Strangely, it was a Cumbrian connection, Dave Little (see below, 'Live Well and Dance...') who put me in touch with Cambridge company Charco Neurotech. Charco are currently trialling a new device, the Cue1, designed to help improve movement and quality of life for people with Parkinson's; in particular, to counteract 'freezing'. Lucy, Ollie and Dahee interviewed me at home and also did some filming, both here and at the regular Tuesday milonga at St Paul's in Cambridge, producing a blog and a lovely video.
To read the blog, please click the link below
https://charconeurotech.com/the-healing-power-of-tango.../
To read the blog, please click the link below
https://charconeurotech.com/the-healing-power-of-tango.../
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The Quiver
A celebration of human creativity; A tribute to those who thrive despite setbacks. Provides hope and inspiration to Persons with Parkinson’s by featuring art by those with the disease. Seeks to promote the economic well-being of these artists by helping connect them with a broader audience.
Jacob Kidney of The Quiver interviews Kate Swindlehurst about The Tango Effect - listen here
Posted 9 December 2021
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Jacob Kidney of The Quiver interviews Kate Swindlehurst about The Tango Effect - listen here
Posted 9 December 2021
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Live Well & Dance with Parkinson's reflections
Kate Swindlehurst
Dave Little
Susie Tate
Date posted: 14 April 2021
Listen here
Susie Tate, discovered a Cumbrian connection between former local Kate Swindlehurst, and current local Dave Little, about the value of dance for people living with Parkinson’s.
Susie Tate, lead partner for Live Well & Dance with Parkinson's in Cumbria discovered a Cumbrian connection between former local Kate Swindlehurst, and current local Dave Little, about the value of dance for people living with Parkinson’s, whether a long standing and passionate dancer (Kate) or an absolute beginner (Dave) and their respective passion for the Cumbrian fells, rough edges, wind and rain, and curlews of course.Together they have recorded a (socially distanced) conversation, which takes us from a passion for Argentine Tango that ignited in the Cumbrian town of Brampton, to a shared love of running in the Cumbrian hills and a soft spot for Cumbria and all that this area of the country offers, and finally to another opportunity to fulfil the joy and pleasure in dancing…
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Tango in Lockdown
Date posted: 26 August 2020
The Tango Effect: Parkinson’s and the Healing Power of Dance was published during the COVID-19 pandemic, shortly after the country went into lockdown.
Kate Swindlehurst:: The months that followed, strange for all of us and fraught with challenge and grief for many, were thrown into sharp relief for me by the month-by-month structure of The Tango Effect. I thought it might be interesting to share extracts from the book for the key months of the crisis: a kind of Tango Lockdown Story.”
Here, we are pleased to share recordings with you that were made by the author, Kate Swindlehurst, from March - July 2020.
Listen here
The Tango Effect: Parkinson’s and the Healing Power of Dance
Please note: these recordings are available to both People Dancing Members AND non-members and will be published weekly from 26 August 2020.
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The Tango Effect: Parkinson’s and the Healing Power of Dance was published during the COVID-19 pandemic, shortly after the country went into lockdown.
Kate Swindlehurst:: The months that followed, strange for all of us and fraught with challenge and grief for many, were thrown into sharp relief for me by the month-by-month structure of The Tango Effect. I thought it might be interesting to share extracts from the book for the key months of the crisis: a kind of Tango Lockdown Story.”
Here, we are pleased to share recordings with you that were made by the author, Kate Swindlehurst, from March - July 2020.
Listen here
The Tango Effect: Parkinson’s and the Healing Power of Dance
Please note: these recordings are available to both People Dancing Members AND non-members and will be published weekly from 26 August 2020.
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Life happens: the podcast
Posted on 31 July 2020 - listen here
By 87 Percent
Life Happens is the mental fitness podcast brought to you by 87%, the mental wellbeing platform.
In the series, James Gwinnett, endurance athlete and Marketing Director of 87%, speaks to inspirational people from the worlds of adventure, business, intelligence, sports, the military and more, to get their take on life’s ups and downs, the setbacks they’ve overcome and how they’ve dealt with failure to get to where there are at the pinnacle of their sectors, all with the aim of helping listeners build positive mental health.
In our latest episode of Life Happens, we speak with author Kate Swindlehurst. After being diagnosed with Parkinson's, Kate decided that she wasn't going to let that affect the things she loved doing, including her passion for Argentine Tango. Kate speaks candidly about how much her life has changed since her diagnosis and what it has taught her about living life to the full. Kate's book The Tango Effect tells her in-depth tale, and how much dancing has made a difference to her life both mentally and physically. This podcast was recorded during the crisis, as a single woman Kate discusses the isolation she has been feeling and how she counteracts this. Hear Kate's story
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By 87 Percent
Life Happens is the mental fitness podcast brought to you by 87%, the mental wellbeing platform.
