A Prima Ballerina
It’s just over a year since my Mam passed away after several years of struggle with dementia. It seems like a century since I flew back to Newcastle to attend her funeral, so much has happened in the world since then. I got through the sad anniversary reasonably well until this morning I came across this video, which had me in pieces. It’s of a lady by the name of Marta C Gonzalez, a former ballet dancer, who passed away last year; the film was made at her care home in Valencia. A care worker plays her music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake and briefly she is a prima ballerina once more; the film is intercut with footage of herself dancing on stage in New York in the 1960s. It’s unbearably moving, bringing together the awful tragedy of dementia with the power of music if not to heal but at least to provide some measure of respite. Even when almost all is gone, music seems to remain in the deepest part of our being alongside our most cherished memories which it can bring back to life, if only briefly, before the darkness comes.
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In the Dark 
November 10, 2020 at 12:28 pm
Thank you Peter. That’s one of the most moving things I’ve seen for a long long time.
November 10, 2020 at 12:42 pm
Peter, thank you so much for this post – I suspect my husband has this disease and I’ve found he immediately responds to classical music he loves, and also the pop songs from his youth – people must help by giving frequent access to those affected to help give them some quality of life.
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November 10, 2020 at 1:34 pm
Yes. It took several weeks after my father’s death – and a particular piece of classical music – before I could weep about it.
November 10, 2020 at 3:12 pm
The man who was struck by lightning and developed a passion for piano music is an American medic called Tony Cicoria. He has a YouTube entry and here is music he wrote afterwards, having learnt to play the piano:
November 10, 2020 at 10:35 pm
Dear Prof. Cole,
The video also moved me to tears because my late mother also had a great fondness for Swan Lake and other ballet music by Tchaikovsky. At the age of sixteen in 1947, she was the very student in her school chosen for the lead role to perform as the Swan🦢Princess in a drama similar to Tchaikovsky’s Ballet “Swan Lake”, to be a part of the fete to fund the school. She later repeated the same performance at the high school attended by my late father, who was standing guard as a member of the St John ambulance team of the school, where he first laid eyes on her. Their marriage took place 14 years later, during which no other suitors were ever successful in courting my late mother and catching her heart.
The following was played and recorded in real-time on an organ by me as a tribute to my late mmother.