Contact Quarterly Summer/Fall 2011 Vol. 36.2
In spring of 2009 I collaborated with Washington University Physical Therapy Professor Gammon Earhart and Graduate Student Jennifer Sylvester to do a two-week pilot study to assess the effectiveness of Contact Improvisation as an intevention for Parkinson’s Disease. I wrote a summary article published online at Contact Quarterly, published in the Summer/Fall 2011 edition.
I took along student dancers as partners for the study paricipants and taught classes in contact for and hour and a half a day, for ten consecutive days. We pre and post-tested 13 individuals with Parkinson’s. Our paper has just appeared in the October issue of Complementary Therapies in Medicine. It reports that participants demonstrated significant improvements in balance and functional mobility. We hope to do more follow up studies to learn more. Abstract
