Dancing into Brain Health (S1 Ep4): Amazonian Dance for Parkinson’s w/ Dr. Aline Haas
Dance is a powerfully beneficial activity for people living with Parkinson’s Disease. Initially emerging into academic literature in the late 1980s, with a study comparing the impact of dance movement therapy and traditional exercise on the movement symptoms of people living with Parkinson’s Disease, this dance and health approach has inspired numerous studies offering a robust platform for the field. Despite popular awareness about the impact of dance for Parkinson’s Disease increasing, much is still unknown about the specificity of impacts for diverse communities and well as the mechanisms of how different dance forms support domains of brain health.
In today’s episode of Dancing into Brain Health, our guest is dancer/researcher Dr. Aline Haas whose passion for dance and health has spearheaded initiatives that are addressing just this. Together we will inquire, how can we ensure more of the benefits of dance can reach those outside of the global north? How can access to and research on dance and health be more equitable?
To learn more about Dr. Aline Haas, visit her website or follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Read some of Dr. Haas’s work:
Check out the Dança e Parkinson and follow them on Instagram.
Learn more about Dr. Haas’s latest research on adapting Amazonian dance to support people living with Parkinson’s Disease here.
This episode of Dancing into Brain Health was edited and produced by Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown-Istrefi. The music for this show is the title cut from the album, Critical Path by Joe Venegoni and Carl Weingarten.
Highlights from the episode:
“I really believe in this - it's not possible to work alone. We are not going to do research alone. We are not going to do a big project alone. We need people, we need infrastructure, we need people to help us. It's really hard to do research alone. And I think it's really important to collaborate. It's not possible to do things alone.”
ABOUT DANCING INTO BRAIN HEALTH PODCAST
Join host Magda Kaczmarska, dancer, researcher, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and executive director of arts and health nonprofit, DanceStream Projects, in uncovering the interconnections of dance, brain health and community. Each episode Magda brings together leading researchers, artists, advocates and thought leaders to illuminate the magical interconnections of dance and brain health and explore their influence on all aspects of our lives.
* New Episodes every month! *
Follow us on IG: @ dancestream_projects or email us at: magda@dancestreamprojects.com