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Fairfax Area Agency on Aging hosts virtual adaptive dance workshop for family caregivers
Summary
The Fairfax Area Agency on Aging held a virtual, seated adaptive dance workshop led by Dr. Julia Beck to help family caregivers and people living with dementia or Parkinson’s use movement and music for wellbeing; participants were invited to a July 10 intergenerational self-defense webinar.
Tammy Cave, a caregiver specialist with the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging, opened a virtual family caregiver workshop and introduced Dr. Julia Beck, a primary care physician and medical educator from the University of Washington, who led an hourlong adaptive dance session designed for caregivers and people living with neurologic conditions.
Dr. Beck said the class was deliberately seated to keep movements accessible and to let participants focus on expression rather than balance. She described her format: "I will first show you the sequence of movements that we'll do, and I would remind you that we're each unique people," and offered options so attendees could adjust moves to their comfort.
The session mixed guided warm-ups and imagination-based sequences that used everyday actions as prompts. Participants practiced upper-body articulation with a "ball of energy" visualization, followed by playful exercises—"putting on boots" and a Samba-themed "Ipanema Beach" stroll—that emphasized rhythm, gentle range-of-motion, and bringing social connection into movement.
When asked how music choices support emotional release, Dr. Beck responded: "There's some really interesting research about that dancers that, our emotional state will often shift a little bit, to match the music that we're listening to." She said she selects songs with attention to where participants are at the start of class and where she hopes they will be by the end—sometimes starting with calmer tracks and building to higher-energy pieces to increase engagement.
Throughout, Dr. Beck encouraged participants to adapt movements and framed dance as a way to create brief moments of joy and shared connection: "Sometimes even everyday things can be made into dance," she said, and noted that moving together, even virtually and while seated, can add benefits for mood and social connection.
Host Tammy Cave closed the session with logistics: attendees were asked to complete a short survey after signing out and were invited to another virtual workshop, "self defense for the family," which "will take place on Friday, July 10 from 12PM to 1PM," she said. The session ended after a two-minute goodbye dance and a brief question period.
The workshop was presented as a wellness and educational offering by the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging; it was recorded for later viewing and provided closed captioning for accessibility.
