BRIGITTE, THE JOY REDISCOVERED

For the last two years, Brigitte has been participating in the dance-rhythm-therapy group. Her diagnosis with PD was 15 years ago. Lately, she has entered a phase of repetitive blockages and falls, which have negative consequences on her mood. This is a woman who has always been very active and involved in both her professional and private life.

The first year of dancing unveiled her main difficulties: trouble walking, loss of balance, freezing, difficult}' with coordination, lack of self-confidence, self-judgment, and depressive traits. She also mentioned the disruption in her writing: “I can’t read what I write ... I hate this disease!” She often complained of the lack of understanding of her illness: “Sometimes people don’t believe me when I say I’m sick. I have to fight in public transport, people push me when I’m blocked, or they don’t offer their seat.”

Having such blockages during the workshop annoyed her and made her vulnerable in her own eyes. She had been absent for certain periods, explaining that she was completely blocked and wasn’t able to join the class as she was in so much pain. However, during an exercise she could tell another patient aloud: “You’re blocked, you’re having trouble doing.”

This year the group has reconstituted itself within the hospital La Salpêtrière. Brigitte is with 14 other participants. After five months of work, she seems more motivated, more conscious, and less anxious about her motor difficulties. Her participation has become regular:

Now, going to dance is my priority. I gave up a lunch I had been offered. I told my friends that they could wait and I’d see them after the dance.

Now, Brigitte is showing some improvements: the reduction of depressive symptoms, more balanced and tonic walking, resistance to fatigue and initiative. She is very enthusiastic. She even comes during her off period, when she can’t handle the whole session because she is blocked by slowness or heavy fatigue. She adapts, accepts herself, observes others, accompanies us with her voice, and stays seated at the time of the blockages. “I’m proud of myself, I was able to outdo myself today.” Currently, Brigitte shares a lot about her feelings; she tells me after each session. “You know, thanks to dance I feel alive and happy. My husband is surprised at home, how it changes my state. I love dancing!”

CONCLUSION

The “Parkinson Dance” experience shows us that the Primitive Expression method in Dance-Rhythm-Therapy effectively responds to the needs and difficulties encountered by participants. Indeed the use of rhythm, repetitive movement, and voice make it possible to act on the three levels affected by PD. The first, motor symptoms, allows mitigations of tremors, release of freezing situations, fluidity, amplitude of movements, and better balance. The second level includes non-motor disorders such as pain and fatigue. The third level is social-psychological and symptoms that impinge upon trust, expression of emotions, openness to communication relaxation, joy, strengthening of self-image, and creativity.

These experiences with Parkinson’s patients also show how good dance is for our contemporary society. When we dance, our body informs us of the arrival of the joy, because dance is its privileged place, its instrument and its vehicle. It is the joy which announces to us that we live, that we create, that we advance far from death and the powers of inertia.

Dance-therapy by Primitive Expression gives rhythm a central place, which pushes the body beyond his limits and the dancer to a state called enthusiasm, or etymologically “possessed by a god” (in-theos). The god of life possesses our body with the rhythmic gods, Dionysus or Shiva, gods of life, vitality and creativity, because rhythm is the heart of humanity. The joy that dance gives to us is a presentiment of something beautiful and large that transcends human life: it is the Life, which will stop for each of us one day, but is immortal on the level of humanity.

NOTES

• 1. The abbreviation PD will be used for Parkinson’s disease.
• 2. The abbreviation DR f will be used for Dance-Rhythm-Therapy.
• 3. Mediations means that rhythm and danced movement are tools used to foster a relationship and communication with patients, encourage and support creativity, facilitate transferential dynamics and access symbolization.
• 4. Parallel to the process by which the child comes out of fusion-nature, takes off from the mother, from the imagination and from the ‘wild’ impulse.
• 5. Verbal times are called raps; it is a method of putting rhythmic words to the aches of the body and daily life.
• 6. Kinesphere: the part of the space that can be reached by the extremities of the body's limbs. It is the space immediately accessible without moving by deployment of the body.

• 7. Parkinson: de sifragiles danseurs. (2015). Le Parisien. Retrieved from www.dailymotion.com/video/x2n5bs5.
• 8. It is possible to organize workshops for people in wheelchairs or who have difficulty walking. Other aspects can be developed: coordination, the amplitude of gestures, the precision of gestures, and of course, their symbolism.

REFERENCES

Berrol, C. E, Ooi, W. L., & Katz, S. S. (1997, Fall/Winter). Dance/Movement Therapy with older adults who have sustained neurological insult: .A demonstration project. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 19(2), 135-160.

Cardinale, M. J., & Durieux, A. (2004). Bien dans ma voix, bien dans ma vie. Paris: Courrier du livre.

