Article at wbur.org by Jessica Ullian: This Flamenco Teacher Uses Dance To Help Rebuild The Brain

Read Yosi Karahashi's new interview at the Dance Complex blog.

Flamenco For Life: healing power through the joy of music, rhythm and dance.

We can all relate to music and dance. They are part of what make us human. Music and dance relieve us from stress, improve our mood, and make us feel loved and connected to one another.
Flamenco For Life brings this healing power to those who need it the most: the elderly, the sick, and children who cannot access music and dance themselves.

What is Flamenco?

Flamenco is a Spanish art form whose roots can be traced to Andalusia. Flamenco combines singing, guitar playing, dance, vocalizations, and, percussion with instruments (e.g., castanets, cajon) or palmas/hand clapping, pitos/finger snapping, golpe/knocking on surfaces or the body). About 50 different palos (musical forms) can be created using a base-12 rhythmic count.

What is Flamenco For Life?

Through the uniqueness of the Flamenco music form, Flamenco For Life:

  • can improve motor coordination and cognitive functioning
  • can have a positive impact on emotional well being
  • promotes the development of community and socialization between the artists and the audience
  • may have a positive impact on mood and cognitive ability (e.g., visual perception) through the use of color, as demonstrated in dementia population

In nursing homes, we see first hand how Flamenco For Life sessions allow patients to display their emotions. Their eyes focus and brighten, their faces become expressive, and they begin to move their hands and fingers, beating on the table to make sounds and rhythm. The flowers in their souls begin to bloom again. A very beautiful moment.

What we do

We bring Flamenco For Life to those who need it most, the elderly, sick, or children, who can not access music and dance themselves, and bring the dance to senior centers, nursing facilities, assisted living, rehabilitation hospitals.