y o J r o f é t Je Parkinson’s Idaho Dance for is On Pointe
Sondra and Albert Shryock PHOTOS BY KAREN DAY
BY HEATHER HAMILTON-POST
Sondra Shryock pushed an invisible ball. Sunlight streamed through the windows and her limbs, stretched gracefully forward, guided the unseeable sphere into the arms of Sarah Powell, the teacher who heads the improvisation and class. In Sarah’s grasp, the ball was suddenly larger, the full span of her outreached arms, very bouncy, and headed toward Barbara Morgan, a retired neurologist who caught it in her palm and gently blew it to Georgiann Raimondi, President of the Board of Directors for Dance for Parkinson’s Idaho. The organization has been in the state since 2014, and seeks to bring dance, music, movement, artistry, and grace to Idaho’s Parkinson’s community. Sondra, who has attended since the beginning, has Parkinson’s and uses the class to help mitigate the effects of the disease. Taught by professional dancers trained in the Dance for PD method, the class, which originated in New York, is one of over 300 movement classes across the U.S.which addresses the specific concerns of Parkinson’s, including balance, flexibility, coordination, gait, isolation, and depression. Before class, the dancers asked each other about mutual friends. Over the years, they’ve said goodbye to a few folks, which is difficult, given the tight and supportive community that they’ve formed.
“For a long time after, we kept an empty chair in memory. It was a hard loss,” said Georgiann. The group nods in agreement, smiling faintly, silent in a moment of collective remembrance and then resuming their smiles. They’re here for a reason. “I’ve been fighting,” laughed Sondra. “And I really appreciate having the ballerinas do this for us.” Liz Keller, the Idaho organization’s founding and current director, started teaching Parkinson’s classes on tour with Trey McIntyre Project, which sought to involve performers in the communities they were present in. Her passion for teaching, combined with the first Dance for Parkinson’s class she observed, fueled her desire to make the class a success here. “These people had trouble walking in, and after class, were literally able to tango out of the room. I called Trey and told him that we need to bring this to Boise,” Liz said. Liz dove into the research and began meeting with program founder David Leventhal every week. She learned that movement, especially when paired with music, works to change the neural pathways—it bypasses the part of the brain deteriorated by Parkinson’s. “And next time they can’t do something like reach a can of soup, they might have the rhythm and music in their head and they’ll do salsa fingers, and they’ll grab that can. It’s incredible,” said Liz. www.idahomemagazine.com
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