music

Dancing Changes Lives At Any Age

Kristina Hayes is a Los Angeles-based actress who stumbled (or samba-ed) into her life’s work: teaching the elderly to dance.

In this beautiful (get your hankies out) short film about Kristina's work, Waltzing Through Life by Mary Matthews, Kristina explores the ins and outs of teaching dance in nursing homes. The impact it’s having on the students lives is obvious. Some are newbies, some are coming back to dance and some have been dancing their entire lives. Kristina’s students talk about the impact dancing has made on their well-being and Kristina tells us the impact teaching classes to the elderly has had on hers.

BRITE Program Helps Seniors Remember In a Whole New Way

23% of folks over the age of 65 suffer from some kind of memory loss. Some of this cognitive loss could be the first steps towards Alzheimers or dementia and some of it is just plain, old fashioned getting old. Either way, the University of Pittsburgh’s BRITE program is helping seniors remember by offering them music lessons on the marimba.

Singing at Sing Sing For All the Right Reasons

Folk singer Rhiannon Giddens chose to debut her new album this week in an unexpected, beautiful and socially conscious way: by Singing at Sing Sing. It happened through Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program, which  seeks to bring musicians and musical education into the lives of those incarcerated there. Participating inmates learn to play instruments and compose, in addition to the opportunity to enjoy the concerts.