‘Lovely to watch’: Former WA Ballet leaders lift seniors in world first

It didn’t look promising when a group of seniors at Perth aged-care facility shuffled into a ballet class led by two of Western Australia’s leading dance professionals.

After all, ballet is all about youthful bodies bouncing, bending and lifting – and lifting means thrusting entire people into the air. So what could you expect from a 45-minute trial on the benefits of a dance activity involving people for whom dance is a distant memory?

“This class was something different. It was special,” said 82-year-old Jannie May. Credit: Mark Naglazas

But it didn’t take long for instructors Sandrine Delassale and Lisa Purchas to entice the group in their 80s and 90s at Bethanie Como to sync their bodies to the music and make those physical and mental connections that tend to go dormant in our later years.

More importantly, the residents had a ball, leaving happier than when they walked (or wheeled) in.

“It was wonderful,” said 82-year-old Jannie May, for whom the class sent her tumbling back in time to childhood ballet classes. “We should all dance. It’s good for us.

“I play golf and I go to the gym, but this class was something different. It was special. It reminded me of how much joy that dance gave me when I was young. I hope we can do it again.”

Delassale, who was principal rehearsal director and artistic associate with West Australian Ballet, reports similar responses to classes they’ve been conducting in aged-care facilities across Perth.

“We had a guy who really didn’t want to be in there,” said Delassale. “By the end of the session he was feeling like the king of the world. He had a big smile on his face. It was beautiful to see.”

Bethanie therapy team leader Lisa Hepburn admits to being filled with trepidation at the start of the class.

“The residents looked a little bit shaky,” said Hepburn. “But once they started moving to the music it was really very impressive. They achieved wonderful extension through their arms and nice movement in their shoulders and hands. It was lovely to watch.”

The idea of using ballet as therapy began when Purchas witnessed her mother suffering with Alzheimer’s.

Sandrine Delassale puts Bethanie Como residents through their paces.Credit: Mark Naglazas

“Back in 2006 there was quite a bit of stigma associated with Alzheimer’s disease and she was quite advanced before she was diagnosed,” she said.

“So I filmed a series of unique exercises using dance and put them onto YouTube.”

It attracted a great deal of interest, leading to Puchas joining Delassale and former WA Ballet artistic director Aurelian Scanella to form Ballet 4 Wellbeing, a company dedicated to developing what they believe is a world-first therapy for those battling the mental and physical challenges of ageing.

“What we are doing is linking that movement to music. Clients have to use their brains to count and co-ordinate their bodies with the music and to memorise the exercise,” said Scanella, who used dance to rebuild after a horror childhood traffic accident.

While the team have experienced firsthand their impact, they now want to document the results for the medical community and have a researcher starting soon to quantify and assess results.

“We have looked across the globe and not found anything similar,” said Purchas.

“We believe we’re breaking new ground.”

Purchas said many neural pathways connected the brain to the body and dance, even when performed in chairs , was a wonderful way to spark those pathways.

She had taken classes into high-care facilities where the residents were non-communicative and reluctant but had become engaged with dance.

“It is something about the music, the exercises, the use of breath that draws them out to become involved. You can see the joy in their faces,” she said.

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