Your instructor
Carmen Davidson
Carmen has run NeuroDance in Napier since 2017. She is a Dance for PD® instructor, holds the Royal Academy of Dance's Diploma in Dance Teaching Studies, and trained in diagnostic radiography in Cape Town.
Why she teaches it
Her background spans dance and health. Radiography taught her how the body is built and how conditions change it. Dance taught her how music can get a body moving when it would rather not.
NeuroDance brings the two together. She draws on the Dance for PD® method to work on balance, posture, rhythm and confidence, wrapped up in an hour that feels like a dance class rather than therapy.
The Friday class has run in Napier since 2017. Over those years it has welcomed people living with Parkinson's, MS, MD and the effects of a stroke, along with their partners and carers, and the morning tea afterwards has become as much a part of the class as the dancing.
“Dance is for everyone, not just the highly trained minority.”
What a Dance for PD® instructor does
Dance for PD® trains dance teachers to adapt their classes for people with Parkinson's: how to use music and imagery to help start a movement, how to offer a seated version of every exercise, and how to keep a class safe without making it feel like therapy. That training shapes every Friday NeuroDance class.
She also teaches adult ballet classes in Napier on Monday and Thursday evenings.
Qualifications
Dance for PD® Instructor
Dance for PD®, New York
Diploma in Dance Teaching Studies
Royal Academy of Dance, London
Diploma in Diagnostic Radiography
CPUT, Cape Town
Talk to us about joining.