Cungi, C., & Limousin, S. (2003). Savoir se relaxer en choisissant sa méthode. Paris: Retz.

De Drcu, M. J., Van der Wilk, A. S. D., Poppe, E., Kwakkel, G., & Van Wegen, E. E. H. (2012). Réhabilitation, exercise therapy and music in patients with Pakinson's disease: A meta-analysis of the effects of music based movement therapy (MbM) on walking ability, balance and quality of life. XIX world Congress on Parkinson's Disease and related Disorders-Shanghaï(Chine), 11 14 December 201 1. January 2012, pp. 114 119.

Dolto, F. (2013). Psychoanalysis and paediatrics: Key psychoanalytical concepts with sixteen clinical observations of children. London: Karnac Books Ltd.

Hackney, M. E., & Earhart, G. M. (2009, August). Short duration, intensive tango dancing for Parkinson’s disease: An uncontrolled pilot study. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 4(17), 203 207.

Hackney, M. E., Kantorovitch, S., Levin, R., & Earhart, G. M. (2007, December). Effects of tango on functional mobility in Parkinson’s disease: A preliminary study. JNPT, 31(4), 173-179.

Heiberger, L., Maurer, C., Amtage, E, Xlendez-Balbuena, L, Schulte-Mônting, J., Hcpp-Reymon, M. C., & Kristeva, R. (2011, October). Impact of a weekly dance classes on the functional mobility and on the quality of life of individuals with Parkinson's disease. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 3, 14.

Johnson, K. V.-A., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2016). Pain tolerance predicts human social network size. Scientific Reports, 6, 25267.

Marchant, D., Sylvester, J. L., & Earhart, G. M. (2010). Effects of a short duration, high dose contact improvisation dance workshop on Parkinson disease: A pilot study. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 18, 184 190.

McIntosh, G. C., Brown, S. I L, Rice, R. R., & Thaut, M. H. (1997). Rhythmic auditory-motor facilitation of gait patterns in patients with Parkinson's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 62, 22 26.

Mitchell, L. A., & MacDonald, A. R. (2006). An experimental investigation of the effects preferred and relaxing music listening pain perception. Journal of Music Therapy, 63(4), 295-316.

Moisan, E, Wanneveich, M., Kab, S., Moutengou, E., Boussac-Zarebska, M., Carcaillon-Bentata, L., . . . & Elbaz, A. (2018). Frequency of Parkinson's disease in France in 2015 and trends to 2030. Bulletin Epidémiologique Hebdomaire, 2018(8-9), 128-140.

Nietzsche, F. (2003). Thus spoke Zarathustra. London: Penguin Classics.

Nombela, C., Hughes, L. E., Owen, A. M., & Grahn, J. A. (2013). Into the groove: Can rhythm influence Parkinson’s disease? Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, 37(2013), 2564—2570.

Pacchetti, C., Mangini, E, Aglieri, R., Fundaro, C., Martignoni, E., & Nappi, G. (2000). Active music therapy in Parkinson’s disease: An integrative method for motor and emotional rehabilitation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 386-393.

Rafferty, M. R., Schmidt, P. N., Luo, S. T, Li, K., Marras, C., Davis, T. L., . . . & Simuni, T. (2017). Regular exercise, quality of life, and mobility in Parkinson's disease: .A longitudinal analysis of National Parkinson Foundation quality improvement initiative. Journal of Parkinson's Disease, 7(1), 193-202.

Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain. New York: Knopf.

Schott-Billmann, E (2011). The space between: The potentialfor change. Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press.

Schott-Billmann, E (2013). Arts therapies and the intelligence of feeling. Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press.

Schott-Billmann, E (2015a). Primitive expression and dance therapy. London and New York: Routledge.

Schott-Billmann, F. (2015b). Mirror games in dance-therapy. In R., Hougham, S., Pitruzzela, & S. Scoble (Eds.), Through the looking glass: Dimensions of reflection in the arts therapies (pp. 54—64). Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press.

Schott-Billmann, F. (2018). Le rituel en danse- thérapie, symbolisation des émotions et connaissance de soi. Art-Therapies and rituals. 18th Annual Colloquium of the French Federation of Art Therapists (pp. 13 20). Paris.

Stern, 1). 11985). The interpersonal world of the infant. New York: Basic Books.

Tarr, B., Launay, J., Cohen, E., & Dunbar, R. (2015). Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain threshold and encourage social bonding. Biology Letters, 11, 20150767.

Westbrook, B., & McKibben, H. (1989, Spring/Summer). Dance/Movement Therapy with groups of outpatients with Parkinson’s disease. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 7/(1).

Westheimer, O. (2007). Why dance for Parkinson’s disease. Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, April/Ju ne 2008, 24(2), 127-140.

Winnicott, D. W. (2002). Playing and reality (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.