Montreal initiative connects people with Alzheimer's and their caregivers through dance
Where the brain declines, dance liberates at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal
This story is a collaboration between Concordia University's journalism department and CBC Montreal.
It's another cold and sombre afternoon in Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles, but the expressions of joy and serenity in this dance studio are anything but.
Here, people living with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers are reminded they are more than the diagnosis that seems to dictate their lives. They dance. They connect beyond the disease.
The National Centre for Dance Therapy at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal launched this movement therapy class led by Carol Jones, a trained dance therapist and choreographer.
Its purpose is to delay the evolution of Alzheimer's. According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, nearly 600,000 Canadians currently living with dementia — Alzheimer's being its most common cause — and that number is expected to increase to 1.7 million by 2050.
"It's not a dance class, it's dance therapy," says Jones.
Participants at varying stages of their neurodegenerative disorders and their caregivers attend each week and move to music from a range of genres, all while being guided by Jones, whose energy can be felt throughout the room.
Some sit and move to the music, others stand and dance, moving in the ways they can. Some weeks, the feeling of relief emanating off participants is palpable.
Paola Baggio says "it's like our Wednesday ritual," for her and her mother, Giovanna Scotton.
The National Centre for Dance Therapy is being studied by Move2Connect, a McGill University research team initiative which aims to study how movement can foster healing in the brain. The Alzheimer Society of Montreal, a partner in this initiative, is spreading the word about the dance classes among the community.
Jones's project began online during the COVID-19 pandemic and shifted to the dance studio last August.
WATCH | Carol Jones, dance movement therapist, shares her story
In 2014, Jones became one of the first dance therapists for Les Grand Ballet's dance movement therapy program.
"In 2015, [when] my mom got her diagnosis, I wanted to stop the program to take care of her. But in the end, I was strongly encouraged [by her] to continue and I did well," she says.
In the early stages of her illness, Jones's mother, a former nurse, gathered a group of seniors together and asked Jones to guide them in dance therapy. During the lesson, Jones witnessed how it can positively affect those with Alzheimer's.
"Without even knowing it, she brought me into a fascinating universe," she says.
Her mother died in 2021, and Jones continues to dance in memory of her.
Caregivers 'not just there in the background'
Jones notes that Alzheimer's impacts not only the person with the disease, but their caregivers as well.
People with the disease often experience changes in their personality, including depression, mood swings, paranoia and irritability. Their caregivers, commonly loved ones, have to adapt to these changes as well.
Jones says that this workshop allows caregivers to get out of their routines.
"You're not just there in the background," she says, explaining it's hard for caregivers to consider their own needs.
"The person you are accompanying is sick. The reflex is to say their needs are greater. In the process, we forget ourselves."
Baggio says dance therapy benefits her mom and ultimately gives her a safe space to decompress as well.
"I came to accompany my mother who loves to dance, who has always danced," she says, adding it's become much more difficult for her in the last year.
"By being in a group [of people] with the same conditions, I was confident that we would be able to make her move and rekindle the love of dance," she says.
Baggio says watching her mother engage with the music and enjoy herself is freeing. "I end up letting go and just seeing her have fun. It makes me feel good."
How dance movement therapy works
Dance movement therapy can delay the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to the Women's Alzheimer's Movement.
Through movement, one's memories and emotions can be recalled and re-experienced, despite the cognitive impairment. This form of therapy not only maintains but helps improve memory, cognitive functioning and co-ordination, the organization says.
Jones views herself as a coach and companion.
"Dance [can] slow down the appearance of symptoms, [but] it is still an incurable and degenerative disease," she says. "It's up to me to adjust my approach and my practice to better serve and accompany the person."
Guylaine Vaillancourt, an associate professor in music therapy and creative arts therapies at Concordia University, says this kind of treatment can be valuable.
Depending on how far the disease has progressed, people with Alzheimer's "can have a lot of anxiety and feel isolated," says Vaillancourt. She says they can also feel grief as they watch themselves lose certain abilities.
"Creative art therapies can help to express those emotions and to work on memories of the body, giving them a sense of accomplishment, self-esteem."
Danielle Lamarche and her partner Pierre used to go dancing when they first met. She says Jones's sessions give them a way to spend time together while also helping Pierre work on his mobility.
"What I like about the course is that it makes Pierre move in a different way and it works on his co-ordination, which he has lost a lot," she says. "Working on [this] also works the brain. I think it's very good for him."
Pierre, who is at the early stages of the disease, says he notices a positive change, too.
"We've been taking the course for five or six months, and that's when you realize the loss of memory, even, sometimes, of balance. So, it allows me to make movements that allow me to continue," he says.
Joanabbey Sack, who's been a dance therapist for over three decades, says she sees the benefits that result from a complementary approach of movement therapy and science.
According to Sack, a lot of the research on this approach is based on how movement impacts the neurological processes of neurodegenerative disorders.
"You can't move without an impact on the whole being, the brain being a part of that," she says.
Jones, who completed her dance therapy training while taking care of her mother, says she noticed that after getting her mother to dance, "she remembered appointments, names and particular dates."
And she sees similar moments of lucidity from participants of her class.
Researchers observe benefits
Ce qui nous lie — French for "what connects us"— is a McGill research team dedicated to studying Alzheimer's and related disorders. The Move2Connect project is part of this research.
"The idea was very simple," says Melissa Park, one of the research team leads.
"Can we create connections through shared activities and events? Could we decrease the stigma at this intersection between aging, ageism, Alzheimer's and related disorders and mental health?"
Through their research so far, they've found people living with Alzheimer's and related disorders as well as caregivers who participated in group activities reported less loneliness compared to those who participated in individual activities.
Caregivers also reported an increase in their knowledge about Alzheimer's and related disorders.
"One of the challenges I see is that we are still not reaching a lot of groups [of people] we would like to reach," Park says.
She says the social determinants of health, such as someone's financial and educational levels, gender, race and primary language, play a factor in receiving help
"There's never going to be enough funding within the health system itself. So how do we [bring] in, how we think about health [care] and how do we distribute [it] across sectors and society?"
The team is translating information sheets into different languages, as well as submitting grant applications to bring in more people.
There have also been discussions about running the dance therapy sessions in different areas around Montreal.
Main goal is pleasure
Government funding for the dance therapy program came to an end in March, but the Alzheimer Society of Montreal is continuing to fund it until August.
After that, the program will need to apply for grants and look for donors to keep going.
Several participants of Jones's sessions have been attending them for months and plan on continuing. For them, it's an activity that helps with Alzheimer's disease and also brings them joy.
"Every time I go to pick up [my partner] and bring him here, I tell him we're going to go dancing and he's happy to go out, to do an activity with me," says Monique Hébert.
For Jones, that's the intention behind her work.
"The main objective is really pleasure."