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NY1.com - They call themselves the Show Stoppers, a merry band of senior citizens who perform for people with Alzheimer’s.
“They come to the shows and for a while they are themselves again,” said performer Lila Gilbert. “And maybe they forget it after, but for a while they are themselves.”
Lila Gilbert, 95, is one of 27 in the troupe, which performs in more than 35 shows at more than a dozen locations around the city each year. Recently they starred at the 80th Street Residence in Manhattan.
“I like watching the faces of the audience and I will know if they are receptive to what I do,” said 91-year-old singer Rosario Avelino. “That’s what pleases me, when I see that.”
The group's founder is musical director Christina Britton Conroy, a professionally-trained opera singer who changed careers and became a music therapist after she had a "tada" moment one Christmas while performing at a nursing home.
"These people went from wilted flowers to blooming flowers right in front of me."
“All of a sudden these people went from wilted flowers to blooming flowers right in front of me,” she recalled. “They were alert. They were singing. They were totally different people. And it was like, ‘oh my goodness.’ Music is so much more powerful than I had any idea.”
In 2004, Conroy started the organization Music Gives Life, which gives seniors the opportunity to perform and gives them a sense of community. Avelino was a singer with a GI band in the Philippines during World War II.
“Music is my life,” she said. “Even when I was very young, my family we were all musicians. Every time after dinner we would just converge around the piano, we would play instruments. I am happy that way, for me it’s an expression.”
The all-volunteer troupe, which ranges in age from 60-95, rehearses at least once a week. Conroy says performing helps not just the audience, but the participants’ health as well.
“If you breathe deeply you get more oxygen into your lungs which wakes up your brain cells, their endorphins are raised,” said Conroy. “They are making themselves dance even when they are tired, which they wouldn't do in physical therapy.”
“One of the residents here just said to me, she said, ‘I am looking at the people and they are my age and some of them are even older than I am,’” said 80th Street Resident Executive Director Clare Shaley. “And she said, ‘sometimes I get frustrated that I can’t do things and I see what they are doing and it kind of gave me hope,’ and she said, ‘there is still a lot left I can do.’”
And so for giving hope and spreading a holiday cheer, Christina Britton Conroy and the Show Stoppers are our New Yorkers of the Week.
For more information about the Show Stoppers, visit MusicGivesLife.com or call 212-741-1444.
New research from the University of California-Davis uncovers associations between music and memory. It furthers development of music-based therapy for people with dementias such as Alzheimer's. One conclusion: "Providing patients with MP3 players and customized playlists could prove to be a quality-of-life improvement strategy that would be both effective and economical."
Whether it's the first dance at your wedding or the theme song of your high school years, music can trigger a flood of memories. New research is mapping these linked musical memories to areas of the brain least effected by dementias such as Alzheimer's, offering novel therapies.
