Current Research Projects:

Singing to improve gait for people with Parkinson disease

Stemming from my performance work combining movement with song, my doctoral work focused on developing a novel therapeutic technique of singing to improve walking for people with neurological impairments. My initial singing studies successfully showed that people could improve their gait speed by simply using their own voices, but they also revealed an unexpected benefit of improving overall gait stability and potentially reducing fall risk. This discovery opened up a new line of research into internal versus external cueing techniques and has led to numerous publications and speaking opportunities. Currently, I am supported by a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Sound Health Initiative to explore the brain mechanisms that allow for internal cueing in the form of mental singing.

Dance to improve gait and balance for older adults

I am currently running a randomized controlled trial to explore the effects of ballet on gait, balance, and quality of life among older women. This collaboration with Vitality in Motion, a local arts group that offers ballet classes to older adults in underserved regions in St. Louis, is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Other collaborations include the Dance for PD group at the Mark Morris Center in NYC with whom I developed an improvisation-based modern dance technique to benefit gait in people with PD. I am continuing to develop current lines of research, exploring both codified and improvisational dance forms, while also planting seeds for new collaborations throughout the growing dance science community.

Somatic practices to improve balance and quality of life among people with motor impairments

A certified yoga teacher, I maintain a strong yoga practice which has inspired me to explore the effects of somatic work in other populations. In an early study, I led a 12-week yoga intervention and subsequently co-authored a paper showing benefits to balance for people with PD. Currently, I am collaborating with hyp-ACCESS in NYC to examine the effects of an Alexander Technique-based approach called Awareness-Based Neuromuscular Repatterning for symptom management of hypermobility syndromes. This technique prioritizes anatomically accurate proprioception and sensory integration to minimize injury risk and improve quality of life among people with diagnosed hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or related disorders.