invites you to join us for

Location
The PD will take place at Gorman Arts Centre, Ainslie Ave, Braddon, a 5-minute walk to Canberra CBD. It was built in 1924 as a hostel for public servants, and now this central heritage-listed facility holds a rich  and layered history where people have lived, worked, performed and explored their creativity.

Cost
Before 31/1/25 (Early Bird rate): Member of DPA/Ausdance: $350; Non-Members: $375
Between 1/2/25 and 1/3/25: Member of DPA/Ausdance: $375; Non-Members: $400 

Pre-requisite
DPA or Dance for PD Introductory Training. Please provide details of the course completed when you register.

Accommodation
A deal has been negotiated with the nearby MERCURE HOTEL, and a code to access this discount will be provided on your registration for the PD. The hotel, located on Limestone Ave, Braddon, is a 10-minute drive from the airport and 5-minute walk from Gorman Arts Centre.

How to register
Register by clicking the button below. Completing the registration form will guarantee your place. The DPA team will follow up with a final payment link. For further information please email admin@danceforpd.org.

An additional temptation 

At this time the ACT is also holding its brilliant annual light festival - ENLIGHTEN. It is seriously awesome and well worth a wander!

The Dance for Parkinson’s Australia (DPA) program started through an initial Dance for PD® presentation at the National Parkinson’s Conference in Brisbane in 2012. Since then, DPA Director Erica Rose Jeffrey, PhD, has worked with the dance and Parkinson’s communities to share the joys of dance classes for people with Parkinson’s. Working with Dance for PD® founding teacher and Program Director David Leventhal, the first Australian teacher training workshops were offered in May of 2013 in Sydney and Brisbane at Queensland Ballet. Dance for Parkinson’s Australia offers dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease in ACT, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, and Victoria. 

DPA provides high quality services to people living with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), partners, carers, friends, and the broader community of seniors. 2023 celebrated ten years of delivering the program, classes and workshops in Australia. 

Partnerships and connections have been developed across the arts and health sectors and include the Opera Australia, Queensland Ballet, DanceNorth, the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Dance Company, Belconnen Arts Centre, Arts Health Network Queensland, Arts Health Network NSW/ACT, Ausdance, MADE Tasmania, the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, state Parkinson’s organisations, and leading neurologists and researchers.

Dance for Parkinson’s Australia (DPA)  is a public benevolent institution and charity with DGR status.

The Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD® program invites people with Parkinson's and their families in more than 400 communities and 30 countries around the globe to experience the joys and benefits of dance while creatively addressing symptom-specific concerns related to balance, cognition, motor skill, depression and physical confidence. Through its innovative, internationally-replicated classes, acclaimed teacher training program, and high quality media resources, Dance for PD​'s fundamental working principle since 2001 is that professionally-trained dancers are movement experts whose knowledge about balance, sequencing, rhythm and aesthetic awareness is useful to persons with PD. In class, teaching artists integrate movement from modern, ballet, tap, folk and social dancing, and choreographic repertory to engage participants' minds and bodies and create an enjoyable, social environment for artistic exploration.​​ Dance for PD has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Dance Magazine, The Guardian and hundreds of other publications,​and has been honored by several local, national and international awards, including the Parkinson Awareness Award, Alan Bonander Humanitarian Award, and the Sapolin Public Service Award from the New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. Peer-reviewed research from 50 published studies suggests that the Dance for PD approach provides a range of benefits, including improved walking and short-term mobility, enhanced quality of life, and self-efficacy, slowing of symptom progression, and improvements in mood and social inclusion among people with Parkinson's. 

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