Exploring Dance Movement Therapy as Quality Physical Activity for People with Parkinson's Disease

This project explores the quality of physical activity people with Parkinsons Disease (PD) experience via a case study of a specialized Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) program, Dancing with Parkinsons (DwP), based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Quality Participation (QP) model developed by Martin Ginis and colleagues (2016) served as the framework by which participants quality participation experiences in the DwP program, including the meanings and satisfactions they derived from participating in the program, were investigated. The objectives of this study were twofold: to explore the quality experiences of PD patients participating in the DwP program, and to better understand participants experiences in DMT through the lens of the QP model. Drawing on qualitative research methods, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants (two male and six female) from the DwP program. Thematic analysis of the data highlighted three key conditions that enabled the participation in the DwP program (physical environment, activity and social environment), and foregrounded three of the six themes defined in the QP model (autonomy, engagement and belongingness). This project aimed to contribute to research on DMT and to quality physical activity participation in general, with focused attention on participation among populations with PD specifically.