Current Work
Magda is a dance artist and creative-aging advocate. As an artist, educator and researcher, she has devoted her career to promoting and supporting communities through the transformative power of creative expression through dance.
Personal Hero
Those who dare to dream.
Words of Strength
Insatiable drive to connect communities
Vision
Through harnessing our individual and collective power of creative expression, Magda believes we can rewrite narratives around aging and dementia and design systems that support a present and a future we all would want to age into together.
Strategy
Magda is developing a training model for dance educators and non-dancers who work with older adults to understand the inherent elements in dance, which support brain health and build a cognitive reserve across the lifespan.
Impact
Magda aims to connect with interdisciplinary professionals at the forefront of dementia research and clinical practice, to expand evidence-based creative aging programming, ensuring the longevity, expansion and continued recognition of the field as one essential to the mental, physical and social health of older adults globally.
Motivation
Magda believes that part of the challenges we face around dementia and aging in the United States is that we are in desperate need of rewriting social narratives to person-centered systems, which view people not through the metric of what they can produce, but who there are, uniquely.
Education & Experience
MAGDA KACZMARSKA, MFA is a dance artist, researcher and Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health with a focus of designing and evaluating evidence informed programs which apply the benefits of dance on multiple domains of brain health. Magda received her MFA in Dance Performance & Choreography and her BS in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from the University of Arizona. Magda founded DanceStream Projects, a non-profit arts and health organization based in New York City, dedicated to supporting brain health through dance and creativity. Through DanceStream Projects, Magda created several award-winning programs which apply evidence-informed approaches to extend brain health to older adults and people living with dementia through co-creative dance.
Devoted to building evidence base, while expanding public and professional education in best practices in creative aging practice globally, Magda balances her work in intergenerational community-based dance with engagement in advocacy in several sectors. She mentors future leaders in the creative and health sector through a regular partnership at the Fordham Ailey School of Dance in New York City and the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship in Lagos, Nigeria. She speaks regularly in national and international multi-disciplinary spaces on the role of dance in facilitating healthy aging habits and promoting agency and brain health among older persons and people living with dementia. Recent and upcoming presentations include AAIC, ADI, Creative Brain Week – Trinity College Dublin and the WHO Collaboration Centre. Notable publications and media features include Frontiers of Neurology, Being Patient, ABC7NY news and the Alzheimer’s Disease International World Alzheimer Report 2023. Current research involve a mixed-methods evaluation of an online dance observational study with people living with dementia and an ongoing collaboration with UCSF Memory and Aging Center Creative Minds program, an innovative three-fold collaboration between artists, community organizations and clinician/researchers to promote brain healthy habits among older adults and increase participation and inclusion in neuroscience and dementia prevention research.
Magda is passionate in advocating for the rights of older persons and people living with dementia and serves as a representative to the UN with Generations United, is on the executive committee of the UN NGO Committee on Ageing New York, is a board member of the Dementia Action Alliance and the Vice President of the Foundation Dementia Action Alliance Poland.
Podcasts
Talkin’ About Neurodegeneration: Mike Hanrahan, Roman Romero Ortuno, Dana Walrath and Magda Kaczmarska
Vascular Dementia and The Arts in Dementia Care
Voyage Around My Brain: Magda Kaczmarska and Peggy Finn
The importance of Dance and Movement for Brain Health
Featured Publications
News
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