Ballet and Art for Better Cognition and Prevention of Dementia
Genoveva Uzunova, M.D., Ph.D.
Physician -Scientist Studying and Developing Pharmacological and Non-Pharmacological Treatments for Psychiatric, Neurologic, Immunologic, Rare Disorders, Artist, Ballerina, Art Therapist, Positive Psychiatry Enthusiast
November 2024 marks the one-year anniversary of my LinkedIn newsletter The Biomedical Artist and I would like to make it more special! As usual, the newsletter has artistic and biomedical aspects.
November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month and this month’s newsletter will focus on the beneficial role of ballet for cognition, learning and memory and prevention and reversing of cognitive decline.
This is a video summarizing my November LinkedIn newsletter:
Ballet for Better Cognition and Prevention of Dementia:
Ballet is great for prevention and slowing of cognitive decline, and perhaps Alzheimer’s disease.
One might say “Ballet is an art mostly of girls and women”. Ballet is not only for women. In fact, it was created and first danced by men. It was not acceptable for women to perform in public. Louis XIV of France was instrumental in the development of ballet, the creation of the five ballet positions of the feet and the first ballet school. I learned this from an interesting book on the history of ballet:
“Tutus, Tights and Tiptoes: Ballet History as It Ought to Be Taught” by David W. Barber.
This is the interesting book for those of you that wish to learn more about the history of various forms of dance and ballet in an interesting way!
More about the origins of ballet from the V & A Museum in London, UK:
What Is Cognition?
Since the newsletter focuses on the positive effects of ballet for cognition, I’d like to mention briefly the definition of cognition and cognitive impairment in medical terms. One definition from Cambridge Cognition indicates that “cognition is?the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses”.?It includes a range of intellectual functions, such a as attention, memory, knowledge, decision-making, planning, reasoning, judgment, perception comprehension, language, and visuospatial function. The word cognition is derived from the Latin word “cognoscere”, which means “get to know”. Therefore cognition may broadly be defined as getting to know the world around us, ourselves and learning new things. I would argue that cognition does not involve only mental but also bodily processes, the so-called “embodied cognition”. This is where the value of ballet lies, in my view.
Impaired Cognition and Associated Brain Changes
Cognitive impairment is a term that refers to abnormal aspects of cognition. This may occur not only in brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and depression, but also in kidney disease, diabetes, cancer and anemia, to name a few.
Science (a study published in Neurology, November 2023, the Harvard Aging Brain Study) shows that the size of the hippocampus, a key brain structure involved in learning and memory, shrinks with cognitive decline, regardless of whether a person has amyloid or tau in their brain.?
The size of hippocampus is decreased in various forms of dementia:
-????????? Alzheimer’s disease
-????????? Frontotemporal lobar degeneration
-????????? Vascular dementia
-????????? Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease
Ballet is beneficial for Learning, Memory and Cognition
Ballet increases the size of the hippocampus as a clinical study shows:
Vestibulo-Hippocampal Function Is Enhanced and Brain Structure Altered in Professional Ballet Dancers (Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience)
The study finds larger grey matter volumes for ballet dancers (18 – 35 yrs., female 10, male 9) in the right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, and cingulate motor cortex, whereas both larger and smaller volumes were detected within cerebellum bilaterally in comparison to non-dancers. Ballet dancers performed better on the clinical balance test.
Therefore, we may expect that dancing ballet regularly prevents and reverses cognitive decline.
Indeed, science study shows that ballet dancing is superior to plain physical exercise in prevention of cognitive decline.
Comparative Cognitive Effects of Choreographed Exercise and Multimodal Physical Therapy in Older Adults with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: Randomized Clinical Trial, J. Alzheimer ’s Disease 2020
This study reports that adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), ages 65 – 85, were enrolled in a clinical trial that compared effects of 12-week choreographed dance versus physical therapy on cognitive functions. Greater cognitive benefits were achieved in the choreographic intervention than in the multimodal physical therapy, mainly in those functions more related to the risk of conversion to dementia.
