Illuminated by the soft glow of a Zoom session on her computer, Heather Ivanov sits quietly in her wheelchair. She shuts her eyes, takes a deep breath and begins to flutter her arms over her chest.
Sometimes, the 56-year-old Ivanov imagines a burst of energy rushing through her body. Other times, she likes to hug her stomach, softly swaying from side to side.
Diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in her senior year of high school, Ivanov struggles with mobility and fatigue. But every Wednesday, inside her childhood home in Gainesville, she flicks her camera on and participates in an online dance class, where she can move as much or as little as she likes.
“There’s something profoundly true about imagining that you’re doing something, whether you can actually still do it or not,” she said. “It's still positive, reinforcing positive messages to my brain.”
Multiple sclerosis is estimated to affect over 1.8 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. The disease is caused when the immune system attacks the brain or spinal cord, and it can lead to vision problems, fatigue, difficulty walking or with balance, emotional and cognitive struggles, tremors and numbness or weakness.
Ivanov’s Wednesday afternoons are dedicated to Dance for Life, a UF Arts in Medicine program offering free online dance classes to individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or other neurological movement disorders.
The one-hour class aims to provide a sense of joy, movement and social activity in a judgment-free environment, where people are not expected to have dance experience or move in a specific way.
Dr. Michael Okun, a board-certified neurologist and co-founder of Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, and Dr. Jill Sonke, the director of research initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at UF, partnered to bring Dance for PD and Dance for Life to UF in 2009 after learning about the benefits of dance for people with Parkinson’s disease.
Lauren Arce, a registered nurse and AIM’s nurse coordinator, worked with Dr. Sonke and Kelly Drummond Cawthon, a UF School of Theater and Dance faculty member, to bring the classes to life.
Since the program started, the dance classes have transitioned from in-person classes at Nadine McGuire Theatre and Dance Pavilion to Zoom classes following the COVID-19 pandemic, Arce said.
Ivanov joined the program when it still offered in-person classes. She had grown up with a passion for dance, often practicing ballet, jazz and tap dancing, but following her diagnosis, she worried she might never dance the same way again.
Ivanov said joining the class helped her create friendships and bring her back to her childhood dancing days.
“It was fun, it reminded me of the names of things at ballet, poses and everything and steps,” Ivanov said. “Whitney [her former Dance for Life instructor] was really good about saying that the class was for everybody, she was just suggesting things to do.”
The classes aim to create a bond between individuals struggling with similar diagnoses; participants are not just strangers on a screen, but friends.
All members are required to turn their cameras on, ensuring their safety and creating a sense of community, despite it being online.
The classes are limited to 15 participants, in addition to their special guests, to allow dancers the freedom to move safely and openly.
Whitney Wilson, a dancer and AIM practitioner, taught the class on Sept. 4. As Ivanov and other participants joined the Zoom call, Wilson individually welcomed each member, asking them about their family or how they felt that day.
“It’s so good to see your familiar faces,” Wilson said to the group. “I miss you guys.”
Wilson also reminded participants they could move in any way they felt comfortable.
“If anything doesn't feel right, you don't have to do it,” she said. “There's no right or wrong, as I used to say, no right or left. We're just here to connect to our bodies, to feel good, to feel whole.”
As Wilson sat in a chair, she performed dances and explained the movements. Through the entirety of the class, no individual moved the same. Some participants closed their eyes and occasionally moved their hands, while others forcefully swung their arms and stomped their feet.
Many dances focus on embodying oneself with elements like fire, wind and dust. Wilson called on dancers to improvise their own movements, wipe the dust off their hearts or form a heart at the center of their chests, bowing in gratitude toward themselves.
Arce has worked to organize these classes since the program’s start. Though the classes encourage movement, Arce said the program’s focus is to create a social and welcoming space, and it is not the same as art therapy.
“Our goals are things like joy, social connection, making creative expression,” Arce said. “Those things may then have secondary results: mood, better sleep, enhanced relaxation … But we don't do certain things to achieve physical and mental health outcomes.”
In a study published by the National Library of Medicine, results showed people with multiple sclerosis who participated in dance sessions experienced changes in energy, mood and self-confidence and improved energy after sessions.
The welcoming atmosphere and social activity is one of Ivanov’s favorite parts of the dance sessions.
Ivanov remains at home with her parents most days. The Zoom class is something she looks forward to every week, she said.
“It definitely helps mentally, other than that, I’m at home all day every day, and I don’t interact with people unless it’s on Zoom.”
Similarly, before the program switched to Zoom, the classes provided a time for caregivers, spouses or friends to have a moment of respite. Every participant is allowed to invite a special person, which can allow them to reconnect with their partners.
“That’s been really good for the spouses too, to have this outlet, a social outlet, besides being alone with their partner or being alone in a doctor's office with their partner,” Ivanov said.
The program’s dance instructors, dancers in residence Shera Curtis and Jackie Larson, recognize some participants may feel nervous or too uncomfortable to dance. But by consistently communicating that the class is not focused on technique or choreography, but being present in one’s body, they hope participants can feel comfortable enough to connect with their bodies.
“We set the tone by just being who we are,” Curtis said. “I think our vulnerability is also something that they can cling on to. It’s a human experience that we provide for them.”
By working to improve the quality of life for many participants, Curtis and Larson simply ask for individuals to show up, however that might be.
“Our heartbeats affect each other when we are just in the presence of one another,” Larson said.
Ivanov is grateful for the opportunity to dance in an environment where she never fears being laughed at or judged. For her, she hopes all individuals with disabilities can find something that openly welcomes her the way Dance for Life has.
“You come as you are,” she said. “If you can stand, great. If you have to sit in a wheelchair, great. Just do what you can. You don’t have to do high kicks or whatever, you are not expected that every part of your body has to work correctly.”
Dance for Life is partnering with IndepenDANCE Studio to reestablish in-person dance classes. The next in-person class will be held Thursday, and registration is required.