s Canada.
“In a few years from now, [Parkinson’s] will become the most common neurodegenerative disease,” said Dr. Alfonso Fasano, a neurologist at University Health Network in Toronto.
In Canada, people with Parkinson’s can wait up to two years to see a specialist or receive treatment — instead of spending that time feeling hopeless Barnstaple wants them to feel empowered.
She’s been teaching dance to people with Parkinson’s since 2013 and has seen the benefits firsthand.
“We’ve seen that it can impact people’s balance, their ability to get up from a chair, some really functional movements,” she said.
How does dancing help?
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that leads to a loss of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical that helps us move and brings us pleasure, among other functions.
With Parkinson’s, people can experience a range of symptoms, including body tremors, muscle stiffness and slowness, along with a sluggish brain, including anxiety and depression.
Exercise has long been prescribed to people living with Parkinson’s as a way to counteract some of the symptoms.
“Any movement is good for the body, in particular aerobic exercises,” said Fasano, the neurologist in Toronto.
“Some people have said that if exercise was a pill, it would be the most prescribed drug. And so dancing motivates people to take this pill.”
He says people with Parkinson’s who regularly exercise, to a point of increasing their heart rate, can see a slower progression in their disease.
And dancing does exactly that and tends to help with balance, coordination and flexibility.
But, experts say, dance isn’t the same as your typical workout, which could be why it offers more mental benefits.
“Doing dance is super complex for your body,” said Joseph DeSouza, an associate psychology professor at York University in Toronto, who isn’t involved in the Guelph project.
“If a doctor said you got to run more or do more steps, those are very simple things that don’t push cognition.”
Recent research from DeSouza shows that people with Parkinson’s who took dance classes once a week over six years had improved cognition and maintained stability when walking, compared with those who weren’t dancing.
“It’s surprising to me because it’s pushing the disease kind of in the back pocket of people,” he said.
“Now the question is: what aspect of dance is doing it?”
Research points to a variety of factors, from the music to the way that the social interactions from a class can boost mood, alleviating depression.
“As soon as you get the disease, you should be prescribed exercise, dance, swimming, whatever you think is fun,” said DeSouza.
But there are still a lot of questions that he’s hoping to answer, like how specifically the brain of someone with Parkinson’s responds or changes because of dance.
‘I am not watching the world go by’
In recent years, dance classes for people with Parkinson’s have increased in popularity and are taking place all across the country.
In Windsor, Ont., Ken Wickens attended his first one.
The 78-year-old has had Parkinson’s for about 12 years and says he’s always looking for experiences that keep him moving.
“I am not sitting still and I am not watching the world go by,” he said. “I’m getting a part of it.”
And it’s that feeling of being a part of something and interacting with others that researchers believe plays a bigger role than most people think.
Human connection is medicine, says Barnstaple, and she hopes more people will get a dose of it when her project launches in April.
