ENB celebrates a decade of Dance for Parkinson's

Published: 13 December 2021
Reporter: Vera Liber

ENB’s Dance for Parkinson’s class at Mulryan Centre for Dance Credit: Chris Currie

English National Ballet's Dance for Parkinson's programme, providing dance classes for people with Parkinson’s, their family, friends and carers, has now been running for ten years.

Since its launch in 2010, the programme has reached more than 5,000 people through classes held at ENB’s studios and through five hub partners across the UK as well as sessions provided over Zoom.

Anniversary celebrations were postponed due to the pandemic but will include the premiere of Momenta, a film co-created by class participants and professional artists to be released on ENB’s web site on 15 December. An exhibition of personal stories, creative research collaborations and portrait photography opens to public viewing at the Mulryan Centre for Dance from 16 December until late February 2022.

Fleur Derbyshire Fox, English National Ballet’s Engagement Director, said, “I am extremely proud of English National Ballet’s Dance for Parkinson’s programme and feel continually inspired by the creativity of our participants with lived experience, the passion of our artists, the care given by our volunteers and staff and the commitment of our delivery hub partners. Our classes are expressive, creative and promote feelings of freedom from the physical and social constraints of having Parkinson’s.”

The programme was a model for research published in 2015 by Dr Sara Houston from Roehampton University and is also part of a collaboration with King’s College London and UCL on one of the world’s largest research studies addressing the impact and scalability of arts interventions on physical and mental health.

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