Former ballet master Andrew Greenwood told an audience at the Hannah Maclure Centre, Dundee's Academy of Sport and Division of Psychology, of the growing economy in the "wellness and health" market and claimed that "policymakers are recognising a demand for a different approach to managing health".
He also claimed that his dedicated dance sessions can have a positive impact on the lives of people with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis. The 54-year-old, who has performed in ballet companies all over the world, developed his Switch2Move workshops to improve these conditions.
He said, “when a person is diagnosed with an incurable disease, they start to be treated as a ‘person with Parkinson’s or ‘Alzheimer’s’ and treatments are very concentrated on the condition rather than the individual.
“I recognised that the health condition is only 10% of the actual person and realised I could make a difference.
“For example, somebody with Parkinson’s has very clear symptoms so you know they need to work on balance, flexibility, stability and cognition.
“With MS you need more of a ‘moving meditation’ and open space way to approach the person and if it’s someone with Alzheimer’s you get fully up in their face, because in half an hour they may not know who you are.”
Andrew’s visit was organised by Abertay psychology lecturer Dr Corinne Jola, who has researched the neuronal and cognitive processes involved in dance and is also a dance and choreographer. She has written a chapter for an upcoming book on the health benefits of dance, which, she said, “is a review of the physiological, psychological and emotional benefits of dance.
“This was a theoretical approach, so I am delighted to have Andrew here to tap into his practical experience.”
Dr Jola’s chapter, “The dancing queen: Explanatory mechanisms of the ‘feel-good-effect’ in dance”, will appear in The Oxford Handbook for Dance and Wellbeing later this year.