Dancing with Parkinson's

Sara Houston

Description

This book explores the experience and value of dancing for people living with the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson’s disease. Linking aesthetic values to wellbeing, Sara Houston articulates the importance of the dancing experience for those with Parkinson’s, and argues that the benefits of participatory dance are best understood through the experiences, lives, needs and challenges of people living with Parkinson’s who have chosen to dance.

Presenting personal narratives from a study that investigates the experience of people with Parkinson’s who dance, intertwined with the social and political contexts in which the dancers live, this volume examines the personal and systemic issues as well as the attitudes and identities that shape people’s relationship to dance. Taking this new primary research as a starting point, Dancing with Parkinson’s builds an argument for how dance becomes a way of helping people live well with Parkinson’s.

Acknowledgements 

Introduction

Part 1: Positioning dance with Parkinson’s 

Chapter 1: Parkinson’s pathology in a social context 

Chapter 2: The phenomenon of dance for Parkinson’s 

Chapter 3: What’s so special about dancing? 

Part 2: The value of dancing with Parkinson’s 

Chapter 4: Living well with Parkinson’s 

Chapter 5: Exploring beauty 

Chapter 6: Interpreting grace 

Chapter 7: Finding freedom

Chapter 8: Understanding agency 

Epilogue: A beginning 

Bibliography

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Santé du quotidien
• Health Issues
• Social Science
• Performing Arts
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Connection
• Healing
• General officer
• Quality of life
• Disease
• Alternative medicine
• Health
• Dance
• General
• Cultural Studies
• Dancing
• Connexion

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789381214
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published in the UK in 2019 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2019 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2019 Sara Houston
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy-editor: MPS Technologies
Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas
Production managers: Emma Berrill and Katie Evans
Typesetting: Contentra Technologies
Print ISBN: 978-1-78938-120-7
ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78938-122-1
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78938-121-4
Printed and bound by Hobbs, United Kingdom.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) Licence. To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
To Fleur and Walter, who encouraged me to follow my passion for dance
Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1: Positioning dance with Parkinson’s
Chapter 1: Parkinson’s pathology in a social context
Chapter 2: The phenomenon of dance for Parkinson’s
Chapter 3: What’s so special about dancing?
Part 2: The value of dancing with Parkinson’s
Chapter 4: Living well with Parkinson’s
Chapter 5: Exploring beauty
Chapter 6: Interpreting grace
Chapter 7: Finding freedom
Chapter 8: Understanding agency
Epilogue: A beginning
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements

