Dance for PD celebrates milestone 25th anniversary

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Dance for PD, an internationally-acclaimed program founded by Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, which offers research-backed dance classes for people living with Parkinson’s disease. BBT4PD is a proud member of the Dance for PD® network, offering free movement-based classes led by program director Cindy Surman, the only instructor in Florida certified by Dance for PD®. As we celebrate this monumental milestone, we turn to David Leventhal, the director of Dance for PD, to share his thoughts on this incredible program and the work it’s accomplished these past 25 years.

A note from the director of Dance for PD:

David Leventhal, Director of Dance for PD®.

Living with Parkinson’s requires flexibility, patience and resilience. I’m continually inspired by the way our dancers lean into these qualities every day, finding detours when one door is closed, breathing through moments when your feet just won’t move, and taking new challenges in stride. We can all learn from what Parkinson’s requires. 

As Dance for PD celebrates our 25th anniversary this month (the first class took place October 10, 2001), it’s worth remembering just how much these qualities have been guiding principles for us as well. When we offered our first class in 2001, the Parkinson’s movement/exercise landscape pretty empty – Parkinson’s-focused boxing, ping pong, pickleball, cycling, or specialized fitness programs hadn't been conceived yet. Olie Westheimer’s vision of a dance program for people living with Parkinson’s wasn’t just radical because it featured dance – it was radical because community-based programming for people with Parkinson’s was scarce if it existed at all. 

We encountered many closed doors along the way - there were Parkinson's associations that wouldn’t associate with us, doctors who refused to refer their patients to our free classes, community members who were scared of the word ‘dance’. We kept knocking, and engaging; we continued pursuing research; and we continued sharing the joys and benefits of dance with passion, integrity and commitment, class after class, community by community.

Much has changed. Now, we actively partner with hundreds of Parkinson’s organizations, clinics, and healthcare professionals around the world. Physician referrals to our programs are standard. People living with Parkinson’s in many communities enjoy a rich ecosystem of arts- and fitness-based activities (with dance, of course, uniquely occupying both categories). But we have more work to do. Too many members of the Parkinson’s tribe encounter challenges accessing high quality programs due to stigma, geographical or technological boundaries, or lack of knowledge about the value of dance and movement more generally. 

As we take time this year to celebrate, we also continue the hard work of improving global access, launching new classes, supporting and nurturing skilled, talented teaching artists, and translating knowledge about the benefits of dance as widely as we can. Below, you can read about some of these efforts. Your support as an advocate, participant, ambassador, and funder, combined with the qualities of flexibility, patience and resilience, will get us closer to our mission: making dance available for anyone living with Parkinson’s, anywhere in the world.

Happy 25th!

David Leventhal
Program Director