Photo: Senior Swans.
The cognitive challenges of dancing ballet can help people stave off dementia.
In my retirement community, there are lots of exercise classes, and they all have something in common. They meet the needs of seniors. They may include a special exercise to keep the psoas muscle healthy so seniors don’t start shuffling when they walk. They may wake up the brain with exercises like reaching with the right arm at the same time as the left leg. Other communities use ballet, a discipline thought to be especially beneficial in the fight against dementia.
Emily Goligoski, a reporter at Harper’s Bazaar who worries about the history of dementia in her family, wrote recently about taking a Balletcore class.
She wrote, “Our instructor, dancer and choreographer Angela Trimbur ,,, tells me, ‘Whether someone remembers every step is honestly less important to me than the fact that they’re building new neuron pathways and challenging familiar patterns to shift gears. … When we’re learning choreography, we’re asking the brain to do so many things at once: remember sequences, process music, coordinate movement, adapt when we make mistakes, and stay present with other people in the room. It’s a perfect puzzle for keeping the mind fresh.’
“My intention is not to improve endurance or lower-body strength. I’m returning to the discipline to stave off the dementia that runs in my family. Seeing my paternal grandfather’s decline and considering my dementia predisposition give me anxiety, sadness, and fear of future helplessness. But being in the studio brings feelings of possibility and challenge. Could going back to ballet be the ultimate offset?
“Dementia is an umbrella term for a group of chronic neurological conditions, the most common cause being Alzheimer’s disease. For people with dementia, memory, language, problem-solving, and other coordination skills deteriorate. As a partial prevention mechanism, some people pick up crossword puzzles. I have chosen to put on ballet slippers. Dance hits on a few components — replication, recall, and creation — that make it especially relevant for preventing cognitive aging. ,,,
“I find that the coaching and collective workshopping that regular barre and floorwork classes offer is exactly the scaffolding I crave. Catalina Jackson-Urueña, the director of the Dancing Through Parkinson’s program at Invertigo Dance Theatre in Los Angeles, explains that ballet technique is among the most codified in the world of dance. ‘There’s the standard positions. There’s alignment. It’s very specific. … Jackson-Urueña’s family also has a history of neurological conditions, both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, which In ballet class, I know what to expect: first, pliés, then tendus — something I’ve been doing my whole life. There’s comfort there, but it’s also challenging.’ The structure of specific components of each class (barre work is followed by stretching and sequences in the center of the class, then jumps) warm up the body and mind while offering variety that keeps dancers alert.
“Trimbur adds, ‘The people who seem most vibrant as they age don’t just keep exercising. They keep learning. They keep living in surprise. That’s what I love about choreography. It’s not repetition in the traditional fitness sense. Every week, you’re being asked to create a new map.’ …
“Lisa Mosconi, director of the Women’s Brain Initiative and Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Weill Cornell Medicine, explains this from a neuroscience perspective: ‘Novel movement is not simply exercise. It’s exercise plus learning. And that combination appears especially powerful for maintaining brain health as we age.’
“Trimbur sees the importance of novel movement too. ‘What I’ve noticed is that many of us move through life using a surprisingly small vocabulary of movement,’ she says. ‘Dance interrupts that. It asks you to cross your body differently, change direction unexpectedly, blow around like a tree in the wind, embody different characters, respond to rhythms you wouldn’t normally choose.’
“David Leventhal, one of the founding teachers of Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for PD [Parkinson’s Disease] program and its current director, sees benefit for professional dancers and people with neurodegenerative disease diagnoses alike. ‘Regardless of whether you’re dancing eight hours a day or one hour a week, it’s first and foremost a mindful activity. And it’s one of the best ways that we can integrate all of our sensory awareness along with a physical awareness and physical execution.’ The neural pathways that develop out of new experiences force brain adaptation — also known as neuroplasticity — that can slow down symptom progression.”
More at Harper’s, here.
