In the earliest moments of our beginning, we hear before anything else.

Nestled in the safety of our mother’s womb, we hear before we see. Moms-to-be will often sing, fathers will sing, to the tiny unborn child, letting the baby hear their voices.

A video has gone viral, where the memory of music is all that brings a woman in the midst of dementia to awareness.

But, more than just giving her awareness, the increasing tempo of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, had Marta Cinta González Saldaña opening her eyes, her hands softly moving.

Marta Cinta González Saldaña recreates moves from Swan Lake. Photo by Música Para Despertar

Then, almost instantly, she becomes the ballerina she once was. Her arms rise and fall with the tempo of the music. She leans forward, crossing her arms in the infamous swan pose. She is lost in the memory of her time on stage, no longer limited to the wheelchair and the ravages of dementia.

The video has gone viral, but shockingly more than 2 years after it was made. Marta herself died not long after the video was made, but a Spanish organization, Música Para Despertar (Music to Awaken), has been using Marta’s amazing transformation to help their organization push for music to be used on patients with Alzheimer’s.

The memory of sound may be one of the final memories we hold onto when all others are lost, since it’s the first we develop, said Grace Meadows, director at Music for Dementia.

“They’re some of the deepest neural pathways that get laid down,” she said.

Our first language, the babbling and cooing of babies and their carers, is a form of musical exchange. That’s why it’s so deep and why we’re so responsive to it, because it’s so primal.”

In Saldaña’s video, she had a strong muscle memory which made it natural for her to instinctively want to dance. But you don’t have to be a professional to have that same reaction, said Fergus Early, owner of Green Candle, a dance company for more than 30 years. Specifically, he runs workshops and dance classes for people with dementia.

Early said he works with music, but over time has seen the additional benefits when you add dance to the program.  “Sometimes it’s pure extraordinary magic,” he said. “People transform before your eyes, they become who they were again.”

“I’ve experienced somebody who’s come and sat in a wheelchair session week after week, and one time I played a particular piece of music, the Keel Row, a Northumbrian folk tune,” he said.

“Suddenly her feet are dancing really fast. Then at the end of the class she starts talking – she’s never talked to anybody before, the staff in the home say she never says anything. That kind of thing is not uncommon,” he said.

Being able to physically move to the music connects your body to your mind, and for someone with dementia, having the ability to move their body can help manage their symptoms.

The mind functions better when the body’s working, rather than when it’s very passive,” Early said.

Early said his classes give people a chance to move and express how they are feeling.

“What’s critical for people with dementia, in order to contradict a lot of the stuff that comes at them from society, is that they have some control,” Early said. “So if they’re improvising, they can take decisions on what to do next. It sounds very simple, but it’s very important in giving people back a sense of their own identity.”

Meadows agreed. She said that is what makes Saldaña’s video so powerful.

“You see her as the expert,” Meadows said. “You get a glimpse of what she was like as a ballerina and that’s who she will always be. And I think that’s really comforting for the person and for those around them, to see who they are beyond their dementia.”

Watch below for the moving video of Saldaña dancing alongside the memories of her past.

Sources: The Guardian | CBC