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Dance for PD programmes (Europe-wide)

Case study | |

There are estimated to be over 300 communities offering dance for PD programmes globally, united through the Dance for PD network. Dance for PD was founded in 2001 to address creatively the symptom-specific concerns of people with PD such as balance, cognition, motor skill, mental health and physical confidence. Programmes are led by professionally trained dancers, who draw on their movement expertise, and the programme is supported by an advisory board comprising neuroscientists, neurologists, health-care professionals and researchers. Dance for PD provides training, resources and catalogues of many of the active programmes. To date, over 40 clinical studies have assessed the effectiveness of the dance programmes. 

Within the WHO European Region, a number of Member States offer classes, including the programmes Care to Dance and Dance for Health (Netherlands), Dançar com Pk (Portugal), Dance Well/CSC Bassano (Italy), DaPoPa (France), Dutch National Ballet/Creative Wellness Foundation (the Netherlands), English National Ballet and Musical Moving (England, United Kingdom), Kinesiphila (Belgium), Scottish Ballet (Scotland, United Kingdom), Skånes Dansteater (Sweden) and Step Up for Parkinson’s (Malta) (803). The majority of these are led by dance organizations that have developed relationships with doctors in primary care, hospitals or with specialist PD treatment centres. Some provide direct referrals and participants can also self-refer. 

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