In the series, James Gwinnett, endurance athlete and Marketing Director of 87%, speaks to inspirational people from the worlds of adventure, business, intelligence, sports, the military and more, to get their take on life’s ups and downs, the setbacks they’ve overcome and how they’ve dealt with failure to get to where there are at the pinnacle of their sectors, all with the aim of helping listeners build positive mental health.
In our latest episode of Life Happens, we speak with author Kate Swindlehurst. After being diagnosed with Parkinson's, Kate decided that she wasn't going to let that affect the things she loved doing, including her passion for Argentine Tango. Kate speaks candidly about how much her life has changed since her diagnosis and what it has taught her about living life to the full. Kate's book The Tango Effect tells her in-depth tale, and how much dancing has made a difference to her life both mentally and physically. This podcast was recorded during the crisis, as a single woman Kate discusses the isolation she has been feeling and how she counteracts this. Hear Kate's story
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Dance with Parkinson's Round Table Discussion
www.communitydance.org.uk/DB/blogs/news_and_views/dance-with-parkinsons-roundtable-discussion?ps=dua2I_3Q9uJaX28LMejqG9r0fPHS-b
Date posted: 27 July 2020
Cheryl McChesney and Kiki Gale in conversation with artists, producers and dancers bringing together a range of perspectives on dance with people with lived experience of Parkinson's during lockdown.
This 90-minute roundtable discussion – co-curated and facilitated by Cheryl McChesney (Freelance Dance Artist) in conversation with artists, producers and dancers, and co-curated and chaired by Kiki Gale (Project Director, Living Well with Parkinson’s) – brings together a range of perspectives on dance with people with lived experience of Parkinson's during lockdown. Contributors share personal stories, give honest and insightful accounts of their experiences, speak candidly about the loss and challenges posed by life in lockdown, and consider some of the positive possibilities and joys brought about in these changing times.
Roundtable contributors: Donna Baber, Rachael James, Lerato Dunn, Kate-Hartley Stevens, Heidi Wilson and Clint Lutes, with dancers Enid Hoole, Alan Ferrett, Stephanie Streat and Kate Swindlehurst.
Listen here
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Lift up Your Hearts
Thoughts on the CID project and the new exhibition, the opening event at Poplar Union, and what might come next...
Posted 8 December 2021
‘Lift up your hearts ‘ this echo of my church-going days, now long gone, reverberated in my mind as I left Poplar Union on Saturday.
It was wonderful to be back in person, to see old friends and make new ones, to exchange what felt like a very important hug or two and to enjoy the artwork that makes up the latest exhibition, Who we are now, and then... I loved the artists’ emphasis on hands. This made me think of the way our hands reach out to each other – I was reminded of how our Zoom sessions finished with us touching the edges of our screens with our fingers, the nearest we could get to the circle where we clasp each others’ hands at the end of a class. It was a particularly emotional experience to see the four films made so far in our homes, the first with its focus on Anne’s feet and the last, with the extra dimension of words from Jaka and images of me stepping out onto the balcony and looking up, reaching towards the sky.
[Watch the short film made in Emmanuel House in July 2021 here]
These two images pinpoint for me what is so special and powerful about the CID project. Rather than denying or glossing over the depredations of Parkinson’s, the films in particular followed through on the encouragement to notice that we worked on in the online sessions – we were observed and represented carefully but with compassion, even tenderness. So that we are helped to make the choice first to see ourselves as we ‘really’ are – but also to recognise that our ‘unglamorous’ feet and knobbly knuckles, our lined faces and stooped shoulders are not the whole picture. We can choose to ‘lift up our hearts’ to joy and, more than this, to possibility. In her programme notes on Akram Khan’s Creature, Ruth Little suggests that the work ‘makes space for us to ponder who we are and what we might be becoming’. How exciting is this?! To refuse to accept that the cage door is closing or that what we are now is somehow the finished product.
So the question we were left with was what direction we wished to see the project taking from now. I’d like to echo a suggestion of further ensemble work, with an emphasis on sharing equally with each other, dancers and artists alike, what we have in common – our vulnerability and our strength. I’d like to think there will be space to explore the potential for growth, for becoming, through the interplay of words, movement and music. I’d like there to be space too to explore together the darker side of difficult emotions.
