PORT ANGELES — Dance classes tailored to people with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders, including stroke patients, are offered once a month now at the Sons of Norway hall, 131 W. Fifth St.
Corrie Befort, who teaches adapted dance classes around the Puget Sound region, will start her next Port Angeles session at 2:30 p.m. today.
The fee is $10, while participants are encouraged to bring spouses, friends and other caregivers for free.
Befort, a professional dance teacher with a fine arts degree from Seattle’s Cornish College, puts fun at the top of her class agenda.
“I hear from my students that the battle with Parkinson’s can feel like a battle against one’s own body,” she said.
“The disease detracts not only from a person’s sense of control over the body, but also from their sense of pleasure.”
Lack of pleasure in life can rob a person of positive feelings — yet relief can come through moving to music, she said.
“As a dancer, I know that dancing to live music with other people generates real, physical joy,” Befort said.
In her classes, she sees people open up, laugh — and really dance.
“I see joy rise up in their bodies. I may lead the class, but they are creating the pleasure they feel,” Befort said.
“I don’t know with any authority what dance can repair or reverse in this disease on a medical level, but I believe that pleasure is powerful — in this instance especially.
“Some days, the most a participant can do is sit and sway to the live music,” she added.
“But they are still moving, together with other people, and they tell me that this feels good.”
Deborah Stoltenberg, a Port Angeles artist whose husband has Parkinson’s disease, helped start the dance classes here in April.
“Come check it out,” she says to both Parkinson’s patients and their loved ones.
“It’s fun and a great workout.”
Dance classes also are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. June 11, July 9 and Aug. 13 at the Sons of Norway hall, and more information is available by phoning 360-477-4730 or emailing oystersbydeb@hotmail.com.
Information about dance classes for people with neurological issues — from famed choreographer Mark Morris, who developed the adapted program — is at www.DanceforParkinsons.org.
In addition, a Parkinson’s support group meets the fourth Wednesday of each month at the Port Angeles Senior Center, 328 E. Seventh St., and details about it are at 360-457-5352 and djones@olypen.com.
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.