“Where All Can Dance” Is Real: The History of Dance for PD® at Berkeley Ballet Theater

By Susan Weber, Director of BBT’s Dance for PD® program

Dance for PD® is a program developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group for the benefit of people affected by Parkinson’s disease. It began in 2001 at the opening of MMDG’s building in Brooklyn, NY. Dance for PD®’s fundamental working principle is that professionally-trained dancers are movement experts whose knowledge about balance, sequencing, rhythm, and aesthetic awareness is useful to persons with PD. Due to interest attuned by my father’s struggles with PD and my long friendships with Mark Morris and founding teachers David Leventhal and John Heginbotham, I paid close attention as Dance for PD® developed.

In the fall of 2007, while MMDG was performing at UC Berkeley, David led a couple of Dance for PD® master classes at Oakland’s Danspace. These classes inspired the beginning of PD Active, the first-ever local advocacy group by and for people with PD. David told me that MMDG was considering expanding Dance for PD® outside New York and that the East Bay seemed like a community ripe to be the first satellite. Knowing about my particular interest, he asked whether I would consider training as a teacher. By the following year, BBT and Danspace hosted the first two satellite Dance for PD® programs. There are now more than 300 in 25 countries worldwide.

At the time I was BBT’s Associate Artistic Director, working closely with Artistic Director Sarah Marcus. I knew that she and the Board of Directors were inspired by BBT’s goal of being a place “where all can dance.” They welcomed Dance for PD®, and it is due to the vision and commitment of Sarah and those Board members that the program took root. Individual board members went above and beyond the call of duty by providing meals during teacher trainings, taking photographs to use for publicity, offering personal donations, and making themselves available for problem-solving whenever needed. I set about finding money since foundational tenets of MMDG’s program were that classes should be offered free of charge and include live music. Thanks to two years of funding from the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund, we were set to go.

After training with David and John in October 2008, Megan Low, Kate Mitchell, and I began teaching at BBT. We used Studio 1, in the basement under the Julia Morgan Center stage, because it was the only accessible space on the campus. Classes were small initially but steadily increased. We eventually outgrew Studio 1 and spent a year holding classes at Berkeley’s Christ Church East Bay (which generously donated the space!) before joining the rest of BBT at our new beautiful studios on Tenth Street and adding a second weekly class. We’ve offered the program without pause since the beginning, continuing during the pandemic with weekly meetings on Zoom.

It’s thanks to the ongoing generosity of BBT leaders Ali Taylor Lange and Robert Dekkers that we have in-person support before, during, and after our classes and events, our finances are carefully overseen, we have a storage room for folding chairs in the 10th Street studios, and we enjoy a warm welcome that is deep and genuine.

Since 2010 the program has been supported by donations as well as a super-fun annual fundraising party. BBT’s Dance for PD® program has been featured in newspaper articles, a podcast, and a segment on NBC’s Bay Area Proud. Many BBT students, UC Berkeley students, and community members have served as volunteer assistants. For several years Dance for PD® dancers have appeared in BBT’s adult showcase “Collage.” And recently Robert Dekkers choreographed “One and All,” a beautiful piece using dancers from BBT’s Youth Division, Adult Open Division, and Dance for PD® program (more about that experience in an upcoming blog post).

Through it all the glue that holds us together is our remarkable community. Mirroring the city we live in, our group is intelligent, compassionate, engaged, diverse, creative, open, and courageous. Dealing with a challenge like PD encourages “realness,” and we share a lot of that. We are endlessly grateful to Berkeley Ballet Theater for allowing us to dance together, connect, and flourish. Thank you!

Note: read related posts from Mike Gabel and Alan Tobey in earlier 40th Anniversary Blog entries for participants’ perspectives.

Founding teachers Megan Low (L) and Kate Mitchell (R) leading an early Dance for PD® class, 2008 

Dance for PD® in Studio 1 at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2016

Performing “Fairie Dust Tremors” in BBT’s Adult Open Division showcase Collage, 2016. L to R: Erin Carper, Sarah Hardesty, Joanna Uribe, Meris Emory

Dance for PD® in Studio 3 at 1370 Tenth St, 2018