Vive le Tango!

Herbert Bilinsky practices the tango with Madeleine Hackney, a movement science doctoral student and a former professional dancer, while Gammon Earhart, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical therapy, looks on. Each week Earhart and Hackney offer tango lessons to patients with Parkinson’s disease and their partners. The lessons started last summer as part of a pilot study, funded by the American Parkinson Disease Association, examining the effects of tango on walking and balance in people with Parkinson’s disease and in those without the disease. The improvements in the Parkinson’s patients who took the summer tango lessons were so marked that Earhart has applied for additional grant support to continue the program.