Articles:
Virtual bedside concerts for patients with COVID-19: a trio of perspectives
By Melanie Ambler, Canadian Medical Association Journal
“This intimate opportunity to play for strangers at their most vulnerable moves me beyond any other performance I’ve given. I share pieces that are near and dear to my own heart. It’s different from playing a recording. We connect through the music. We breathe together.”
Radically Rural: Art as an Amplifier for Community Connection
By Caroline Tremblay, The Daily Yonder
Artists and art collectives help small towns with creative problem-solving during the pandemic.
Alum’s Dance Classes Tackle Parkinson’s By Corinne Bai, The Brown Daily Herald
Leventhal’s ’95 Dance for PD fosters community for people with Parkinson’s disease in New York City
Using Arts to Understand Autism from the Inside Out
News from Brown
“So much of the issue with autism has to do with the lack of community, isolation and being alone. The arts are about community, and through this, young people can build communication, empathy and make friends. When you have that, you can do anything.” - Julie Strandberg
The Pulse: Dance Retrains the Brain with Parkinson's Disease
RI NPR
“Clearly there’s the physical aspect which helps flexibility, and coordination and gait and posture. We also see a real cognitive aspect where people are connecting right/left sides of their body and they’re learning movement sequencing and memory, which really helps with their cognitive processing," says Balaban.
Dance Your Cares Away with Rachel Balaban
The Jewish Voice
“This was a perfect place for me to reach people who want desperately to feel freedom in their bodies that they were starting to lose because of their condition.”- Rachel Balaban
Dance Festival at Brown Brings Joy of Movement to Central Falls Students, Adults with Parkinson's
Providence Journal
“As dance teachers, we have this powerful way to share what I think is one of the great American art forms. Nonverbal dancing communicates what words can’t. The body doesn’t lie,” - Julie Strandberg
New Classes Integrate Science and Art
Brown Daily Herald
"ASaP seeks to build mutual understanding and respect between artists and scientists, advocates arts therapy and provides support to physicians wanting to incorporate the arts into patients’ healing processes" - Julie Strandberg
Talk Explores Value of Dance Therapy for Parkinson's Patients
Brown Daily Herald
"Balaban and Strandberg joined forces last summer and founded a research and advocacy group called Artists and Scientists as Partners, a program that seeks to implement the arts into treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s."
"People with Parkinson's Take on the Dance Floor
Brown Medicine
"At first glance, Parkinson’s disease and dancing seem antithetical. Dancing is ordered, purposeful movement, and Parkinson’s is a disorder affecting movement. But a series of classes at Brown has successfully combined the two."
Parkinson's Disease Sufferers Channel Their Inner Ginger Rogers to Find Flexibility and Freedom of Movement
Newport Life Magazine
“Our people often try the class and see that it’s not threatening … it’s a bunch of fun.”- Mary Ellen Thibodeau, Information and Referal Coordinator, RI Chapter of the American Parkinson's Disease Association
