Tango therapy

Creator: Université de Bourgogne|Art form: Dance|Knowledge valorisation : Co-creation|Place: Lyon,France|Location : Offline|Target group: Elderly people, Healthcare professionals and patients, People with disabilities|Domains: Health|Duration : Participatory process that results in an event
©Inserm/François Guénet
©Inserm/François Guénet

Therapeutic dance for people with Alzheimer's disease

Challenge: Alzheimer's is a progressive disease beginning with mild memory loss and possibly leading to loss of the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to the environment. Tango therapy helps people with Alzheimer's to relearn simple but forgotten movements

Tango is the dance that comes the closest to walking wich makes it the most suitable for elderly people. In people with Alzheimer’s disease, regular dancing enables them to relearn simple but forgotten movements, such as rocking from one foot to the other, turning around and walking backwards. As well as improving motor skills, therapeutic tango stimulates memory, promotes social contact and increases overall quality of life. Positive effects that have all been demonstrated by France Mourey’s research team by measuring the residents’ capacities before and after 3 months of therapeutic tango workshops.

©Inserm/François Guénet

©Inserm/François Guénet

Contact : Cognition, Action and Sensorimotor Plasticity (CAPS) unit at University of Burgundy

Resources needed

The dancers are guided by an accordionist and a professional dancer.

Purpose of artistic intervention

The aim of the artistic intervention here is to help the old people suffereing from Alzheimer’s diease to move their bodies using simple moves, stimulate their memory by doing regular movements and also help them socialize and interact with each other especially that there were some residents who were previously withdrawn into themselves.

Positive impacts

Movement as a real therapeutic agent, capable of acting on cerebral and neuromuscular plasticity in order to optimize or rehabilitate motor function. Here are some of the quotes from the people and the caregivers :
– “I love it! It’s pure happiness” exclaims resident Mariane Le Cosquino
– “It’s sharing through music, we’re able to create emotions like that” says musician Patrick Bullier
– “Therapeutic tango helps us to reconnect with and discover the residents in a new light. For some of them, it’s been a revelation” confides psychomotor therapist Jaël Gelay
– “We have residents who were previously withdrawn into themselves now looking for someone to dance with” says the caregiver team which is highly invested in the initiative