Dear Friends,
2021 was another unusual, but ultimately hopeful year for PD Movement Lab. Confined to the digital walls of Zoom, the Lab pushed to find new ways to expand accessibility, connect PwPs with one another, and open dialogues across disparate parts of the PD community.
Online classes went international. Presentation and panels connected PwPs across generations, and fought to bridge the gap between patient insight and scientific research. And university masterclasses educated occupational therapists, and future dancers and doctors about the precise benefits dance can provide to PwPs.
Amid these new initiatives, perhaps the most important thing the Lab achieved was not new at all: in a time of inconsistency and separation, it provided a space for people to consistently come together, move, and connect. Meeting with my students week-in, week-out has been a lifeline for me during the pandemic, and I am thankful for their commitment to me, to themselves, and to others.
Looking towards the new year, despite the horror of the pandemic and yet another wave of chaos with omicron, I do maintain hope for 2022. I am grateful for increasing vaccination rates and COVID treatments. I personally plan to return to in-person teaching early next year. And the Lab has several upcoming projects that I believe could help and bring joy to PwPs. So stay tuned!
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading about all PDML has done in 2021.
Yours,
Pam
PD Movement Lab 2021
Year in Review
Online Classes
As part of Dance for PD’s online program this past year, PDML classes reached people across the English speaking world. People from Canada, the continental US, and the UK regularly attended classes. The significance of how Dance for PD has expanded access to their programs during the pandemic cannot be understated, and deserves great praise. I am proud to have PDML has part of their program and I look forward to continuing to push the envelope of what dance can do for PwPs with them. To my students, no matter how many times you each attend, I get excited seeing so many people from so many places come to my class.
You can attend future online DFPD/PDML classes by following this link. I also expect to resume in person classes early next year (Omicron situation pending).
As part of the JCC’s online program, PDML focused on fostering a small, tight-knit community of support. The JCC’s work in providing holistic, multi-faceted programming for people with Parkinson’s is something that I strongly believe in. Dance should not be people’s only form of exercise. About half way through the year as part of their QoL speaker series, the JCC also interviewed me about my experience with PD. If you are interested you can watch that here, and you can register for PDML classes at the JCC here.
If you are interesting in trying out any PDML classes on your own time, you can take any one of the free online classes the Lab has on its website. You can access those by clicking here.
(Zoom) Panels &
Presentations
Beyond the Lab’s core programmatic offerings, PDML gave presentations and participated in panels focused on connecting young on-set PwPs with “old” young onset-PwPs, promoting insight in occupational therapy research, and educating future dancers and neurologists.
Davis Phinney Foundation
”Hindsight is 20/20:
Thoughts from an Old, Young On-Set”
This past June, as the keynote speaker for YOPD people at the Davis Phinney Foundation’s 2021 Victory Summit, I gave a speech titled “Hindsight is 20/20.” It focused on what aspects of my disease management I would keep and what I would do differently were I to do my time with Parkinson’s all over again. If you want to read the full speech you can follow this link below. It is geared towards YOPD people, but I think it is relevant to all people with Parkinson’s.
Link to full Davis Phinney YOPD Speech
Highlight of Speech: How I reduced my dyskinesia by paying attention to medication efficiency… (Note: The video has no sound so that you can focus on the difference in my dyskinesia between 2016 and 2018. If you want a fuller back story, you can read the speech.)
American Occupational Therapy Foundation
”Patients as Stakeholders in Research”
(Panel)
As part of a panel about patient inclusion in research, I delivered a short talk about how if the OT community wants to abide by their founding principle of “the therapeutic value of purposeful activity”, then OTs and researchers have to work with patients to define what is meaningful to patients.
This idea served as a jumping off point for a variety of other topics surrounding patient inclusion: funding for QoL research vs. cure research, how do we determine what research patients find valuable vs. researchers, lack of coordination between pill manufacturers, pills being manufactured in excessively large dosages, lack of research on medication efficiency, models for patients inclusion (the World Parkinson’s Congress is a great one!).
Highlight of talk: How can patients be expected to handle their meds if pharmaceutical companies make pills of different medications look identical?
If the light is bad, sometimes I can barely tell certain meds apart…
University Masterclasses
”Why Dance?”
As part of Rutgers’ Disability and Dance Program, Brown’s Artists and Scientists as Partners Program, and the Tufts’ School of Occupational Therapy, the Lab delivered a series of lectures exploring how the social and neurological properties of dance make it uniquely suited to the challenges of PD. More specifically, the lectures looked at dance’s creative, social nature; dance’s use of different cueing systems; and how dance combines motor control with complex sequencing. Students also experimented with crafting their own movement sequences based on their understanding of the symptomatic challenges of Parkinson’s.
Choreography
Although, the Lab did not produce any new choreography in 2021, its Zoom piece from last year “Boxed In” remained as relevant as ever. The success of the piece culminated in January 2021 when it was showcased at APAP, one of the most prominent dance conferences in the US. The audience watched “Boxed In” an hour after Dr. Fauci gave an address on COVID safety and the performing arts.
If you want, take another watch! Make sure to watch fullscreen with the volume up!
Special Thanks
This year recap would not be complete without acknowledging the people and organizations who support PD Movement Lab. They make everything the Lab does possible. Thank you!
Dance for PD
Dance for PD sponsors one of PD Movement Lab’s online classes, in addition to providing the administrative support needed to run it.
As I mentioned before, Dance for PD has done an extraordinary job making their classes more accessible during the pandemic. They are a model to emulate. Thank you David and Maria for all the work you’ve done in making people’s lives during the pandemic brighter. I am excited to continue to work with you to advance dance in the PD community.
Jewish Community Center of Manhattan
The JCC in Manhattan sponsors another PD Movement Lab online class, in addition to providing the administrative support needed to run it. The JCC does an exceptional job providing PwPs with a range of activities to challenge their bodies, and producing content focused on increasing the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s. Thank you Caroline, Whitney, and Nancy for supporting PDML and the Upper West Side community at large! I look forward to continuing to advance the JCC’s innovative program.
Rutgers University
Dance Department
The Rutgers University Dance Department has been a longtime advocate for using dance to help people with disabilities, and a longtime supporter of PDML. This past year was no exception. Rutgers continued to support the Lab in its outreach to PwPs in the New Jersey community and to students interested in using dance as an engine for social change. Yet in addition to this the university has also been a key partner in creating a program the Lab plans to make public this coming year. Thank you Jeff, thank you Roseanne, thank you Natalie, thank you Lauren!! I am excited for 2022!
In Remembrance
Judy Rosenblatt
I miss Judy Rosenblatt, a long-time member of Brooklyn Parkinson Group, Dance for PD and participant in PD Movement Lab. Judy had a piercing wit, and a forthrightness in expressing whatever thoughts she had. I remember a moment in class when we were there in person. We were working on how to make our feet move and Judy discovered a new way to move her legs. She had a big smile on her face and we all clapped for her. She is sorely missed.