Community-based Adapted Tango Dancing for Individuals with Parkinson's Disease and Older Adults

Adapted Argentine Tango is a dance based neuro rehabilitation program for older adults with and without Parkinson's disease. This is accomplished by first training dance instructors who are both willing and capable of working closely with an older impaired population. The second step is to recruit older adults and people with Parkinson's disease and evaluate them for general health and mobility.

Next, all the participants in the study are encouraged to complete 21.5 hour long adapted tango classes instructed by the teacher trainees. The final step is to evaluate the participants with the same mobility measures and conduct a final questionnaire to gain feedback about satisfaction with the adapted Tango program. Ultimately adapted Tango teacher training workshops can be used to implement adapted tango pedagogy in a way that benefits the mobility and potentially reduces the fall risk of older adults with and without Parkinson's disease.

I began to cultivate the idea of introducing adapted tango pedagogy to experience dance instructors after my early research in Parkinson's disease showed the efficacy of adapted tango for alleviating motor impairments. To begin the adapted tango teacher training workshop, explain that the agenda guided by the adapted tango manual will be strictly followed. Describe the sections and theory of the adapted tango class.

Next, describe and practice partnering enhancements, tips and techniques. After explaining basic music and movement techniques for an adapted tango class, allow the teacher trainees time to practice rhythmic and treatment. Inform the teachers that the syllabus includes several unique lesson plans with rhythms, steps of the day and embellishments.

Break down and practice a few steps from one of the lessons included in the adapted tango syllabus. Next, explain methods for maintaining safety in the class. Demonstrate exercises designed to promote effective balance management, including falls detection through evaluating limits of stability and falls prevention techniques.

Finally, instruct trainees to follow the syllabus closely to ensure program fidelity and request weekly reports from teachers about progress in classes. Volunteers who are caregivers, spouses, family, or pre-health. Undergraduate and graduate students are recruited to dance with the older individuals with and without pd.

Next, recruit older adults and individuals with pd. During your first meeting with each participant, request that participants grant consent. Next, conduct a pre-test evaluation for all participants.

First, administer the gait speed assessment by timing gait speed with a stopwatch over 20 feet. Begin timing when the first heel passes the start line and stop the stopwatch when the second heel passes the finish line. Next, administer the 32nd chair stand.

Count the number of times one can rise from a chair with arms crossed over the chest without lifting the feet from the ground. In 30 seconds to measure the tandem stance, record the length of time the participant can stand with one foot directly in front of the other in a straight line with a cutoff time of 60 seconds. After testing, instruct the participant not to change habitual exercise routines during the course of the six month study and to record on their calendar major medical or adverse events, including any falls in which they unexpectedly lost their balance and landed on the ground or a lower level.

At the start of the first adapted tango class, explain the general class structure. Next, lead a warmup period consisting of breathing, limbing and postural alignments. This section should be performed with everyone standing in a big circle and to upbeat music.

After the warmup period, instruct the participants to pair up with their dance partners. The participants should perform all steps in an adaptation of the ballroom frame, holding each other's bent, elbows and maintaining forearms parallel to the floor. Once pairs are established, explain the frame.

Next, designate the leader and follower roles within each partnered pair. Instruct the leaders to choose the direction, timing, and size of each successive step, and communicate this information to their partner through moving their frame and center of mass. Instruct the followers to attend to sensory cues for movement, direction, timing, and amplitude of steps communicated from their partner to them via the frame and center of mass.

Instruct the followers to wait to receive the movement cue before moving. Next, inform the participants that they will be practicing partnering enhancement exercises. Instruct both partners to close their eyes while in the closed practice position.

They should then practice shifting weight from one foot to the other, alternating who leads and who follows. In a second exercise, instruct the partners to stand side by side with arms around each other's waists and practice walking around the room. First, have them start on the same foot.

Next, instruct the partners to start with opposite feet. Next, instruct the follower to close their eyes while the partnership is holding elbows. The leader in the pair should practice shifting the weight of their follower.

Leaders should shift their own weight and simultaneously guide the follower to shift weight through maintained tone in the frame and fully shifting the center of mass. In another exercise to improve spatial coordination with the partner, instruct the leader to walk towards the follower. As the follower walks backward, instruct the leader to walk to the outside of the partner and then back in front of the partner.

The leader should not look at their feet, but instead look at the shoulders of their partner. Next, introduce a novel step element. Allow the participants some time to practice the new element to practice rhythmic entrainment.

Introduce a rhythm and instruct participants to practice with a partner. Integrate the novel step. Learn on that day to steps learned in previous classes.

Allow the dancer's time to practice these steps. The participants should practice both the leader and follower roles and switch roles after one song. In addition, partners should rotate every 15 minutes.

One week after the 20th class, readminister the questionnaire and measures performed in the pretest evaluations. Question the participants about any medical or exercise changes during the preceding 10 to 12 weeks and review the participant's calendars with them. Record the number of falls or other adverse events they experienced during the course of the study.

Lastly, request that the participant complete an exit questionnaire to evaluate their experience. This graph shows changes in mobility and balance efficacy in patients with Parkinson's disease and older adults. Change score values are shown for gait speed.

32nd chair stand tandem stance, and the Berg balance scale reported falls decreased in both the fallers and non fallers group during the class period when compared to their history of falls in the previous year. You should now have a good idea of the steps involved to disseminate and implement adapted tango dance pedagogy for older adults with and without Parkinson's disease.