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Black and White Cassette Tape

This short made by Mary Mathews of Gal Pal Media highlights my work dancing with seniors and people living with dementia. A feature length documentary is in production.

Waltz Through Life is dedicated to getting seniors dancing through ballroom socials and chair dance classes for standing or seated participation. So often people think they can't dance anymore because of their physical or cognitive limitations and it's just not true! My goal is to create a comfortable space for people to feel uninhibited so they can connect with the music, a partner, and most importantly, to themselves.   ​

 

For individuals with advanced memory loss as a result of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, dancing to music is better than any medicine on Earth! Music simultaneously engages a broad network of brain regions allowing the memory-impaired to experience mini-awakenings. I often witness people who have lost all language start to sing along and know every word to the music playing. It's not unusual to then have someone share memories that the music sparked for them. Dancing and music are a way to pause the confusion and chaos that accompanies dementia, delivering memories, joy, peace and identity whether you are experiencing early stages or advanced stages of memory loss.

“Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional. It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.”
― Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

CLASSES

Explore classic dances like cha-cha and waltz in

SOCIAL BALLROOM CLASS for all bodies and ability. 

An hour of dancing in

MEMORY CARE is always a bonafide DANCE PARTY as everyone comes alive.

 

Who says you have to get up and dance? This ballroom inspired CHAIR DANCE CLASS uplifts the spirit and is great exercise, too!

PRIVATE DANCE WELLNESS sessions for seniors with dementia. One-on-one dance session with music curated for each student. 

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Inquiries and booking
         323-559-0220
  waltzthroughlife@yahoo.com
 

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Kristina Hayes is a Los Angeles based actor with 25 years of television and film credits. Mostly known for comedy, she has a small cult following for original characters on 4 seasons of Comedy Central’s Reno 911, guest star appearances on hit shows like King of Queens, Bones, Castle, The Morning Show (to name a few, full list of credits HERE) and acted on TV pilots with or produced by Ellen Degeneres, Jason Alexander, Frank Caliendo and Seinfeld’s Larry Charles...that never got picked up which is why you don’t know who she is. She probably looks familiar because she looks familiar to everyone which has led Kristina to believe she might be living in multiple dimensions and time zones as herself. Her last job to date in Hollywood was a menopause commercial. She is not in menopause, but can play a woman in menopause on TV. She was recently displaced by the Eaton fires and has relocated to wine country. Every time she passes a vineyard she’s grateful she doesn’t drink anymore despite it being a beautiful place to die. Kristina also has a small business, Waltz Through Life, which brings social ballroom dancing to seniors in assisted livings and memory-care for people with dementia and is currently working on a feature length documentary with Gal Pal Productions about her business and how dancing with older folks has taught her the most important lessons of her life.

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