Blog: Dance for Parkinson’s

The Dundee Hub for Dance for Parkinson’s was established in partnership with Scottish Ballet and Dance Base back in 2018. Since then Shaper/Caper has taken the lead on this hub and we are proud to have nurtured and cultivated such an inspiring group of people.

Our Dundee Community has achieved some incredible things while we have been delivering our weekly classes for the participants. Not only have we seen an increase in the participants’ mobility, stamina, coordination and rhythm but we have also seen a surge in confidence from the group as a whole.

One particular stand out moment for us was the performance at the Great Big Dance Show at Dundee Rep. The first Scottish Dance for Parkinson’s hub to take part in a live performance! This performance was the first time 99% of the participants had ever stepped foot on a professional stage, let alone danced in front of a live audience. Seeing their excitement, nervous energy and enthusiasm when being shown backstage, performing the technical rehearsal and doing our final warm-up was such a heartwarming moment for us in Team Shaper/Caper. And the final performance! It was an experience we will never forget.

When lockdown happened, Shaper/Caper immediately began fundraising to keep our community connected through online dance classes and social cafes. We are fortunate to have been supported by The Northwood Trust (huge, massive thank you!) to be able to continue our weekly session via Zoom (as every dance teacher seems to be doing!) and we have been keeping in touch with our dancers through weekly check-up phone calls and social cafes. These classes are so valuable and important to our participants that one dancer asked their family to buy a webcam for their birthday so they wouldn’t miss out!

Not all of our participants can attend digitally, so as well as phone call catch-ups, we have been helping out with shopping, collecting prescriptions and meeting up for outdoor, socially distanced cups of tea! Shaper/Caper wants to challenge the isolation and loneliness lockdown has brought to our participant's lives as much as we possibly can.

We at Shaper/Caper completely understand the value of these Dance for Parkinson’s classes. We have recently begun delivering sessions for the Fife Parkinson’s UK branch via Zoom and we have plans in place to begin a class in Angus when lockdown eases and it is safe for us to do so. Being able to reach and help so many people in the Parkinson’s community across Scotland is something we never imagined our company achieving when we began delivering the classes back in 2018. But these sessions have become our favourite part of the week and when the time comes that we can safely meet indoors in a studio, you bet our classes will be back in full swing.

If you or anyone you know would benefit from attending our Dance for Parkinson’s classes in Dundee, Fife or Angus, please get in touch at hello@shapercaper.com to find out more.