Eighty-year-old Li Xinsheng clearly remembers the day her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. "It was March 4, 2019," the retired teacher recalls. "We ate fish at a restaurant, and he suggested taking one to go. When we got home 15 minutes later, he asked me what was in the takeout box and where I got it from. When I told him, he looked blankly at the box and said he had no recollection.

"I was shocked. I realized it was a symptom of an illness rather than the memory loss common to aging. The next day, I took him to the hospital for testing. He was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's."

She says it's lucky she reacted quickly and took her husband to the hospital right away. Since then, she has done everything she can to slow the ailment's progression.

The couple recently attended the dance-therapy program, Time to Dance. The program initiated by the Scottish Ballet from the United Kingdom in 2017 offers dance classes for people living with dementia and their caregivers.

The Chinese edition was launched by the Beijing-based cultural organization Body On&On in July and ran through September. Due to COVID, sessions were held both online and in person.

Nine families met with one another for the Sept 2 in-person workshop. The session began with self introductions. Then, under the guidance of two professional dancers, the participants did warmup exercises, learned a series of dance moves and were encouraged to improvise their own.

Both participants and instructors were referred to simply as "dancers".The dancers interacted with one another to well-known classic tunes in a relaxing atmosphere. Some participants started singing along with the songs as they danced.

At the end of 2020, Body On&On and the Scottish Ballet began to discuss the possibility of launching a Chinese edition of the project with the support of the British Council. The Beijing organization then recruited a group of Chinese artists with diverse backgrounds and relevant qualifications to receive online training from the ballet company.

Dance choreographer and teacher Li Rumeng, who's one of the workshop instructors, has long been involved in dance therapy and also participated because her grandmother has early-onset Alzheimer's.

"It worried me when I spent time with my grandma and realized her condition was deteriorating," Li Rumeng says.

"It revealed to me the inexpressible pressure faced by families with members who experience Alzheimer's disease. I want to help them alleviate the constant feeling of dejection with my meager contribution."

When preparing for the project, she tried playing music at home and doing a few basic rhythmic warmup exercises with her grandma and then improvising some dance moves. She says her grandma always looks very relaxed when they dance together, and her moves resemble the folk dances from the old days.

The experience proved helpful for the dance-therapy project.

"In this program, I'm not a teacher but simply a guide and sharer so that the dancers can move freely to the music, experience release and soothe their bodies and minds," she says.

Apart from helping the participants exercise and express themselves, the instructors also designed a lot of interactive moves, such as clapping or hugging one another, so that the dancers learn to communicate with others and be more open to everyday interpersonal interactions.

Program instructor Sun Di is a dance-therapy instructor at Beijing Dance Academy. She says the school's classes tend to focus more on the theoretical, and the project inspired her to design workshops suited to the practical needs of participants in her future dance-therapy practice.

"During the preparation, we did research and consulted with institutes specializing in cognitive disorders, and selected music that resonates with participants," Sun says.

"Also, as professional dance choreographers, we tend to design dance moves that are complicated, which might intimidate participants without dancing backgrounds. So, for these sessions, we must have a clear idea of what's appealing and acceptable to participants."

She believes that dance should not be a niche art form practiced by a small group of professionals. Gestures and movements are closely linked to one's mental state, so dancing can benefit everyone.

Also, interacting with others via dance can bring people closer, because some people can't communicate verbally.

"We hope to exert a positive impact on the minds of participants using physical practices. The elderly with cognitive disorders, for example, lack a sense of agency. They tend to feel they can't achieve anything on their own and fall into self-denial," Sun says.

"So, our improvisation part allows them to decide their own moves. It demonstrates that they can do whatever they want, and that it's OK not to be like everyone else."

Sun also learned from how the project affords attention to caregivers and family members. Home visits enabled her to understand their daily lives and the insecurities they feel.

Over 10 million people in China have Alzheimer's, according to a 2020 report by Alzheimer's Disease China and Health Times. Over 65 percent of their caregivers－mostly spouses and children－report severe psychological distress because they can't see hope of recovery. Their concerns include providing constant care, a negative effect on their social lives and sleep deprivation.

Li Xinsheng says she wasn't accustomed to her husband's illness at first and would often feel anxious and angry when he incessantly asked repetitive questions.

But time "took the edge off".

"Now, I'm very conscious of taking care of myself so that my husband has someone to rely on," she says.

"I have to take on a positive attitude and do things that make me happy. Otherwise, as time goes on, I'd become ill too. I'm actually very lonely. I can't have a proper conversation with him, so I started to learn how to draw and write to look on the bright side," she continues.

"I feel moved. For the first time, I realize that so many young people care about us. This disease really is a destructive blow for a family.

"I feel these young people have done something very meaningful. They've brought warmth to people with Alzheimer's, who are often left unnoticed and forgotten in a corner."