ASU dance teacher Claudia Murphey first saw the effects of Parkinson’s disease in her father.
As a solution, Murphey designed six workout videos made up of stretches and dance moves for him. Now, more than a year after his passing, Murphey is still helping Parkinson’s patients through dance.
A healing step
Murphey has been a dance professor at ASU since 1996. Her partner, Brenda Smith, taught Latin salsa at ASU from 1997 to 2009.
Murphey holds classes, called “Movement and Motion,” for Parkinson’s patients every Wednesday morning at ASU SkySong in Scottsdale. She has been teaching the class for three years.
Chairs line the walls in the room where Murphey teaches. The large open space is covered by carpet, and several people gather to stretch, dance and work to improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Some people in the room are married. Twirling each other around or holding each other stable, couples dance their way through pain to a more stable and comfortable lifestyle.
“I love the socialization from the Latin and ballroom part of the class,” Smith said. “[The students] get to know other couples and their spouses with Parkinson’s.”
Some of the students in Smith’s class even dance in her regular Latin salsa class, which is not geared toward Parkinson’s patients.
“No one would know they had Parkinson’s disease,” Smith said.
Murphey warms her patients up with across-the-floor exercises, such as patterns of steps in different directions for stretching and mobilizing muscles. Smith then takes over teaching with her Latin salsa dance moves. Parkinson’s patients dance fearlessly with smiles on their faces as they take steps toward improving their symptoms.
“The Movement and Motion class inspires me each time I teach it,” Murphey said. “The breakthroughs that members of the class have, whether they feel confident enough to walk without a cane or move fearlessly across the space, makes me feel like I have given someone the tools to improve their life.”
Living around the disease
By observing her father, Murphey said she realized the key to dealing with Parkinson’s disease was to keep moving and exercising so that the body doesn’t become accustomed to the disease.
“Initially the small movement inconveniences don’t seem too bad; then as the disease progresses, it is heartbreaking to watch,” Murphey said.
Murphey applies the study of neuroplasticity to her dance class by using repetition to train the brain to coordinate with the body.
Neuroplasticity refers to the process of nerve cells in the brain compensating for the disease and accommodating to new changes in their surroundings.
Small steps
Murphey said she was motivated to start her own dance classes after attending a class in 2008 at the Muhammed Ali Parkinson Center at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix with Smith. Murphey wanted to use dance to give back to the community in a way that was bigger than basic choreography.
“Sometimes in the arts you become so caught up in what you are doing that you fail to see what is going on around you,” Murphey said. “I just reached a point where I felt it was time for me to be less self-involved and more giving.”
Smith said Murphey inspired her to teach the class.
“I had no idea what to expect,” Smith said. “[Murphey] knew what she was going to be doing and it’s worked out really [well].”
Movement and Motion
Through her own research, Murphey created her dance class based on the limitations of Parkinson’s patients, like rigid posture, lack of balance, shortness of gait stride and being prone to falling. Falling often leads to more pain and lifelong problems for patients, she said.
Her class is designed to add more mobility to patients, strengthen their cores and above all, give them confidence. She uses a variety of stretches, big movements and repetition to retrain her patients’ minds and bodies. Murphey said it’s crucial for her patients to have a workout that is physical and mental.
Murphey said a lot of people affected by Parkinson’s disease alter or give up activities in their lives because of the disease. She wants to ensure that patients don’t have to compromise their lifestyles just because of this disease.
“It’s extraordinary to see the improvement. To see them move out, like they walk into another world and they can accomplish things they normally can’t do on a daily basis,” said Smith.
Voices of Parkinson’s
Valley resident Carol Poe, 74, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease four years ago and attends Murphey’s class with her husband, former ASU finance professor Jerry Poe.
When Carol first attended Murphey’s class, she couldn’t walk without the security of her cane.
The hardest part of the disease was not being able to walk or balance on her own, she said.
In Murphey’s class, Carol said she would sit on the sides and watch class go by. Eventually she decided to try the steps in class.
She was walking without her cane just three weeks later.
“It’s a matter of confidence. Claudia inspires confidence,” she said. “I tell myself I can do it and take these steps.”
Carol, who has been married 51 years, said her husband’s support has been key in coping with her disease.
“I walk with her everywhere, drive her to dance class and am her partner every step of the way,” Jerry said.
Carol said she has high hopes for her future because of this class.
“I want to walk with more confidence and be able to drive again,” she said.
Judy Perkins, spouse of Bill Perkins, who attends the class with her husband, said dancing helps Parkinson’s patients from shuffling their feet. In the class patients have to pick up their feet or get up on their toes to dance. Perkins believes dance helps patients forget about their disease.
“My husband’s left arm shakes all the time, but when he dances it just stops shaking,” said Perkins.
While some ASU students have attended her class, Murphey said she’d like to see more University students participate in the program. Eventually, they can become certified to teach and spread the dance effort.
“I would love to see ASU develop a movement disorder investigative research center that would seek to explore ways in which we could make peoples lives with Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis and spinal cord injury better,” said Murphey.
Murphey earns grant
In November, Murphey was given the ASU Mayo Clinic Grant, a $40,000 seed grant from ASU President Michael Crow to partner up with Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Erika Driver-Dunckley and Dr. Narayanan Krishnamurthi, an assistant research professor at the ASU’s Center for Adaptive Neural Systems.
According to ASU’s website, applicants had to submit a project idea that would amplify affiliations between ASU and Mayo Clinic. The project was also to be presented to an extramural, peer-review grant agency or foundation.
“I was tremendously happy when I heard that we had received that grant. I read the word ‘congratulations’ and almost fell out of my chair,” said Murphey.
Looking into the future
In March, the trio will conduct a study that will involve testing Parkinson’s patients. The study will assess the effectiveness of a movement and motion program on 20 patients.
“If we can show positive results, then this program can be widely used to help Parkinson’s disease patients across the country,” Murphey said.
Her goal for the study is to show that her dance class is a non-medical, non-invasive way to cope with Parkinson’s disease, she said.
“I would like the study to be successful and show how much dance can help. I would like to see a movement disorder center start that offers classes several times a day throughout the whole week. It would be very beneficial because so many people with Parkinson’s disease say other classes available to them are not challenging enough for them. I think that’s why our class has been so popular,” said Smith.
Reach the reporter at tchavez3@asu.edu
