One summer about a decade ago, my husband and I were in Paris for a conference. Conferences always include spontaneous dinners at interesting restaurants with old friends and new. One evening eight of us went to dinner and I sat next to a rather typical British couple, rather tweedy, reserved, and soft-spoken. Until they starting tell me of their passion – the tango. They reported that they had just returned from Argentina where they had gone to take authentic tango lessons. It was a retirement lifestyle to envy; both in their 70s, they continued doing research and writing AND the tango.
I thought of them just now when I did a search on PubMed and came up with quite a few research studies dealing with the tango and Parkinson's.
Recent research study #1: Participants completed ten 1.5 hour long Argentine tango dance lessons within two weeks and showed significant improvement on the Berg Balance Scale (effect size (ES)=0.83, p=0.021), Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale Motor Subscale III (ES=-0.64, p=0.029), and percent of time spent in stance during forward walking (ES=0.97, p=0.015). "Short duration, intensive tango dancing for Parkinson disease: an uncontrolled pilot study," by Hackney ME, Earhart GM, Complementary Therapies in Medicine [2009 Aug;17(4):203-7]. Abstract: PubMed.
Recent research study #2: Participants were assigned to tango, waltz/foxtrot or no intervention (control) groups with those in the dance groups attending one-hour classes twice a week, completing 20 lessons in 13 weeks. The tango group improved as much or more than those in the waltz/foxtrot group on several measures, but both types of dance were beneficial. "Effects of dance on movement control in Parkinson's disease: a comparison of Argentine tango and American ballroom," by Hackney ME, Earhart GM, Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine [2009 May;41(6):475-81]. Abstract. PubMed.
Recent research study #3: Participants were randomly assigned to partnered or nonpartnered tango and attended one-hour classes twice per week, completing 20 lessons within 10 weeks."Effects of Dance on Gait and Balance in Parkinson's Disease: A Comparison of Partnered and Nonpartnered Dance Movement," by Hackney ME, Earhart GM, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair [forthcoming article, not yet published]. Abstract: PubMed.
Photo by Beige Alert
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