Ruth Davidson Hahn & Company

Thank you! My heart is full of gratitude for all the treasured gifts made to Ruth Davidson Hahn & Company’s Dance for Parkinson’s 10th Anniversary GoFundMe. Your generous contributions make a real difference. If you’d like to join in on the giving it’s not too late! Please know that your tax-deductible donations are gratefully accepted through the end of the year. Your gifts of every size make our life-changing programs available to help people with challenges move while experiencing the joy of dance. Your contribution to Ruth Davidson Hahn & Company’s Dance for Parkinson’s 10th Anniversary GoFundMe has great impact for us with a $500 match opportunity from Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal financial services organization. We are so blessed for this chance and need your help to not miss this urgent fundraising goal. Please help us help others by donating to our year-end fundraiser for my nonprofit organization's Dance for Parkinson's Outreach Program in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Above: Ruth Davidson Hahn & Company’s Outreach Program Dance for Parkinson's in This Little Light of Mine. This dance video was viewed at the Parkinson’s World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, July 2023.

For 10 years we have served adults with Parkinson’s disease, their caregivers, spouses, and partners, with an uplifting Dance Arts Outreach Program. Here is what participants are saying.

“The Dance for Parkinson’s program produced by Ruth Davidson Hahn provides an excellent rhythmic dance alternative to the typical exercise programs. Members of the PD community often arrive with a shuffling gait, contracted movements, poor balance, and difficulty rising from a chair. At the end of each session, we leave with a better stride, more flowing movements, better balance, and the ability to rise. Our renewed self-confidence is observable. I have personally found Dance for Parkinson’s to be very important to my own PD movement challenges and I recommend it wholeheartedly.” Judy L. Johnson, Facilitator, Lincoln Parkinson’s Disease Support Group and Dance for Parkinson’s Participant

“By the end of class each time I was walking on my own and without my walker just as if I weren’t suffering from this terrible malady. Dancing for Parkinson’s has to be the best thing for people like me. I was sorry when the class was over. Thanks to Ruth for all her help.” Carolyn Johnsen, Dance for Parkinson’s Participant

“Ruth treats each person in the class — the Parkinson’s clients and their accompanying caregivers — as capable of meaningful expression through movement. By practicing real dance warmup moves, the members of her class get an insight into what modern dance is about, from the viewpoint of a professional modern dancer. As an instructor trained in the Dance for Parkinson’s approach, Ruth has a unique way of making her class feel like a choreographed team, while paying close attention to the challenges facing each individual member. ‘There is no bad dancing,’ she says, as she shows you how to get better.” David Fowler, Dance for Parkinson’s Caregiver

As a novel approach with a fresh perspective to solutions for our fundraising needs, we have chosen the GoFundMe platform this end of year with a $5000 goal. This will increase awareness to our cause and expand our reach. For us to make a positive impact in our community we need to raise funds to cover artist fees and administrative costs for developing our Outreach Programs in 2025.

“As we celebrate the 10th Anniversary since launching Dance for Parkinson's in Lincoln, Nebraska, I am grateful for this opportunity to raise matching funds on GoFundMe for the Modern Woodmen of America $500 Matching Funds Gift. These funds will help pay the teacher, marketing, and other expenses to help keep Dance for Parkinson's accessible to all, regardless of ability to pay. The Modern Woodmen of America $500 matching fund is vital to the continuation of my Dance for Parkinson's Outreach Program in our community.” Ruth Davidson Hahn, President and Artistic Director

Dance for PD® is an internationally acclaimed method in which participants explore movement and music in ways that are enjoyable, mentally stimulating, and creative. No dance experience is required. The class is a comfortable pace. All levels of mobility are welcome. The program promotes emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration through dance instruction to music that explores elements of different dance forms, sparks the aesthetic imagination, develops grace, and builds community in a non-pressured, social environment in which music energizes, enriches, and empowers. Important to all is that the project is rigorous, creative, and based in the Arts.

This top-quality program is taught by Ruth Davidson Hahn, professional choreographer, dancer, teacher, and Stanley J. Wertheimer Fellow specially trained in the Dance for PD® method, and specially trained with Lifetime Arts, national leaders in creative aging program development.

Ruth Davidson Hahn & Company is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization registered in the state of Nebraska.