Dance Keeps Body, Mind at Their Best

LAKE CITY, Minn. -- Brains of elderly aren't on a perpetual downward slide but are plastic and can be rejuvenated.

All they often only need is a little extra push, or maybe a little extra polka or Charleston.

Marie Genne is head of the Kairos Dance Theatre in Minneapolis and has started "Dancing Heart -- Vital Elders Moving in the Community," a program that combines dance, music, basic body movements, social interaction and storytelling to not just help the bodies of elders, but also their minds and spirits. It is being tested at five nursing homes this winter, including the Lake City Nursing Home.

The goal is to decrease the need for so many doctor visits or medications, Genne said. In fact, if it's expanded, it could keep seniors in their own homes.

"Artists are wonderful partners in health care," Genne said.

With so many baby boomers beginning to retire, the need to find ways to keep them active and healthy will be even more important, she said.

The premise goes even further than just helping elderly, she said after a Dancing Hearts class in Lake City last week.

"We are all collaborators in the artistic process," she said.

Her job is to invite everyone to use their gifts to weave together and celebrate what they have to offer. Her dance theater has members in their 90s.

"The dance is a body-brain experience," she said.

Research has showed that brains of elderly don't have to deteriorate, that with stimulation, they can continue to grow, thrive, expand, Genne said. Elderly people have knowledge and experiences that make up for what they may have lost from youth, she said.

In the Twin Cities, she began working with the "frail" elderly who responded to dance and movement, to being able to tell their stories about joy and grief. That movement worked.

"It was like something cracked open," she said. "I was seeing some pretty dramatic changes, it was like people were coming alive again."

It's almost like elderly get rusty and need a little music and movement to break loose, to keep learning. "I see people learning and growing," she said.

When someone masters something, it gives that person an immune boost, socializing helps their overall health, she said.

"Aging is not a disease," Genne said.