It was only two years ago when Megan Walker-Straight’s mom told her about a new dance program being offered for Parkinson’s Disease patients.
Her mother, a physician, was alerted by a friend who knew Walker-Straight’s background in professional dance and suggested she teach the art form.
Walker-Straight researched the topic and, after winning a Stanley J. Wertheimer Fellowship, was studying in New York City with the two groups that created the program: the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group.
Her aim was to bring their Dance for PD program back home to help Parkinson’s patients in the Lower Mainland.
That fall, Walker-Straight — a sessional dance instructor at SFU — started her first Dance for PD group, held at the West Vancouver Senior’s Centre.
Soon, she was in front of NeuroFit BC in Vancouver.
And, next month, Walker-Straight will be at Place des Arts in Coquitlam to guide participants through movement, balance, flow, flexibility, sequencing and rhythm as well as spatial and aesthetic awareness.
Her Thursday classes will be an hour long, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., and followed by a coffee or tea — an important social component to the practice, she said.
The after-session element allows students to relax and to chat with others who are also diagnosed with the same long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. (About 100,000 Canadians have the progressive illness that causes such symptoms as tremors, slowness, stiffness, impaired balance and muscle rigidity, among other things).
Walker-Straight said many of her students find encouragement by being around their peers, and swap stories about how they’re coping with Parkinson’s.
For others, though, seeing the different stages of the disease can be a reality shock, she said, and may be off-putting at first.
Still, she wants to create an inclusive environment where all mobilities — whether with a cane or in a wheelchair— are accepted and each routine has modifications.
Typically, her dance classes begin with students in chairs to achieve balance.
Then, with the music, they allow their limbs to sway to find the connections, which in turn opens their imagination.
If they are able, participants can move to standing positions.
Walker-Straight stresses, however, her practise shouldn’t replace exercise. “It’s a dance class. It’s not a therapy. Our goal is to enjoy and to have fun in movement.”
Walker-Straight said she often recruits her SFU dance undergraduates to volunteer. Once, she had an undergrad in tears after she missed helping out for a semester.
She couldn’t believe how much the Parkinson’s students had improved in a few months.
“She was so struck by it,” Walker-Straight recalled, adding, “I find it also actually amazing. I make an assumption about what they can do because they’re not always able then they have this better flow and posture. They say, ‘This is so helpful for me.’”
• Dance for PD runs from Sept. 21 to Dec. 7 at Place des Arts (1120 Brunette Ave., Coquitlam). To register and get 50% off, call 604-664-1636 or visit placedesarts.ca and use the coupon code 50OFF (one coupon per student).
ABOUT THE TEACHER
▪ Megan Walker-Straight has a bachelor of arts degree in dance from the University of California in Berkeley. She trained in dance therapy for her master’s degree at Hunter University of New York, and at the Helix Institute for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Healing — also in New York City.
▪ She performed in the New York City dance companies of Merce Cunningham, Lucinda Childs, Douglas Dunn and Kenneth King.
▪ She has since taught contemporary dance technique throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada and, since 2000, she has taught contemporary dance in the School for Contemporary Arts at SFU. In 2013, she was named a Cunningham Fellow by the Merce Cunningham Trust and has re-staged his dances in both NYC and Vancouver.
