Since 2012, Associate Provost Christina Soriano (Dance) has regularly taught a community dance class in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to people living with Parkinson’s Disease, and has been involved in three scientific studies that look at the ways improvisational dance can help the mobility and balance of people living with neurodegenerative disease.
In partnership with Senior Services, Professor Soriano has worked to scale this class and this method for other seniors in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County. She has received funding from the National Parkinson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC, and most recently the NIH to conduct a randomized clinical trial, testing her improvisational dance method in a community of adults living with Mild Cognitive Impairment and their care partners.