![\"Ballerina](\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Ballerina_With_Alzheimers-300x168.jpg\")
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Music is a conduit to the soul. Former ballerina Marta C. Gonz\u00e1lez is heartrending proof of that.<\/p>\n
The Spanish dancer, who reportedly died in 2019 after battling Alzheimer\u2019s disease, has captivated social media since a video surfaced of Gonz\u00e1lez, by then confined to a wheelchair, vividly recalling the upper-body choreography of Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cSwan Lake\u201d \u2014 her delicate ballet hands graceful as ever.<\/p>\n
The unearthed clip was shot last year by M\u00fasica para Despertar (Music to Wake Up To), an advocacy group for music therapy, and recently posted to the organization\u2019s social-media accounts, where it is now going viral around the globe.<\/p>\n
The moving footage of Gonz\u00e1lez, whose age at her time of death is unknown, got a major boost on Sunday by Felipe Tristan, associate conductor of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, via Twitter, where the clip has collected nearly 48,000 likes so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most beautiful video you\u2019ll see today!\u201d he captioned the video, which features images of Gonz\u00e1lez in her dancing prime.<\/p>\n
Oscar-nominated actor Antonio Banderas also shared the video. \u201cThe emotional power of music!\u201d he tweeted in his native Spanish.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Cadena SER, the founder of M\u00fasica para Despertar, Pepe Olmedo, called it \u201cabsolutely impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olmedo claimed he had very little information on Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s history, only that she was from Valencia and began studying ballet when she emigrated to Cuba. \u201cNewspaper clippings\u201d indicated she eventually rose to prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet. (The Post is awaiting comment from the NYCB to confirm the connection.)<\/p>\n
Those moved by the video on social media also shared firsthand accounts of how music \u201ctranscends\u201d illness.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad is now non-verbal due to Alzheimer\u2019s but the last time I was able to visit him he still lit up and mouthed the words to any Beatles song I played,\u201d replied Twitter user Seth Darby, from Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was incredibly emotional,\u201d added John Jonson, from Los Angeles. \u201cCaptures the sublime beauty of humanity struggling against the onslaught of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/11\/09\/watch-a-dancer-with-alzheimers-performs-swan-lake\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Music is a conduit to the soul. Former ballerina Marta C. Gonz\u00e1lez is heartrending proof of that. The Spanish dancer, who reportedly died in 2019 after battling Alzheimer\u2019s disease, has captivated social media since a video surfaced of Gonz\u00e1lez, by then confined to a wheelchair, vividly recalling the upper-body choreography of Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cSwan Lake\u201d \u2014 … <\/p>\n