are pleased to announce three specialTraining and Continuing Professional Development opportunities Dance for PD Introductory Training workshop Sydney | 19-20 September 2026 Dance for Parkinson's Advanced Training Workshop Melbourne | 22 September 2026 Dance for Health: Research, Practice, and Global
Exchange Melbourne | 23 September 2026 in association with IADMS' Annual Conference We invite you to learn more and apply at the link below! Important note: the early bird rate for the 23 September event ends this Friday 24 July! |
Dance for Parkinson's Introductory Training Workshop | 19-20 September 2026A two-day, in-person training that offers a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the internationally recognized Dance for PD approach.
Led by Dance for PD Founding Teacher David Leventhal and Erica Rose Jeffrey, Director of Dance for Parkinson's Australia, participants will explore evidence-informed teaching practices, take part in a live community class, and receive hands-on mentoring in a supportive learning environment. |
Dance for Parkinson's Advanced Training Workshop | 22 September 2026 A vibrant day of movement, music, connection, and shared learning with the Dance for Parkinson’s Australia network. The workshop will include an inclusive improvisation session with Rebecca Barnstaple (Canada), a class planning workshop with David
Leventhal (USA), and an afternoon immersion in the Beaut Ballet Series with Paris Wages, Katrina Rank, and community members. |
Dance for Health: Research, Practice, and Global Exchange | 23 September 2026 This dynamic one-day gathering brings together dance artists, researchers, healthcare professionals, educators and community practitioners to explore the rapidly evolving field of
Dance for Health. Participants will explore current innovations in Dance for Health research and practice, inclusive facilitation across populations and life stages, falls prevention through dance, and evidence-informed teaching strategies that support wellbeing, rehabilitation, creative aging, and community connection. After the workshop, stay on for the first day of the IADMS Annual Conference (Thursday 24 September) to engage in more Dance for Health
sessions. The Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD® program invites people with Parkinson's and their families in more than 500 communities and 31 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 in-person and online classes, acclaimed teacher training program, and high quality media resources, Dance for PD's fundamental working principle 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, folkloric, traditional, improvisation, and social dancing, along with choreographic and
cultural 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. Evidence from more than 55 peer-reviewed scientific studies from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany serves to underpin the effectiveness and benefits of the Dance for PD teaching practice and suggests
that dance provides a range of benefits, including improved walking and short-term mobility, enhanced quality of life and self-efficacy, and improvements in mood and social inclusion among people with Parkinson's. Dance for PD, which began in 2001 as a collaboration between MMDG and Brooklyn Parkinson Group, leverages technology—online classes, on demand resources, and training and a
popular instructional At Home video series—to make the program more available to its diverse and expanding network of constituents around the globe. About Dance for Parkinson's Australia 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. Associated co-presenters: |
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