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Carole Mikita ReportingFive to six million Americans suffer with Alzheimer's or dementia and their adult children struggle to help them. A Weber State University professor has created a dance piece to represent those on both sides of these diseases.
Prof. Erik Stern has firsthand experience with all of the emotions involved in caring for aging parents and trying to help them as their once wondeful minds deteriorate.
As cars crash in a demolition derby, so too do diseased minds. Four years ago, Erik Stern moved his parents to Utah because his father was suffering from Alzheimer's.
Erik Stern, Ph.D., Weber State University: "My father kind of kept cars forever, the last car he bought was in '67 so there's that kind of associating the demise of a car in a demolition derby and the demise of my father, the decline of his skills and abilities."
His father has since died, but his mother now has dementia. He says communicating with her through language is slipping.
Erik Stern: "But the touch and physicality, it ratchets up way more, which is why I think a dance is the thing to do; it's about that interaction and that awareness."
For the young dancers there's a double challenge, not only do they have to do this creative work, but they also have to contemplate these diseases that they have no experience with. Elizabeth Cranny portrays his mother... this role, she says, required research.
Elizabeth Cranny: "It's kind of a shifting thing where sometimes I'm really withdrawn and other times I'm supposed to focus and interact with him as if I know who he is, and other times as if i'm not sure what's going on."
The emotions for both the sufferer and the caregiver, Stern says, can be deep and raw. He and his dancers hope to bring awareness and open dialogue that can help so many who find themselves in similar situations.
Erik Stern: "I want the discussions to start to happen because I feel like that's, until it's cured, that's going to be as much a part of the healing process as the wonderful things that doctors do."
"Demolition Derby - when a mind loses its license to drive" opens tonight at the Rose Wagner Perfomring Arts Center. Three doctors from the University of Utah's Center for Alzheimer's Care will hold a panel discussion following the performances, which continue through Saturday.
