Mario Vergara sat in a wheelchair, his head bent forward, fingers drawn together and rigid. He spoke — in a husky whisper — only when spoken to.
Roxana Vergara had accompanied her father, the day before his 93rd birthday, to get him out of his Orland Park home for the morning and to perhaps reignite the spark he felt when he danced salsa, cumbia and merengue years ago — in his native Chile and later, at that country’s consulate here in Chicago.
“He and my mom used to love to cut a rug,” Roxana Vergara, 65, said. “He had some pretty good moves back in the day.”
On Wednesday, father and daughter — along with about two dozen others — came to Rush University Medical Center to take part in a dance workshop for patients living with Parkinson’s disease, a movement disorder of the nervous system that worsens over time. Approximately 90,000 people are diagnosed with the disease annually in the United States, according to The Parkinson’s Foundation. The disease has no cure.
But dance is an exercise that, research suggests, can help slow the disease’s progression. Leading Wednesday’s workshop was 28-year-old J’Kobe Wallace, a dance captain with “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical,” playing at Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St. through Nov. 30.
Diamond was himself diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2018. The show follows Diamond’s rise from a Brooklyn, N.Y., kid to a global megastar. It also deals with the singer’s struggle to come to terms with his diagnosis.
“There is an inordinate amount of research showing that exercise is incredibly powerful for people with Parkinson’s. While our medications can help with symptoms and helping people to feel better, none of our medications so far actually slow down the progression of the disease,” said Dr. Jori Fleisher, a movement disorders neurologist at Rush.
“Specific forms of exercise that help people move bigger, move more fluidly, like dance, have been shown to be really beneficial – not only to people with Parkinson’s and their movement — but also their mood,” she said.
Workshop participants sat in a circle in the hospital’s airy auditorium. They ranged in age from their 40s to those in their 90s — and all had sought treatment at Rush. Some were in the early stages of the disease; others were in the latter stages, like Vergara, who also has dementia.
“There is no wrong way to dance, no wrong way to move, no wrong way to wiggle your toes,” said a beaming Wallace, cueing up the music.
“We’re going to try some moves, okay Papi?” Vergara’s daughter said, rubbing his hand.
Vergara shook his head, “No.”
But as the Africa-inspired rhythm of Diamond’s “Soolaimon” filled the Rush auditorium, stiff, unwilling limbs began to move, the constant trembling gave way to something more controlled, beautiful even.
Vergara’s hazel eyes locked on Wallace. The 92-year-old’s feet, clad in sensible shoes, tapped to the rhythm. His shoulders swayed, his fingers fluttered. And he even smiled.
“Let’s all experiment. If you want to go rogue, go rogue!” Wallace urged. As rogue as you can get while sitting in a chair.
Although a cure for Parkinson’s may not yet be close, “we are moving much closer to … things that may slow down the progression of Parkinson’s on a molecular level with medicines,” Fleisher said. “We are studying gene therapies, stem cell treatments, in addition to exercise and various different pills targeting different parts of the brain.”
Sonia Vargas, 65, was sitting beside Wallace in the circle. When the dance captain asked for a volunteer to come up with a dance routine, hers was the first hand in the air. Even though Vargas suffers from significant tremors, she loves to dance. She dances, she says, when she’s in her kitchen cooking.
“Party or no party, I dance,” Vargas said.