From all over the world I am tagged in the Swan lake video. In this video, a ballet dancer with dementia finds “movements” memories of her dancing period.
Despite being in a wheelchair, she makes the beautiful movements of the dancing swan she once was. She is happy, she is connected with herself. Through dementia she finds pieces of her existence without dementia.
On October 30, 2020, the video is uploaded on YouTube by the Asociación Música para Despertar (“Music for Awakening”), a Spanish organization promoting music therapy for the elderly and raising awareness about Alzheimer's.
The man who puts the headphones on her is Pepe Olmedo, director and founder of Música para Despertar. The video is recorded in 2019 in a retirement home in the Spanish town of Muro de Alcoy, halfway between Valencia and Alicante.
The video caption states that it is Marta C. González or Marta Cinta, a “prima ballerina in New York in the 1960s”. González is said to have founded her own ensemble “Rosamunda”, of which she was principal dancer, choreographer and director.
The former dancer has since passed away and the video was posted on the internet as a tribute.
All over the world beautiful moving responses are written under this video. Young and old, nearly no one can watch this video with dry eyes.
This is again another example of the power of music which Oliver Sacks so aptly describes in his book “Musicophilia”. The right music is able to activate deep-lying patterns through the Alzheimer's.
Pay attention! This musical “miracle” can only arise with the right music. How do you find this miraculous music? You, yes you! You can find the right music with Ignar's dementia guide.
With Ignar's dementia guide everybody can find those miraculous songs, giving great happiness to a person with demenita.
With Ignar's dementia guide
you reduce the care burden and increase the well-being of the person with dementia. Music is a double-edged sword. Use it! You find Ignar's dementia guide on the academy of fabulous stuff.
Let this video inspire you. Start today. Find those miraculous songs. You not only give the person with dementia a wonderful gift, but you give yourself also a present.
Imagine what you feel “experiencing how someone deeply immersed in the dementia fog comes back to life. Or when you see a smile appear on a frozen face, a twinkle arise in dull eyes. Is this not wonderful to witness?
I hope this video is also a wake up call for director’s of care homes.
- That they see that music should be used professionally in dementia care.
- That they start integrating music in a professional manner into dementia care.
- Result: A lower workload, a higher job satisfaction plus a higher quality of care.
Music fits within the Nursing Home Care quality framework, person-centered care and care-support.
Nice advantage: Music is easy to make visible in the quality plan and quality report.
Plato said it already “Music gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good and just and beautiful ”. And Florence Nightingale mentioned music in her first manifesto.
Isn't it high time that music should be professionally intrigued into the English dementia care?
Take a look at Ignar’s dementia guide