My approach is based on listening to the connection between thought, emotion, spirit, and body. This is the natural kinetic process whereby our inner landscape translates into electrical impulses that transmit to the muscles the message as to how and with what quality to move. I explore the physical manifestation of this pure experience of being; the neuromuscular interrelationship. -Margie Gillis

The dancer knows neurology, the dancer knows how the body moves.

Margie Gillis on stage, solo. No actors, no dialogue, no special effects, just recorded music, and her art form is movement, and her instrument is herself. Truthful movement. Expression of the human condition in the universe and the beauty of it all tragically, magnificently, lovingly 50 000 years in the making, with a cast of millions.

The dancer knows how to go deep inside, to inner feelings and interpretations of the world, formulating a response to the world, and then the brain, having decided a plan of action, sends out electric and chemical signals through an immensely complex nerve system, to the muscles, telling the muscles how and where and when to move, in what sequence, and with what quality.

Dancing is one of the most complex activities that the brain can instruct the muscles to do. Dancers know about movement.

Parkinsonians are attracted to dance and to dancers in great numbers. The dancers are extremists of body movement, and they push the human body to its limits. They know things about movement that you cannot learn from a book. They are perfectionists in mind-body coordination, the lack of which causes such grief for those with movement disorders.

Geologists study Mt Everest by looking at satellite photos and examining rock samples. Dancers climb the mountain. They go to the outer limits of human experience, and they do it because it is there to be done; the mountain is there to be climbed.

Oh Lord, don't move the mountain. Teach me how to climb. Oh Lord, do not remove my stumbling blocks, but teach me to go around.

Jill Bunce talks about "K" who came to the dance class at the age of 56. She swayed and tottered, she could not run or jump, she had tremors down her right side, she literally sat on her hands to stop them from shaking, and then she would aggressively deny having any symptoms of Parkinson's (which she had for 6 years). She had no sense of time and was always late; she spoke of loss and sadness and disability. She was remote and would not talk to anyone, and she would slide into black depressions.

And she had been a musician. A music teacher. And guess what was the first thing the Beast stole from her? She could no longer control her fingers to play a musical instrument, which became less important when she started losing the ability to ride a bike, then to run, then to walk.

It took 2 years. It took 2 years for Jill Bunce and the group to get K up and back into life. K wanted folk dancing. And folk dancing she got. Not just a little bit. Not half-hearted. Parkinson's cannot be defeated with a little bit, with half-hearted.

Ya gotta dance wit' a feelin' or you ain't dancin at all. -Famous Blues Advice (FBA)

K began to ride her bicycle again, took on a new sense of purpose, started giving talks to groups in town, started driving her car again, started to run and jog and jump for the first time in 6 years, took an active role in helping others, and became the "wise woman" of the group. And she sat down at the piano, and she played.

And she sat down at the piano and she played.

Jill Bunce, dancer, explains what happened in those 2 years: "The nonverbal act is primary, before the awareness of it occurs. This is due to the brain's need for a sensory fine-tuning to rapid and complex changes in the environment and involves feedback of information to and from the brain. In PD [Parkinson's disease], the feedback system is impaired and so there is a lack of response to behavior. I have observed this with PD patients who have attachment problems and who have suffered abuse. There seems to be a disruption in feedback from the behavior to their conscious awareness of it. The ability to feel what the body experiences is crucial[horizontal ellipsis] dance is particularly suited for making what is preverbal into consciousness[horizontal ellipsis]."

That's a dancer talking.

Margie Gillis says:

"Dance is the direct communication through nature of our human experience."

"Dance, like nature, is a necessity and at this time it is sadly undervalued by society."

"Dance and its contribution to what is humanly possible and what health holds a place of honor in me."

"I feel it seems incumbent upon us to find ways to keep alive the necessity of dance's contribution to society and to find a way to allow the public to know what is there in truth; that they themselves, and their world of what is real and possible, are illuminated by being with us and supporting our work and research."

Dance is a universal human behavior, one associated with group rituals (Sachs, 1937; Farnell, 1999). Although it is depicted in cave art from more than 20 000 years ago (Appenzeller, 1998), dance may be much more ancient than that. Dance may in fact be as old as the human capacities for bipedal walking and running, which date back 2 to 5 million years (Ward, 2002; Bramble and Lieberman, 2004).

That's a neurologist talking.

Source: Bob Dawson has graciously given permission to publish Chapter 10 of his much noted blog, Parkinson's Patients: Yes We Can Dance (http://www.parkinsonsdance.blogspot.com).

About his blog site in his own words:

PARKINSON'S PATIENTS CANDANCE.HOWCOME?

I have Parkinson's.

A friend bombarded me with the Blues. I started to dance, and groove, and visualize. Music on-disease much better. Music off-symptoms come back. How come?

I found out on the Internet chat rooms, YouTube, interest groups, e-mail exchanges, that there are Parkinson' patients who cannot walk, but they can dance.

What's up with that?

This site does not contain a cure for Parkinson's.

I do not know if music and dance can help everybody.

If you have Parkinson's, it is my personal, nonscientific opinion that you should find music that you get off on, play it LOUD, and start to move to the music. Every day.

Dance as therapy.

Dance for flexibility, strength, endurance.

Dance for joy.

Dance in defiance of the disease.

I agree with all that.

But here is what this site is really about:

Dance for a cure.

Dance to bother the scientists.

Dance to Raise a Question

And the question is, if you cannot walk without falling down, if you cannot hold a spoon to feed yourself, if you choke when you swallow, if your mind is losing its ability to give instructions to your muscles, then how come you can get up and dance? Eh? How come? What's up with that?

Because the answer to our question may lead to a cure for Parkinson's.

In the past few years, much has been learned about what the brain on music does and what the brain on dancing does and what the brain on Parkinson's does, and some scientists say it is beginning to make sense.

What they are learning about music and dance may soon help to defeat an ancient disease.

Surprising? Not really. The human race had art before agriculture, before building shelters, before language. We are hard-wired for art.

And hard-wiring is what the PD'er needs, having burnt out one major set of circuits. Music and dance and science, combined, can eliminate this disease from the face of the earth, forever. It will be the next major disease to be vanquished. The more concentrated the effort, the faster it will get done.

So let's do it.

Let's get it on.

Let's dance as a question mark for all to see.

Someone will find an answer to the question, because the evidence is right before their eyes.

Bob Dawson, December 17, 2007