Rutgers-RWJ Collaboration Offers Free Movement/Dance Classes For People With Parkinson’s

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—The Rutgers Mason Gross School’s Dance Department is partnering with the New Jersey Parkinson’s Disease Information and Referral Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital to present a series of movement classes for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Classes will be held at the Robert Wood Johnson Fitness & Wellness Center, located on the second floor of 100 Kirkpatrick Street, and the Mason Gross movement classes will be held in the Nicholas Music Center, Studio 110, at 85 George Street on the Douglass campus of Rutgers.

The program is made possible in part with support from the Kenneth Aidekman Family Foundation.

Parkinson’s disease is a rare progressive motor system disorder in which the person affected ultimately loses their motor skills, and so someone with Parkinson’s disease will often lose control of their limbs and shake.

By offering free movement classes to those suffering from the disease, Mason Gross, as well as, The New Jersey Parkinson’s Disease Information and Referral Center, hope to hopefully slow down the affects of Parkinson’s disease so that those suffering from it can live a normal life for as long as possible.

The instructors, who are professional dancers, will guide participants through a series of balance and stability activities.

The head instructor will be professional dancer, David Tamaki, who leads the New Jersey Ballet’s Dancing for Parkinson’s program.

Other instructors include Professional dancer Pamela Quinn, who teaches with the Brooklyn Parkinson Group and as part of New York University’s movement disorder program, will lead the classes on May 2, 6, and 9 and instructor Natalie Schultz-Kahwaty, who also has experience developing modified movement classes for various populations, who will be teaching on April 1.

The schedule for the free movement classes is as follows:

Classes will be held at Robert Wood Johnson on Wednesdays from 11:45am-12:45pm on these dates: March 4, 11, 18, and 25, April 1 (Schultz-Kahwaty), 8, 15, 22, 29, and May 6 (Quinn), 13, 20, 27; and June 3.

At Mason Gross School of the Arts, the classes will be held Saturdays from 11am to noon on the following dates: March 28, April 4, 11, and 18, and May 2 (Quinn), 9 (Quinn), 16, 23, and 30, and June 6.

Drop-ins are welcome for both locations and free parking is provided for both locations.

For hospital parking information, call 732-873-1222 and for parking at the Rutgers Mason Gross School, call Carol Larkin at 848-932-1345 or email her at [email protected].