Dance for Parkinson's

Abstract

This chapter aims to present important aspects of dance for people with Parkinson's disease and the benefits of dance practice for cognition and quality of life in this population. In the first part, the context of the topic addressed was explained, presenting the main characteristics of the disease and the main contributions of dance for people with Parkinson's disease. The available literature on the impacts of dance on cognition for this population was presented and discussed. After, the findings related to the potential of dance for the population's quality of life are demonstrated and commented on. In the end, the main results found are pointed out. Although some studies did not show significant improvements in these aspects, dance practice seems to be efficient to improve cognition, mainly executive function, and increasing quality of life in people with Parkinson's disease.