Partnership Dance and Its Positive Effects on Patients With Parkinson's Disease

While growing up, I was placed into dance classes, dance started out as a hobby, but as I grew up it became a way for me to escape from the struggles life itself brings. While I was taking a dance culture class at Arizona State University, I stumbled across research that revealed that dance does not just help people like myself, but it also has the ability to help those with more difficult life-altering situations like Parkinson’s Disease. With having about 970 million adults aged 65 years old and up (United Nations), around 10-million of these individuals have Parkinson’s Disease (PD) (Parkinson’s New Today). With these large numbers, Parkinson’s is the second leading neurodegenerative disease worldwide (Parkinson’s News Today) behind Alzheimer’s. Parkinson’s is a motor system disorder that affects the production of dopamine in one’s brain (Harvard). With the current treatment of PD being medication as well as surgical therapy based on the severity of each patient (Parkinson’s Foundation), there is one form of treatment that has been tested but not certified, partnership dancing. The way that partnership dance benefits those with Parkinson’s Disease is by using many areas of the brain to facilitate dopamine production. The four main areas used are the motor cortex, the somatosensory, the basal ganglia, and lastly the cerebellum (Harvard). With the vast amount of existing research, as well as the information gained through secondary research, I feel as though there needs to be a study to open the development of partnership dance as a therapy modality for those with many of the forms of degenerative mental diseases. Although unable to put on this research, I have outlined what this study could look like to be continued in the hopes of having partnership dance become a certified form of therapy for those with Parkinson’s Disease.