About PD dance
PD Dance is a dance activity by people with Parkinson’s disease, and is a unique name created by Fukuoka-based members that combines two PDs, “Perfect Dance” and “Parkinson’s disease. Based on “Dance for PD® 2001 – N.Y.,” which is currently spreading around the world, the activity started in Japan in 2016 as “Dance for PD Japan Perfect Dance. The company has developed its own method based on the idea that balancing medication with some kind of activity is effective in improving QOL (quality of life). There is a growing body of evidence that dance has a positive effect on the brain, body, and mind.
About Project

Collaboration
PD Dance is a project commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and implemented since 2019 by Paracadance, a general incorporated association, in collaboration with Fukuoka University Hospital and SUNWELS CO.,LTD. which operates PD House, a specialized Parkinson’s disease home nationwide. In this project, Professor Yoshio Tsuboi, MD, PhD, Neurology, Fukuoka University, has been invited to assess how dance activities can create benefits and impact for patients with Parkinson’s disease, an intractable disease.
Members
This initiative began when Manizia, a dance artist living in Fukuoka, asked Professor Tsuboi of Fukuoka University Hospital for her cooperation in starting “Dance for PD®” activities in Japan, which she had learned overseas. Subsequently, Paracadance took on the management of the program, which was commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Just around that time, a new home specializing in Parkinson’s disease, “PD House,” was established in Fukuoka, and we have been conducting dance activities in the facility since its opening. This project is made possible by the cooperation of many enthusiastic people, including PD House staff, members of the Neurology Department of Fukuoka University Hospital, arts management specialists, local dancers, and their families.

Researcher: Yoshio Tsuboi

Facilitator: Manizia
