Mischwa Murphy-McAdams was the artistic director and founder of a dance company (Bronze Girl Productions) as well as a teacher and performer of West African, Jamaican, and Haitian dance when she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease four years ago. Within months it became impossible for her to continue. She started losing her balance; then she couldn't lift her right leg. Her right arm hung by her side, and she couldn't beat a drum or sew a costume. “I decided I had to retire from performing and costume-making,” says Murphy-McAdams, 69, of Brentwood, CA. “I couldn't move normally because my right leg was sliding. I couldn't button my clothes because my right hand was affected. I was a hot mess.”
She kept her membership at a gym, where she took funk exercise classes, because she'd heard that dancing might help relieve Parkinson's symptoms. But she soon quit, frustrated and embarrassed by her limitations. Then her doctor prescribed a new medication regimen. As her symptoms lessened, Murphy-McAdams started moving to music at home. After four months she felt so good at a dance-related event that she pulled off a red tablecloth, wrapped it around her waist like a skirt, and joined the dancers. Two months later, she was teaching, rehearsing, and performing again.
“Now I'm doing everything, and my pride and independence have been restored,” Murphy-McAdams says. She knows dancing can't cure her disease, but it has lifted her mentally. “I feel close to my old self,” she says.
Doctors have long known about the mental and physical benefits of dance for people with Parkinson's. Early research focusing on tango found that people with Parkinson's who were part of an organized tango program improved their mobility and reported having a higher quality of life compared with peers who were not dancing, says Gammon Earhart, PhD, director of physical therapy at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who led a team that did several tango studies over a period of 10 years. “Some people reinitiated activities they'd given up. I don't know if it was simply enhanced mobility or improved confidence. Both may be important contributors,” says Dr. Earhart, also an associate dean at the Washington University School of Medicine.
Now researchers are looking beyond Parkinson's to see if dance can help people with other neurologic disorders. Results from a study measuring the effectiveness of dance therapy for people with Down syndrome, published in the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research in July 2023, concluded that it improved balance. Several small studies of different types of dance for people with multiple sclerosis have reported positive effects on mobility, cognition, and other abilities, suggesting that larger trials are appropriate, says Barbara Giesser, MD, FAAN, a neurologist at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, CA. In a study published in the Journal of Huntington's Disease in 2019, people with the degenerative disease who took a two-hour modern dance class once a week for five months had improved motor functions and said dance changed the way they “felt and lived in their bodies.”
Stroke survivors who participated in a twice-weekly dance class for 10 weeks had better balance, according to a study published in Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation in 2018. A common theme that came up among participants was that it improved their confidence when moving, says Kara Patterson, PhD, associate professor of physical therapy at the University of Toronto and senior scientist for the KITE Research Institute in Toronto, who was part of the study team.
“Dancing has the benefits of exercise plus the added layers of social interaction, emotional experience, creativity, imagination, and music,” says David Leventhal, director of the Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD program in New York. “Those extra benefits also help with motivation. Apathy is a huge challenge for people with Parkinson's. They are more likely to experience depression and feel socially isolated and lonely.”
The inherent joy of dancing may be why people don't think of it as exercise, says Rebecca Barnstaple, program manager at Ontario's Chigamik Community Health Centre, which has provided dance therapy programs for people with neurologic disorders. She's seen every kind of dancer. One longtime dancer stays in her wheelchair, nodding her head or moving her hands in coordination with the group or a partner. “She may not be moving her whole body, but I can see that she's responding to the music, and, for her, she's dancing,” Barnstaple says.
And she witnesses the effects. “The first couple of classes, people have a hard time putting on their coats or taking them off, but after about three classes, they can again do it,” Barnstaple says. “There's a functional outcome to the movement.”
Dance is good for brain health, says Diviya Kaul, MD, a neurologist and movement disorders specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek, CA, who teaches a weekly one-hour dance class for seniors. “When you introduce people to a new concept, you're creating new synapses in their brains, new neural pathways.” Dance also may build bone strength, and that's significant for people with epilepsy in particular, says Ann Marie Collier, MD, FAAN, director of the medical epilepsy program at St. Mary's Medical Center in Grand Junction, CO, because some anti-seizure medications, specifically some of the older drugs, have been implicated in causing osteoporosis. Dr. Collier also considers dance a good alternative for her patients who are reluctant to exercise on or with equipment.
Dr. Kaul has introduced her students to Bollywood music and dances, as a nod to her Indian heritage. “A lot of movements involve the hips, and the students hesitate, but then they do it and they love it. They realize they had more muscles than they'd thought.”
Both Dr. Kaul and Leventhal have observed that dancing can aid patients during episodes of freezing, the sudden inability to complete a movement, a symptom of some neurologic disorders. “I tell them, ‘When you freeze, hear the music in your head and step out of it,’” Dr. Kaul says. One of Leventhal's students told him that thinking about tap dancing, with its percussive force in the feet, helped him get out of bed in the morning. “He used those tap steps to propel him forward,” Leventhal says. “The dance class experience itself is transformative, but when people can take dance skills and apply them outside the studio, that's even more significant.”
Murphy-McAdams wants to encourage other people with movement disorders to try her classes. And she is training one of her students, 18-year-old Azaria Grant—who has Down syndrome and has been with Murphy-McAdams’ dance company for 10 years—to be a teacher. Grant says that when she's dancing she feels “more passionate and confident.” Her mother, Yolanda Jackson-Grant, says she believes dance has helped her daughter with coordination, balance, self-esteem, and speech.
Although Murphy-McAdams has no plans to stop dancing herself, she enjoys preparing younger dancers like Grant to teach. “It gives me something to look forward to,” she says. “And I like knowing I'm paying it forward.”
Get Ready to Move
If you have any anxiety about taking a class, consider this advice.
Confront your fears.
“Just giving it a try is the first hurdle to overcome for some people,” says Gammon Earhart, PhD, associate dean and director of physical therapy at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Typical objections include “I don't dance,” “It's not my thing,” and “I'm going to look silly,” according to Dr. Earhart. “If you don't like it, you don't have to keep doing it,” she says. “Most times, people end up liking it.”
Find a class.
To locate suitable programs, ask your neurologist or physical therapist for suggestions, search online, inquire at dance schools, or contact the local chapter of a patient advocacy organization. Dance for PD has multilingual class offerings both in person and online—and they are not only for those with Parkinson's. “We welcome people with other movement disorders like ataxia and multiple sclerosis, and those recovering from stroke,” says David Leventhal, director of the Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD program.
Whether you're joining a group or taking a private class, look for an instructor who has experience teaching people with movement disorders or other physical challenges. “Working with someone who can adapt dance to meet individual needs is key,” Dr. Earhart says. “The goal is not to make people great dancers. It's to get people moving and keep them moving.”
Bring a partner.
Attending class with a friend or caregiver can have a positive impact in multiple ways. You'll be more comfortable and have someone to lean on physically and mentally if necessary. “It helps transform the relationship, at least for an hour, to one of equality and sharing,” Leventhal says.
