Image credit: photo by Chris Currie

English National Ballet recently celebrated over a decade of its Dance for Parkinson’s programme.

Inspired by Company repertoire, the programme provides high quality dance classes for people living with Parkinson’s, their family, friends, and carers. Since its launch in 2010, Dance for Parkinson’s has reached more than 5,000 people through classes held at English National Ballet’s studios, its collaboration with five hub partners across the UK and the creation of a national online community with sessions provided over Zoom. It has also inspired numerous other dance classes for people living with Parkinson’s.

Anniversary celebrations were originally planned for 2020 but were postponed due to the pandemic, which include an exhibition of personal stories, creative research collaborations and portrait photography. It opened at English National Ballet’s east London home, the Mulryan Centre for Dance, and public viewing is available until late February 2022.

English National Ballet’s Dance for Parkinson’s was a model for ground-breaking research published in 2015 by Dr Sara Houston from Roehampton University, and is also part of a collaboration with King’s College London and UCL on one of the world’s largest research studies addressing the impact and scalability of arts interventions on physical and mental health.

English National Ballet’s Dance for Parkinson’s is a national programme delivered in collaboration with its Hub Partner organisations. The programme extends opportunities for people with Parkinson’s across the UK to access regular dance and cultural activities and to engage with English National Ballet. The Hub Partners are the Royal Albert Hall, DanceEast, Merseyside Dance Initiative (MDI), Oxford City Council and affiliated Hub Partner National Dance Company Wales.