English National Ballet Dance for Parkinson’s research to be revealed by Roehampton academics

Posted: 26 October 2015

Dr Sara Houston from the Department of Dance discussed the results of her Dance for Parkinson's research on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning.

The English National Ballet has led dance classes for Parkinson's sufferers in London, Oxford, Liverpool, Ipswich and Cardiff since 2011. Dr Sara Houston and Ashley McGill from the University’s Department of Dance have used biomechanical measurements, clinical scales and questionnaires, and carried out extensive interviews and observations, worked with focus groups, and used film footage to examine in details the types of benefits which participants have found.

Dr Houston will announce the findings of the project in an event at Sadler’s Wells Theatre which will be broadcast live on the English National Ballet’s website from 2.15pm today (Tuesday 27 October). You can watch the results announcement live here.

The classes have been used by the researchers to understand more about physical, psychological, social, and emotional changes as a result of participating over an extended period of time. All groups have used English National Ballet-inspired dance routines.

The results were discussed by Dr Houston on the BBC One Breakfast programme this morning (Tuesday) where she explained how participants had improved in self confidence and had benefited from building new friendships

A full story on the results will be available here following the Sadler’s Wells event.