Impact of Amazonian Dance on People with Parkinson’s Disease

Introduction

This research project investigates whether a culturally grounded dance intervention can improve speech and language performance in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). While dance-based interventions have demonstrated benefits for motor function in PD, less is known about their potential effects on speech-motor control and higher-order language processes.

The Amazonian Dance intervention was compared with a matched Nordic Walking intervention, and used automated speech and language analysis to objectively assess changes in communication. The Amazonian Dance protocol draws on Northern Brazilian traditions, incorporating rhythm, storytelling, symbolic movement, and choreographic creation.

The study provides emerging evidence that culturally adapted dance may support multiple dimensions of communication in PD, extending the potential role of dance beyond physical rehabilitation to include speech, language, expression, and culturally meaningful participation.

Scope

The study examined whether participation in Amazonian Dance produced measurable changes in speech-motor and language-related outcomes compared with an active physical-activity control. Participants were recruited across Northern and Southern Brazil and randomized to three groups: Dance North, Dance South, or Nordic Walking.

Both interventions were delivered over 12 weeks, twice per week, for one hour per session. The Amazonian Dance sessions combined warm-up, balance and strengthening exercises, rhythmic improvisation, symbolic gestures, choreographic creation, and collective cool-down activities.

Speech and language outcomes were assessed before and after the intervention using two tasks: Animal Fluency, which measures semantic memory and lexical retrieval, and Routine Description, which elicits spontaneous narrative speech. The research team used the Toolkit to Examine Lifelike Language (TELL) to generate automated acoustic, prosodic, and linguistic measures, enabling analysis of both speech-motor and higher-order language features.

Of 56 participants randomized, 36 completed both pre- and post-intervention speech assessments and were included in the final analyses.

Insights & Deliverables

The study provides emerging evidence that culturally grounded Amazonian Dance may support multiple dimensions of communication in people with Parkinson’s disease. Compared with Nordic Walking, participants in the dance groups demonstrated improvements in prosody, voice quality, and semantic organization, with the strongest effects observed among participants in Northern Brazil, where familiarity with Amazonian dance traditions was greater. These findings suggest that dance may complement physical rehabilitation by engaging speech-motor, linguistic, and expressive processes.

The project delivered a 12-week randomized controlled study, automated speech and language analysis using the TELL platform, pre–post speech and language measures, a speech feature codebook, and supplementary statistical analyses. Together, these resources provide a framework for investigating culturally adapted arts-based approaches to communication and rehabilitation in Parkinson’s disease.

Project Team

This study involves Jameel Arts & Health Lab Affiliated Researchers Aline Nogueira Haas (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) and Constantina Theofanopoulou (Rockefeller University), along with 7 other researchers from Brazil and New York.

Funding and support provided by: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Rockefeller University, New York University, and Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.