Dalcroze for Healthy Aging

This project is led by Dr. Gilles Comeau, director of the Music and Health Research Institute of the University of Ottawa (MHRI) and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) with contributions from partner organizations such as the Music and Mental Health Research Clinic at the Royal, the Bruyère Health Research Institute, and the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland.

The overall goal of this initiative is to examine the benefits of a community-based music movement program (COMM) based on Dalcroze eurhythmics interventions on psychosocial conditions of older adults facing mental illness, cognitive impairments (such as dementia), physical declines (including frailty), and social isolation, thereby improving their quality of life. The human domains addressed in this research project are the cognitive, physical, affective, and social.

This longitudinal, seven-year research project is considered a “living laboratory” and was developed by multiple team members (Dalcroze practitioners and researchers) with sites in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, and Australia. Among the expected outcomes of this partnership grant project is the production of a scholarly and practice-oriented book with a historical and contemporary perspective on the subject.

In January of 2026, I was invited by Dr. Gilles Comeau to join the research team of the aforementioned project. My first experimental group as a team member was at a venue in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, within the association AMA y Trasciende, A.C., which is an independent initiative of older adults in action. Through this association, I worked on a ten-session, weekly intervention using Dalcroze eurhythmics. Below, I present a general outline of my weekly work with this group.