BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Inside Bethlehem’s Moravian Village, music is helping people living with Alzheimer’s disease find moments of movement, connection and joy.<\/p>\n
Danny Grae uses music to get people moving during his Zumba classes, creating an opportunity for participants and their caregivers to connect through familiar songs and rhythms.<\/p>\n
For John Velonis, the class offers a chance to share a special moment with his wife, Judy, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really enjoys the music with the beat,\u201d Velonis said. \u201cShe’ll sometimes try to follow along and tap every once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grae says he has seen firsthand how music can make a difference for people living with Alzheimer’s.<\/p>\n
After one of his performances, a woman approached Grae to tell him about her mother, who had not spoken for more than a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was singing along with me. She was laughing,\u201d Grae recalled. \u201cAnd she said, \u2018You just brought her back to life. And I haven’t had that for a year.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
About one in nine Americans age 65 and older is living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.<\/p>\n
Grae says he carefully chooses songs he believes will encourage people to participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pick songs that I think they will enjoy, that will get them moving, that will get them singing also,\u201d Grae said. \u201cBecause I think that’s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grae plans to continue performing throughout the Lehigh Valley, using music to help people living with Alzheimer’s find moments of connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who’s watching this has somebody that they’re caring for and they’re not sure about the whole situation, all I can say is be patient. Love them,\u201d Velonis said.<\/p>\n
For Velonis, that means continuing to show up for his high school sweetheart, Judy, just as he has every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Inside Bethlehem’s Moravian Village, music is helping people living with Alzheimer’s disease find moments of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,1391],"class_list":["post-264216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}