Dancing with your Brain took place at Z-arts in Manchester on 29th May as part of the nationwide Age of Creativity 2019 festival. The event followed on from the BEAM lab’s recent collaborative project on dance for Parkinson’s with English National Ballet and Equilibrium International.

Findings from our lab have suggested that watching, copying and imagining can help to facilitate basic movements in people with Parkinson’s. We are also interested in looking at how these processes can be used in everyday life, such as through dance, which involves learning through observation and imitation, and uses imagery to influence movement. Our pilot project explored the use of observation, imitation and imagery in dance for people with Parkinson’s, drawing on English National Ballet’s dance for Parkinson’s approach as well as the classical Indian style Bharatnatyam.

Dancing with your Brain gave people both with and without Parkinson’s the opportunity to try a taster session and experience first-hand how action representations are used in dance. Following the class, attendees were able to learn more about the project from a display of photographs and posters, and had a chance to talk to the dance artists, researchers and fellow participants

Related