Her name was Marta C. González and she was the principal dancer of the New York Ballet in the 60s. The video was recorded in the spring of last year at the Muro de Alcoy Residence (Alicante) and the organization Wake Up Music, which promotes the use of music as therapy against dementias and other diseases, just broadcast it to commemorate the anniversary of his death.
The effect has been immediate because it is impossible not to get excited when contemplate how you react who was a star of the ballet to the music of Swan Lake, de Tchaikovsky. IEven being affected by the Alzheimer’s and bedridden. Your answer seems magical.
Pepe Olmedo, the man who appears in the video, is the director and founder of Música para Despertar and remembers that moment as one of the most emotional of his career. “We went to give a training to that residence and we met Marta. It was something absolutely impressive”, Explain. She was still moving. He had not very advanced cognitive impairment and was able to speak. But I was always very sad, very negative. And you see perfectly how it connects with the song. “
Not much is known about the story of Marta C. González. According to Olmedo, she was Spanish, from Valencia, but emigrated to Cuba, where he studied ballet, and ended up being a prima ballerina in New York. “We have not found information about her, but I remember that she was telling us the steps of the work. You could tell that she was someone special,” he says. “I am contacting the residence because when I was with it they showed me newspaper clippings, but I have no further documentation.”
Much more than a spark of happiness
In addition to having a rock band in Granada (Soundbay), Olmedo is a psychologist and music therapist, but his relationship with dementias goes back much further because his mother worked in a nursing home and, according to his account, began to deal with people with Alzheimer’s with only eight years. In 2011 he decided to collaborate in a center as a volunteer and in 2013 he created the NGO, with which promotes the training of health professionals to apply basic music therapy techniques in his daily dealings with his patients.
“Beyond that spark of happiness, we use music as cognitive stimulation – with language or memory – and we make the disease progress more slowly and that people are a little more autonomous, “he says.
“Many people with dementia do not remember their child’s name or date of birth, but they start singing with me and we managed to convey a feeling of well-being that, furthermore, is not ephemeral. We managed to keep it in time. ”
A viral story
The video has already accumulated thousands of visits and many of the comments are almost as exciting as the video itself because they have moved relatives of people with Alzheimer’s who have been able to experience similar moments. Olmedo tells excited that on TikTok he accumulated 300,000 views in a few hours and that the video has already been shared by Antonio Banderas.
“We have had other viral videos. With one we even appeared on CNN. But with this video it has been even more emotional”, Explain.
Olmedo does not miss, moreover, that the exciting video of Marta C. González arrives in a very complicated moment in which thousands of older people have died or had to go through very bad times because of the coronavirus.
“It hurts us a lot to see loneliness because people with Alzheimer’s do not know what is happening and do not understand why they are left isolated. These are very difficult times for health centers,” he explains. “Therefore we are fighting harder than ever to share these tools and help manage the behavioral disorders associated with this disease. Music makes all of that decrease because it complements the drug. ”
It is estimated that in Spain there are around 800,000 people affected by Alzheimer’s, a neurodegenerative disease characterized mainly by memory loss, but which also presents other serious symptoms. In addition to requesting public aid, Música para Despertar is financed with donations, crowdfunding campaigns or the sale of the novel Ariadna’s thread.
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