Mike Berry walks with measured steps into the Tenth East Senior Center in Salt Lake City every Thursday for his Grey Matters dance class. He helps arrange chairs into a semicircle and greets his classmates and instructor Juan Carlos Claudio. Then Berry, diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease four years ago, starts moving.
Claudio puts on the music and tells group members to start rubbing their arms and legs because “motion is lotion.” The positive energy kicks up a notch when Claudio welcomes each of the 17 participants by name and they begin to rediscover twisting muscles. There are seated tango moves and jazzy kick-ball changes that restore the sensation of balance.