As the Soaring with Hope for PD Parkinson’s project took off, one of the team members for that project, Clara Kluge came up with yet another way to engage People with Parkinsons (PwPs) for the World Parkinson Congress(WPC). Because she loved to dance and was involved in dance classes for PwPs, she envisioned having PwPs and the community at large create dances using cranes as the theme. Her dream became the PD Crane Dance Project. David Leventhal, the co-founder of Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for PD® Program, became her mentor on this endeavour; he calls Clara “the force behind this project.”

And she truly was a force, inspiring so many to participate in the project. Clara invited People with Parkinson’s from around the world to submit a 2 minute video of an original dance inspired by the origami cranes that she folded and sent to those who requested them. Expecting to receive about 50 videos, she received 147 from 17 countries. This added up to a whopping total of 5 hours of video! Over 1800 dancers participated from around the world. The two videos were shown on a continuous loop at the WPC at the Soaring with Hope exhibit and the Dance for PD® Program Booth.

Some of the spin offs from the project are that it inspired dancers to:

• Learn how to fold origami cranes
• Write poems about the experience
• Dance more, move more
• Tap their inner creative spirit
• Make stronger connections
• Feel connected with other dancers from around the world
• Collaborate with fellow dancers
• Not feel alone
• Get excited about doing something positive for themselves
• Get a tattoo of an origami crane

This project was such a success that Clara is looking into making a documentary of the whole experience with the many dancers and dance groups who participated in the original creation of this project. 

To view more of these inspiring dances, go To YouTube and search Crane Dances Parkinson’s and a number of dances will appear.  I will keep you posted when and where you can see all of the dances.