On Saturday I made the rather grand claim that the CID project is in a way about learning to live; I stand by this. In our shared exploration of what we have in common, we are in the process of learning to love ourselves and each other
Dancing with Parkinson's 2020
This World Parkinson's Day we are delighted to share the long awaited performance film from the CID Project which took place at Poplar Union in July 2019, directed by Danielle Teale Dance and Jaka Škapin. 'A Single Thread' is inspired by the poetry of one of our fantastic dancers Kate who wrote these words in response to our process of enquiry. The performance included vignettes of dance exploration alongside live and recorded music performed and directed by Jaka Skapin. We hope you enjoy this moving and inspiring work and that it brings you hope and life on this difficult day of isolation #WorldParkinsonsDay2020
EARLIER RELATED FEATURES/PUBLICATIONS
PechaKucha presentation: 'The Tango Effect'
07 08 2018 Cambridge
That's Cambridge TV: 'How tango has helped one woman to accept her Parkinson's disease' 11 06 2018
'Dancing helps me to deal with my disease' Cambridge News 06 06 2018
'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect: my Year on the Dance Floor' Feature story: Connect (ARU Alumni magazine)
May 2018
'Once a Dancer, Always a Dancer' People Dancing: the Foundation for Community Dance 10 04 2018
Parkinson's & the Tango Effect medium.com 05 04 2018
'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect': ACNR online (print edition followed) 15 03 2018
'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect: Writing as Response to Diagnosis. Fight or Flight?' Melbourn Magazine Spring Issue 2018
Parkinson's Life: 'Tango Treatment: dance to improve your Parkinson's' 07 02 2018
Cambridge 105 Radio: drive with Julian Clover 'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect' 10 01 2018
PechaKucha presentation: 'The Tango Effect'
07 08 2018 Cambridge
That's Cambridge TV: 'How tango has helped one woman to accept her Parkinson's disease' 11 06 2018
'Dancing helps me to deal with my disease' Cambridge News 06 06 2018
'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect: my Year on the Dance Floor' Feature story: Connect (ARU Alumni magazine)
May 2018
'Once a Dancer, Always a Dancer' People Dancing: the Foundation for Community Dance 10 04 2018
Parkinson's & the Tango Effect medium.com 05 04 2018
'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect': ACNR online (print edition followed) 15 03 2018
'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect: Writing as Response to Diagnosis. Fight or Flight?' Melbourn Magazine Spring Issue 2018
Parkinson's Life: 'Tango Treatment: dance to improve your Parkinson's' 07 02 2018
Cambridge 105 Radio: drive with Julian Clover 'Parkinson's & the Tango Effect' 10 01 2018
Argentine tango & Parkinson's: the view from the dance floor
Article published in Animated, the magazine of the Foundation for Community Dance Edition: Winter 2013
The article developed from Kate's collaboration with John Connatty, a tango teacher and tango event organiser and Dr Ellie McKenny, tango teacher and psychologist interested in inclusive communities . Given the growing evidence base of research on the therapeutic benefits of dance for people with Parkinson’s disease, they felt it was time to contribute to this discussion with observations and reflections from individuals on the inside; learning, teaching and dancing within a community.
Read the full article here
The article developed from Kate's collaboration with John Connatty, a tango teacher and tango event organiser and Dr Ellie McKenny, tango teacher and psychologist interested in inclusive communities . Given the growing evidence base of research on the therapeutic benefits of dance for people with Parkinson’s disease, they felt it was time to contribute to this discussion with observations and reflections from individuals on the inside; learning, teaching and dancing within a community.
Read the full article here
'Dancing with Kate': the film
Lovely broadcast journalist student Marie Vejvodova spent many patient hours in London and Cambridge filming the short documentary 'Dancing with Parkinson's' for her final assessment.
Watch the trailer here
And here's a link for the film
Lovely broadcast journalist student Marie Vejvodova spent many patient hours in London and Cambridge filming the short documentary 'Dancing with Parkinson's' for her final assessment.
Watch the trailer here
And here's a link for the film
Parkinson's disease & Argentine tango: a Personal View from the Dance Floor
In March 2014, an Open Day at the Barker Lab in the Brain Repair Centre, Cambridge included a poster outlining our experiences of Argentine tango and its impact on Parkinson's disease.
You can view the poster here:
In March 2014, an Open Day at the Barker Lab in the Brain Repair Centre, Cambridge included a poster outlining our experiences of Argentine tango and its impact on Parkinson's disease.
You can view the poster here: