Dance Your Asperger's Off

It seems like two disparate realms. One is occupied by some of the most acclaimed dancers in the world, people who move for a living. The other is occupied by people who often struggle to move, people who have Parkinson's disease. This is the story of what happens when those different worlds intersect. For a year, we followed a group of individuals with Parkinson's as they prepared to stage a first ever dance performance, under the tutelage of two long time principal dancers at the Mark Morris Dance Group. It's a story about what each group learns from the other. It's a story about determination, adversity, contending with doubt, the transformative power of art and the strength of the human spirit. As Parkinson's dance participant Reggie Butts puts it, when the music starts, he says, there are no patients, there are only dancers. This is the story of a remarkable community of dancers, some professional and some not, who have come together to rediscover the meaning of grace.

It seems like two disparate realms. One is occupied by some of the most acclaimed dancers in the world, people who move for a living. The other is occupied by people who often struggle to move, people who have Parkinson's disease. This is the story of what happens when those different worlds intersect. For a year, we followed a group of individuals with Parkinson's as they prepared to stage a first ever dance performance, under the tutelage of two long time principal dancers at the Mark Morris Dance Group. It's a story about what each group learns from the other. It's a story about determination, adversity, contending with doubt, the transformative power of art and the strength of the human spirit. As Parkinson's dance participant Reggie Butts puts it, when the music starts, he says, there are no patients, there are only dancers. This is the story of a remarkable community of dancers, some professional and some not, who have come together to rediscover the meaning of grace.