Description:

“Why Partnered Dance May Optimize Motor Rehabilitation for People with Parkinson’s Disease.”

Madeleine E. Hackney PhD
Assistant Professor Department of Medicine Emory University School of Medicine
May 24, 2017 12:10-1:00
645 N. Michigan Room 800 Talk

Abstract: My work focuses on the design and optimization of creative movement/dance-based therapies to improve mobility, cognition and quality of life in older individuals with movement disorders. Dance may serve as an auxiliary therapy to pharmacology and surgery for conditions like Parkinson’s disease because dance appears to have motor, social and cognitive benefits. Partner dancing is a sophisticated, yet accessible system of tactile communication that conveys movement goals between a ‘leader’ and ‘follower’. These roles incorporate aspects of both internally and externally guided movement. I will present findings related to efficacy of a therapy which I designed: Adapted Argentine Tango (Adapted Tango) for improving motor, cognitive and psychosocial function in people with PD. I will discuss my ongoing data collection that will explore the unique efficacy of leading versus following, and the impact of adapted tango on underlying neural mechanisms governing internally and externally guided lower limb movement. 

Short Bio: Dr. Madeleine E. Hackney, Ph.D, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and a Ph.D. in Movement Science from Washington University in St. Louis. She completed postdoctoral work in geriatric sensoriomotor rehabilitation at the Atlanta VA with Dr. Steven Wolf and is the recipient of two VA Career Development Awards. Dr. Hackney is now a Research Scientist at the Atlanta VA Center for Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation and an Assistant professor of Medicine, in the Department of Medicine at Emory School of Medicine. Dr. Hackney aims to optimize rehabilitative strategies, in terms of movement pattern and timing, dosage, duration, intensity and the role of a partner to enhance balance, mobility and quality of life for older adults with movement disorders. She is conducting studies that will enhance the understanding of neural mechanisms underlying rehabilitative strategies. She has received funding from the VA, the NIH, the NSF, PCORI, and several PD foundations. Her research has received media coverage in the New York Times, Scientific American, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, National Public Radio and in Musicophilia, by Oliver Sachs, as well as other sources. Dr. Hackney has been an invited speaker on exercise and dance internationally, including at the Karolinska Institute and for the Eshel Organization in Israel. She was the awardee of the Fulbright Association’s 2015 Selma Jeanne Cohen Dance Lectureship and a 2016 finalist for the Atlanta Magazine Groundbreaker award.