My thanks first go to English National Ballet for believing in the research and supporting me to work with them for several years. I would particularly like to thank Fleur Derbyshire-Fox and her engagement team, and Tamara Rojo, artistic director, for making the research for this book possible. I also would like to thank English National Ballet, Rachel Cherry and Dance for PD for kindly donating the book’s beautiful photographs.
I received financial support by way of BUPA Foundation prize money, which enabled the research to continue beyond a year and thence to a book. I took two sabbaticals to work on the manuscript and I am grateful to University of Roehampton for giving me the time to work solely on writing, as well as to the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme, whose prize money enabled me to extend my leave. I also benefited from a writing residency with Operaestate and CDC in Bassano del Grappa and my thanks go to Roberto Casarotto for his generous invitation. Thank you also to the Rayne Foundation and Dance Umbrella for supporting a visit to Dance for PD in New York.
This book was created following a long research process, through which a superb team accompanied me. Importantly, I would like to thank Ashley McGill, my co-investigator, who has been with me every step of the way through the process of research, analysis and discussion, and who made an essential contribution to the shape of the wider research – and also to the rest of the team, Raymond Lee, Katherine Watkins, Cameron Donald and Miranda Olsen. You provided wisdom, rigour, humour and constant support. I would also like to thank Brown University, Rachel Balaban and Julie Strandberg for supporting Donald and Olsen’s internships with me.
I am grateful to all the dancers from all the dance for Parkinson’s groups I studied, who gave up their time to speak to me and enthusiastically shared their thoughts, feelings and details of their lives, and a few their poetry, with me. You taught me much of what I know about Parkinson’s. Without you this book would never have happened and you were the primary inspiration. Particularly, I would like to mention the English National Ballet London group with whom I danced weekly for four years and who embraced me as part of their community. Thank you to all who danced there for making the research such a fun and rich process.
There were notable others who gave up their time to talk to me and had the courage to let me observe them. In particular, the London and Oxford English National Ballet Dance for Parkinson’s artistic teams, Danielle Teale, Rebecca Trevitt, Nathan Tinker, Jon Petter, Nia Williams and Katherine Hartley were wonderfully accommodating and also were really open to furthering thinking together about dance for people with Parkinson’s. Thank you for letting me hang out with you for so long. Thank you also to the volunteers and company dancers who spoke to me at English National Ballet and shared their thoughts, as well as to the artistic teams in Ipswich, Cardiff and Liverpool. David Leventhal at Dance for PD generously gave his time to discuss dance for Parkinson’s and share information on many occasions. Thank you for your unequivocal generosity and openness. Your encouragement too was most welcome. Similarly those involved in the early days of the Dance for Parkinson’s Partnership UK (the Network) welcomed me and have been fantastic in supporting my quest to understand the field. Thank you to you all for believing in my vision and allowing me to talk to you and observe your classes. There were a number of you who enthusiastically opened your doors to me and continue to do so in increasing numbers, so it is difficult to name everyone in person, but if you are reading this and recognize yourself here, this thank you is for you. I’d like to thank Kiki Gale and Toby Beazley especially for making me (and the book) feel a part of the Partnership. Additionally, thank you to the great many dance teaching artists, leaders and choreographers around the globe who did the same; in particular, Marc Vlemmix, Monica Gillette, Josef Makert, Pamela Quinn, Erica Jeffrey, Jane MacDonald, Olie Westheimer, Roberta Risch, Alex Tressor, Rachel Balaban, Andrew Greenwood, Vonita Singh, Hrishikesh Pawar, Hugo Tham, Clint Lutes, Gary Joplin, Giovanna Garzotto, Yasmeen Godder, Ofir Yudilevitch, Roberto Casarotto and Dario Tortorelli. The many conversations I have had with you have nurtured and fed into my thinking, inspiring me to probe the field further. I would also like to thank the Parkinson’s activists and researchers who gave up their time to talk to me. I am greatly indebted to you for helping me understand this field.
A special thanks goes to Chris Jones, who was marvellously rigorous and patient in copy-editing the whole manuscript and who helped me set up the research website. You’ve seen the book and research in all its states of readiness and it would have been much poorer without your feedback and suggestions. Likewise, thank you to Stephanie Jordan, Anna Pakes, Annabel Stanger, Hakan Redjep, Theresa Buckland, Rachel Rakotonirina and Daniel Burges, who read and commented on drafts of the manuscript on top of their busy schedules. I am grateful also to all the help and support Intellect Books has given to first the idea and then to the realization of the book, and to the insightful comments given in the peer review process.
I am also indebted to my long-time mentor and colleague, Andrée Grau, who died as I was finishing the manuscript. Her passion for seeing the interest and importance in even small movements and the value in highlighting the dance of marginalized people has lived with me in the writing of this book.
I was kept sane during the writing period by going back to dancing myself after seven years of absence, which has in itself been a joy. The experience has fed into my thinking and writing, particularly the regular dialogue with my ballet teacher Brian Loftus. The writing process was also eased by regular trips around my local London cafés with my laptop. Lastly, thank you to Dan, Cameron and Ruaridh for your loving tolerance in putting up with my absences whilst I researched the field and wrote the book.
Introduction
A clock is ticking and a heart is beating. Two adult men, one older than the other – mid-60s and mid-30s – stand in the light. They wear blue vests and shorts. They stand next to each other. The younger man casually lays his arm on the other’s shoulder, his hand dangling down. They look at each other in the eyes and whilst they look, the younger, slighter man lifts up his companion’s top with that hand. Meanwhile, he lifts his free hand up and wide and hits the older man on his bare stomach. The assaulted man proceeds to smack the younger across the cheek and takes him in a head lock. The younger retaliates by taking his father’s finger and bending it back. He cries ‘stop’. The father pinches his son’s nose until his son pleads him to let go. The son attempts to put his finger up his father’s nose. This fight continues, retaliation after retaliation; an arm is bent behind the back, nipples are pinched, fingers are bitten, ears are pulled. As the energy abates, the son lies outstretched on his stomach. His father stands balancing on his child’s back, stretching out his arms to the side, as if he is flying.
Later on, the dancers’ movements become tender, more caring. They carefully wrap around each other, their bodies melding into a ball; two arms unfold from this ball to mimic the flight of a swan, an echo of the earlier motif. And limbs interweave, one carrying the other. This care translates to a passage of movement where the younger man keeps falling over, his feet curling up, muscles spasming. His father tries to straighten his legs, but without success. In the final sequence the son climbs onto his father’s shoulders and then drops down to his arms. Jimmy Fontana sings Il Mondo whilst the son narrates the story of their lives well into the future, when he is old and in a care home dying peacefully in his father’s arms.
(Houston field notes on Parkin’Son , The Place, D’Anna 2014)
P arkin’Son (first performed in 2011 for Roma Equilibrio, Italy) was created by the choreographer Giulio D’Anna and performed by himself and Stefano D’Anna, his real f