Marc Vlemmix was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2010, at the age of 38. The irony of his situation was inescapable: five years earlier he had founded a dance house. Dany Mitzman has this week’s Audio Story.
Vlemmix’s first reaction was to ignore the illness, which he did for two years, until he could hardly move anymore. But then he stumbled upon a way to improve his physical and psychological well-being by using the one resource to which he had unlimited access — dance.
The results were so positive that, together with his dance instructor, he founded Dance for Health and Parkinson’s, a programme to help others like him. There are now twenty cities in the Netherlands running classes, with others in Italy, and more starting in Germany and Australia.
Dany Mitzman attended a Dance for Health open workshop in the north Italian town of Bassano del Grappa and has this week’s Audio Story.
It’s not just dance – but other forms of physical activity – such cycling, which can also help people with Parkinson’s – although you really might not think it.
Jessie Wingard is joined by Professor of Neurology Bas Bloem, a consultant neurologist at the Department of Neurology at the Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.
