Hey - it's been a while since I last posted anything on my research, so I thought I'd give everyone an update.

I finished my research and dancing with my subject - a 57 year old woman with secondary progressive MS, who uses a wheelchair due to increasing mobility issues. She could only stand for short periods of time, so I taught her seated belly dance with some standing when she felt capable. I danced with her one on one three days per week for three weeks, which was the most fun I've ever had doing research. I created an instructional videotape for her of one hour of seated belly dance moves, one song of standing moves to be used with a walker or other support, and two songs worth of seated choreography. She was instructed to use it three days a week for three weeks. We even used veils to increase endurance and object balancing to increase muscle control. The experiment went very well. She improved her trunk stability in a scientifically measurable and clinically significant manner. She has been using the video for six weeks so far, and shows no signs of stopping. Her depression scores reduced, as did her feelings of limitation due to MS. Her fatigue levels also reduced, and she was able to do more for longer, which is still improving. In addition, she reported more ease in dressing, bed activities, transferring from surface to surface, and feels more balance and more control of her body, which is important as she is a reasonably high fall risk person. She appreciated the idea of using what she had rather than omitting what she did not have, as well as looking and feeling beautiful while doing it.

I am in the middle of writing my final paper and presenting the information for later this semester. I will also be creating future research projects based on my report, including other populations that belly dance could work for and how to get people to give me money for my work. I am looking forward to presenting my information so the physical therapy community can understand the benefits of using belly dance as therapy either in whole or through use of the separate moves as exercises.