2020-21 BTC Calendar: Kate Trammell

People living with Parkinson’s disease can feel trapped in their bodies. That’s why JMU dance professor emerita Kate Trammell and students from three disciplines teamed up in 2019 to help local residents with the disease rediscover movement and music. Trammell and the students hosted free classes, with dance majors serving as teaching assistants and music education majors playing piano. Occupational therapy students helped participants fully engage at their desired level of movement. Trammell, who has spearheaded similar programs at JMU, earned a Wertheimer Fellowship to pursue certification in Dance for PD. This internationally acclaimed program creatively addresses the effects of Parkinson’s,particularly balance, cognition, motor skills, depression and physical confidence. She says dance “opens up the potential that the body can be the medium with which they can transcend — and the medium that allows them to feel joy again.”