I, as other dancers, would agree that dancing a choreographed dance involves rehearsing the movements with your body and in your mind and it must be excellent for cognition and amazing exercise for learning and memory, both of the mind and body. For example, when I was learning today to dance Perdita in Act II of the wonderful ballet “A Winter’s Tale” with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon (as modified by me), I watched Sarah Lamb dance, then danced myself along with her, then danced by myself and rehearsed the movements in my mind before dancing the ballet for my video.
Other mechanisms through which ballet benefits cognition may be that it aids in concentration (we know that learning and memorizing are faster when a person avoids distractions), reduces stress and anxiety (they inhibit learning and memory), enhances the functioning of the basal ganglia and they are involved in cognition, ballet is mental stimulation, allows emotional expression, supports better blood supply, better breathing and oxygenation. The posture in ballet dancers facilitates the brain-body communication and synchronization.
Ballet encourages a healthy behavior, movement, instead of eating, which may help to prevent obesity, which is associated with cognitive decline, diabetes and dementia.
There are several aspects to dancing ballet – strength, flexibility, endurance, technique, athletic ability, and creativity (narrative, storytelling, embodying and conveying the character), aesthetics, artistry. It would be interesting to understand which components are most beneficial for cognition. It is likely that they benefit different aspects of cognition to a various extent.
The benefits of ballet for cognition are not only result of movement but of listening to classical music.
A more simplistic explanation of why ballet is beneficial for cognition, derived from my first Biomedical Artist newsletter in November 2023 ‘Ballet, Learning, Memory and Youthfulness” is that ballet keeps you young, doing and learning by trial and error, and cognitive decline is rare in young age. Young people learn to dance ballet, keep their brains and bodies plastic, whereas older people move less, learn less, having in mind they have gone through their learning period, teach ballet, watch and evaluate ballet dancers.
The very first November 2023 edition of my Biomedical Artist newsletter:
Given the knowledge of the positive effects of ballet on the brain and the body, why not have ballet classes in school, not just a special ballet school?
This month I created and danced abstract ballets of butterfly lavender and a teal butterfly for Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, because they are the colors of Alzheimer’s Awareness. I find that creating abstract ballets is an amazing form of positive psychiatry. Ballet is a mind-body intervention that fosters happiness, wisdom and resilience.
My Ballet French Ballerina Lavender Ballet (Butterfly Lavender):
My ballet The Butterflies-Teal:
I created an abstract ballet about a red rose to beautiful music by Mozart, Piano Sonata. No. 3, which is excellent for instilling a positive mood, fighting stress and fostering resilience. It also an excellent creative and physical exercise that enhances cognition.
My Ballet Red Rose Genevieve:
Other art endeavors, which are excellent for learning, memory and support cognition are the drawing of mandalas and listening to music. They are perfect for the Thanksgiving Holidays to enjoy with family and friends.
Every art that is enjoyable and lets you express emotions, manage stress and connect to your heart and to other people in a positive way is beneficial for cognition and health. Some art forms such as ballet have more pronounced health benefits. For me the wonderful value of ballet, whether I dance it or watch it, lies in the ability to transport myself to a different world, to embody positive uplifting emotions that, and to experience positive feelings and inspiring events, a form of play.
In addition to creating and dancing my ballets of the butterflies, this month I started a watercolor painting of butterflies and ballerinas, a work in progress.
Beautiful real preserved butterflies, which I use as “models” for my painting:
Ballerina photo of a blue butterfly, which I use as a “models” for my painting
Two quotes by artists that in my view illustrate why art (and ballet) are excellent for cognition:
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for.” Georgia O'Keeffe
“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” Edward Hopper
With this newsletter I wish to highlight the amazing role of art and ballet for health, happiness, learning, memory, and cognition and to offer some suggestions for you to include more art and dance in your life. The newsletter expresses my opinions from my experience and what I have read from publications and ballet dancers. Your comments are welcomed!
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