Published: November 25, 2025
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
It was a Wednesday morning in October at The Louisville Ballet School.
The second-floor space on Shelbyville Road was mostly quiet, save for some rustling from the back left corner studio. Tucked away in a small room, roughly 15 chairs were aligned in a circle on the hardwood floor.
Seated in them were a couple of teachers, a few Bellarmine University students and some folks who’ve either been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease or are caretakers for someone with those diagnoses.
The class started with some seated full-body warmups, participants simulating the act of picking up the autumn leaves and throwing them above their heads.
They slowly sprouted from their chairs and began practicing some of ballet’s most fundamental techniques — port de bras (fluid arm movements), first position (heels together, toes pointed to the side) — learning new vocabulary along the way.
Then it was on to the ballet bars. More techniques. More vocabulary.
After a while, they spread their roots to the center of the floor, where they stood and danced. The students scribbled their notes, documenting the changes they saw.
It was an hour of activity, twice a week, for five weeks.
The class was called “Gentle Movement,” a pilot program designed to test the benefits of ballet’s slow, gentle movements on the brains and bodies of those with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. It is a partnership among Norton Healthcare, the Louisville Ballet and Bellarmine University, and is part of the ballet’s greater Adaptive Dance Initiative.
“First and foremost, we’re building community,” said teacher Molly Kays. “Parkinson’s is a disease that can become very isolating. And we’re giving these participants a place to come every week to meet new people and learn something new. So that’s the foundation of our class. But more than that, moving is good for our bodies. So, the more you do it, the better you feel.”
While participants practiced the fundamental techniques of ballet, Bellarmine University’s physical therapy doctoral students measured their balance, mobility and gait speed. They also documented improvements in the patients’ non-motor symptoms, such as sleep quality, mood, fatigue and overall quality of life.
The hope of the class was to give movement disorder patients another tool in their box to live with these debilitating diseases.
“Regular exercise is the only thing that potentially is able to slow the progression of [Parkinson’s] disease,” said Jason L. Crowell, M.D., movement disorders neurologist with Norton Neuroscience Institute. “I tell my patients I have medicines that make it easier for them to move, but they still have to do the moving themselves, and ballet demands very precise, smooth, controlled movements. And those are the very things that folks with Parkinson’s struggle with.”
Jenny Padgett was among the dancers in the class.
She said her symptoms came on slowly. In January 2024, the then 71-year-old registered nurse began to feel a slight, intermittent tremor in her left hand. At first, she didn’t think too much of it. But a summer appointment with Dr. Crowell confirmed her Parkinson’s diagnosis. It forced her to retire, but she vowed to remain active. After she was diagnosed, she scoured the community for activities that could slow down the progression of her disease.
“It’s been busy, but I’ve met lots of people,” Jenny said. “The resources out there in the community are abundant. There’s no reason why anyone in this area should feel alone.”
She began playing pickleball three days a week, taking dance classes, playing different brain games. She even participated in Rock Steady Boxing classes, which are designed specifically for Parkinson’s patients.
And it has paid dividends.
More than 15 months into her diagnosis, Jenny’s symptoms remained mild, so much so that she still does not require medication for her tremors. She attributed that to her own hard work.
“I’m a firm believer in that cliché that if you don’t use it, you lose it,” Jenny said. “And I can tell that if I’m off for a week, not doing those regular exercises, I can definitely feel it — the stiffness, the soreness.”
In the summer of 2025, Dr. Crowell had introduced her to the Parkinson’s Disease Summer Wellness Retreat, a two-day event put on by Norton Neuroscience Institute to teach Parkinson’s patients ways to maintain wellness, while also showing them the importance of movement and exercise. While there, she connected with the members of the Louisville Ballet, who informed her about the Gentle Movement class pilot. She figured…why not?
“You feel like you’re a dancer, even though you’re not,” she said. “And this class has been so joyful. The stretching makes all the difference in the world. And it’s not that big of a commitment — twice a week for an hour — and there’s no judgment. It’s a safe place and Molly and the team have been great.”
Dr. Crowell said some people are surprised when they attend the classes.
“They go thinking it’s about the exercise, but they really get the camaraderie, the experience of sharing this with people who are going through the same disease,” he said. “They realize, ‘Oh you’re going through that too, it’s the same as me,’ and they really develop relationships from it.”
The data collected by the students will help determine what comes next, but for the dancers in this room, the impact was already clear. At the end of class, the participants gathered their belongings, still moving with the grace they had just practiced, and made their way toward the door — a little taller and a little looser than when they arrived.
For Molly and the rest of the team, this is what success looks like: a few moments each week where movement brings connection, strength and joy.
“This is our first go at it,” Molly said. “We can’t wait to see where and how this progresses in January. But for now, we’ve had a small and mighty group to kick us off and it’s been wonderful.”
The program will restart and expand in January 2026 and run through the first three quarters of the year. The nearly $28,000 in funding for the continuation of the program was made possible by the Norton Healthcare Foundation.
Registration for 2026 is now open. To sign up, click here.