Ballet school takes steps to help sufferers of Parkinson's

A leading London ballet school is holding classes for Parkinson's sufferers after a study suggested dancing relieved symptoms of the disease.

English National Ballet hopes its Dance for Parkinson's scheme will improve patients' quality of life.

It commissioned a Roehampton University study which showed that dance may temporarily ease effects of the debilitating neurological condition and improve short-term mobility.

The scheme has now been backed with £97,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation which will see it expand from London to four satellite programmes across Britain.

About 120,000 people in the UK have Parkinson's, a condition that causes nerve cells in the brain to die and has no cure.

Patients in London told the BBC during the filming of a documentary for Inside Out, which airs tonight, that ballet had made a difference to their lives.

One sufferer, Jane, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2005 and met her husband, Franco, while dancing, said she "comes alive" during ballet sessions. "I thought I wouldn't be able to move in that way again and express myself in dance but to be able to do it is just wonderful," she said.

"When the music starts I can feel my body want to move. Somehow it relaxes you and you get the ability to do things that you can't do at other times.

"I will go on signing up to the ballet class for as long as it exists and as long as I live - even if I can only sit in the wheelchair."

The programme follows a class by the ENB introducing elements of The Nutcracker to a group of 40 people.

Scientists from the university monitor the patients' progress from start to finish and hope to see improvements in the quality of their lives.

Dr Sara Houston, from the university, said she had noticed changes in the balance and stability of patients.

She said: "If you suddenly come out of that with a different quality of moving, maybe a stronger quality or a lighter quality, actually what you're doing is feeling different."

Inside Out is on BBC1 tonight at 7.30.