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Classes teach dance to Parkinson's patients

Posted on Tue, Jul. 01, 2008
By KRISTINA PETERSON
http://news.scotsman.com/health/Park...ean.4237502.jp

Steven Beasley learned to dance while serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

On port stops in San Diego and Japan, he danced at United Service Organizations stations, where he received a booklet with footsteps demonstrating the swing and fox-trot.

"I took it aboard ship and locked myself in my office so no one could see me and I would do the steps holding the book," the Los Gatos, Calif., resident said.

Now more than 50 years later, Beasley, 76, is still dancing. For the past two months, he has taught a pilot program of ballroom dance lessons in Palo Alto, Calif., for locals with Parkinson's disease, a chronic degenerative neurological disorder that often affects patients' mobility.

"C'mon there, swinger!" said Beasley, wearing suspenders and a white tie, to one of a handful of assembled dancers.

A joint effort between the Avenidas senior center and the American Parkinson Disease Association's center at Stanford University, the five-class pilot program held its finale recently.

If the group can find ongoing space to hold its free classes, the dance sessions will continue, said Martha Gardner, a registered nurse who runs the center at Stanford.

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