This is the incredible moment a former prima ballerina suffering with Alzheimer’s is transformed when she hears the music from Swan Lake.
Valenica, Spain (10 November 2020) – A former prima ballerina with Alzheimer’s has been captured on video being transported to a performance she gave decades earlier, as she remembers the choreography she danced to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
As a prima ballerina with the New York Ballet in the 1960s, Marta González would have performed Swan Lake thousands of times, and it seems that the routine and music are now etched into her memory.
A charity called “Music para Despertar” shared the video, which has gone viral.
“Research suggests that listening to or singing songs can provide emotional and behavioural benefits for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. Musical memories are often preserved in Alzheimer’s disease because key brain areas linked to musical memory are relatively undamaged by the disease.”
Sadly González passed away recently but she had one last chance to revisit her ballet days before she died.
Watch the emotional video below:
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