About Dance for Parkinson's Australia
The Dance for Parkinson’s Australia program started through an initial Dance for PD® presentation at the National Parkinson’s Conference in Brisbane in 2012. Since then, Australian Program Coordinator Erica Rose Jeffrey has worked with the dance and Parkinson’s communities to share the joys of dance classes for people with Parkinson’s. Working with Dance for PD® founding teacher and Program Director David Leventhal, the first Australian teacher training workshops were offered in May of 2013 in Sydney and Brisbane at Queensland Ballet. Dance for Parkinson’s Australia offers dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease in ACT, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, and Victoria. In our classes, participants are empowered to explore movement and music in ways that are refreshing, enjoyable, stimulating and creative.
About Queensland Ballet
Queensland Ballet is a vibrant, creative company which connects people and dance across Queensland. We offer a program of world-class productions of the best classical ballets and inspired contemporary dance works. The Company engages renowned choreographers and designers from around the world and nurtures emerging local talent by presenting exciting new works in an intimate studio series. With a culture of creativity and collaboration, complemented by an active program of engagement with our communities, Queensland Ballet has become the central hub for dance in the State. Our dancers are acclaimed for their technical excellence and versatility, and our annual program offers diversity in style, audience focus and geographic reach, with up to 100 performances in Brisbane and tours to regional Queensland.
The facilities at Queensland Ballet's home in Thomas Dixon Centre in Brisbane’s West End allow the Company to offer a full range of training and community access programs, including public dance classes. Developing the artists of the future is central to Queensland Ballet’s strategic vision. Our Academy aims is to provide a clear career pathway and to produce young dancers whose talents and abilities are in demand throughout Australia and internationally. The Academy offers world-class training programs for gifted students from 11 years of age.
Queensland Ballet is dedicated to the pursuit of artistic excellence, dance education and innovative presentation of classical repertoire. With bold and confident ambitions for the future, we proudly build upon the legacy of many creative and gifted artists who have been part of the Company’s rich history since 1960.
About Dance for PD®
Dance for PD® offers dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease in Brooklyn, New York and, through our network of partners and associates, in more than 100 other communities around the world. Key global partners include Dance for Parkinson's Australia, the Dance for Parkinson's Partnership UK, Dance for Parkinson's S.A., and Dancing with Parkinson's (Toronto) as well as organizations like Houston Ballet, English National Ballet, GOTRA Ballet (Netherlands), Canada's National Ballet School, and Queensland Ballet. In Dance for PD® classes, participants are empowered to explore movement and music in ways that are refreshing, enjoyable, stimulating and creative. Founded as a collaboration between the Mark Morris Dance Group, Brooklyn Parkinson Group and Olie Westheimer, the Dance for PD® program also provides teacher training and nurtures relationships among other organizations so that classes based on our model are widely available. The Dance for PD® method has been presented at the International Congress for Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders in Berlin, the World Parkinson Congress, and at the Society for Neuroscience. The program was recognized as a model program by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare. Features about the program have appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Reuters, and in The New York Times and USA Today, among others. The program has been honored by several awards, including the Parkinson Awareness Award , Alan Bonander Humanitarian Award, the Sapolin Award for Public Service from the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities and the William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Life Long Learning. Evidence from 38 peer-reviewed scientific studies serves to underpin the effectiveness and benefits of the Dance for PD teaching practice.
For more information about Dance for Parkinson's Australia, please click here.
For more information about Dance for PD®, please visit www.danceforpd.org.