A collaboration between Playhouse Square and Cleveland Clinic will bring a new series of arts programming to Northeast Ohioans living with neurological disorders.
Arts & Minds will offer free weekly classes designed to mitigate symptoms of neurological conditions through movement and socialization, said Craig Hassall, president and CEO of Playhouse Square.
“We're using all the science from Cleveland Clinic and all the art from Playhouse Square,” Hassall said. “We're the arts, and they're the minds.”
Classes for the first offering, Dance for Parkinson’s, are supported by a community grant from the Parkinson’s Foundation and are set to begin in the fall. Registration is now open online.
All classes will be held in accessible spaces within Playhouse Square, which Hassall hopes will build confidence in participants and help reduce any stigma associated with these conditions.
"What we want to do is bring these conditions out, public, front and center and say, 'There's nothing wrong with you.'"Craig Hassall, president and CEO, Playhouse Square
“If you're taking the classes hidden away in a care facility, you're not really helping the person's confidence,” Hassall said. “What we want to do is bring these conditions out, public, front and center and say, ‘There's nothing wrong with you.’”
In addition to the classes, special events will be offered throughout the year, including intimate performances and opportunities to interact with cast members.
The health-related programming is just one aspect of growth Hassall is developing in Playhouse Square.
Prior to coming to Cleveland in 2023, Hassall was chief executive at Royal Albert Hall in London, which also launched a Dance for Parkinson’s program.
“It was incredibly popular,” he said. “When I came to Playhouse Square, I thought, ‘I'd love to do that.’”
Dr. Andre Machado, chief of the Neurological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, said that when Hassall approached him with the idea of creating the programs it didn’t take much convincing.
“We converged on the opportunity in seconds,” Machado said. “We all go to Playhouse Square to see art, not to seek treatment. And this is a place where a Cleveland organization dedicated to the arts and a Cleveland organization dedicated to healthcare come together to do a little bit of both.”
Parkinson’s disease is not only a disease of movement, Machado said, it also affects visual perception and visual coordination, impacting a person’s ability to recognize space and how to plan movement in that space.
“Physical therapy is wonderful at addressing some of these limitations,” Machado said. “Interestingly enough, when you add another sense to this equation, not only the visual and the sensory, but you add music, you add the hearing to this, it provides a cadence that is helpful in the flow of movement.”
Machado also said that this is just the beginning of the program. As more is learned about the effects of the classes, they’ll look to expand it to other neurological disorders.
“We think it's going to be more interesting, more engaging, hopefully more fun and will help not only improve people's mobilities and independence – we care about that – but also hopefully lift their spirits, because it's not an easy life,” Machado said.
