Marta Cinta, the dancer with Alzheimer’s who wakes up with “Swan Lake”

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Just for a moment, dancer Marta Cinta emerged from the sad reverie of Alzheimer’s. Her long and elegant arms began to slide to the sound of Tchaikovsky’s music, just for a minute, she vibrated again with the same magic as she did in her younger years.

Marta Cinta was the principal dancer of the New York ballet in the 60s. Hers must have been a movie life, but Alzheimer’s erased her memories and for many years she was that enigmatic woman in a residence in Valencia. That mysterious lady left this world in March 2020, leaving silently without knowing that, a few months later, she would achieve success again.

The Music to Wake Up Association, a charity that uses music from the lives of dementia patients to improve their mood and memory, recorded Marta weeks before her death. They put headphones on her that played a piece of music that she had danced to countless times: Swan Lake, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

For just over two minutes, she was a dancer again. His body, sunken and attached to the wheelchair, suddenly spread out like the wings of a butterfly. His crestfallen face rose as if from a deep dream to awaken the world again.

The eyes, vibrant and focused, returned to the reality of that music that invited her, just for a moment, to leave the dark room of dementia…

Marta Cinta, the enigmatic dancer who has thrilled the world

Not much is known about Marta Cinta’s life. He died at the residence in Alcoy, Valencia, without family or friends.. The center staff saw her as the classic enigmatic figure who is attracted by her accent (Cuban) and who arouses interest by her contradictions. One of them, her ID, was falsified for reasons that were never known.

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She was born in Spain but, as she used to say, her family moved to the Caribbean islands to work. Later, she ended up traveling to New York where, according to the documentation and diplomas she kept, she became prima ballerina In New York. Newspaper clippings described her as a towering figure in ballet. and a prominent choreographer.

Her life is diluted between loose pieces of documents and anecdotes that she herself related. It is known that she arrived at the residence in 2014, already in a wheelchair and with clear signs of cognitive deterioration. She was happy in that center. Even He wanted to organize castings to create a ballet company among the residents.

The day Marta Cinta achieved success again

Destiny has its ironies, its contradictions. Marta Cinta died in March of this same year without knowing that she has managed to become famous once again. His name has gone around the world and figures from art, cinema, music and, of course, dance share his video out of admiration.

The Music to Wake Up Association published just a few weeks ago a musical stimulation session carried out a little before Marta left this world. They already knew about her. At the residence they had seen her dancing in her wheelchair every time the music played. and, especially, his favorite piece: Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

That video of just over two minutes excites and overwhelms. It shows us, once again, how the connection with music remains with us despite cognitive decline. That piece of music managed to give Marta Cinta back the essence of her life, her passion.

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The soul of a dancer who is reborn with music

Marta Cinta never lost her poise. Despite the decline of the years and the effects of Alzheimer’s erasing memories and personalities, She preserved the elegance of the great ladies of ballet. That is why, when listening to your favorite piece of music, we are enthralled to discover the way in which it emerges, the way in which your arms, shoulders, neck and expression “dance” again with the mastery of yesteryear. It’s impossible not to get excited.

However, how can it be? How is this overwhelming mechanism capable of making a patient with Alzheimer’s react? Today, we already know some really interesting data. Research work, such as the study carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, points us to something revealing.

The areas related to musical memory, as well as those related to musical emotions, remain (almost) intact in this disease. According to the director of this work, Dr. Jörn-Henrik Jacobsen, musical memory is located in the supplementary motor cerebral cortexThis would actually be a privileged area because the effect of neurodegenerative diseases does not occur with such severity here. What’s more, it is known that In these areas related to musical memory, the loss of neurons is less and the amyloid protein deposit is almost negligible.

Other similar cases: Paul Harvey

The case of the dancer Marta Cinta is not the only one. A few weeks ago, the world was moved by a very similar story, that of Paul Harvey, from East Sussex (United Kingdom). This man, 80 years old and suffering from Alzheimer’s, dedicated his entire life to music and especially to teaching.

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His son wanted to record a video to show what happened when he asked his father to sit at the piano. and simply improvise whatever he wanted on the keyboard. The reaction is wonderful. During that moment of time he regains his agility, his mastery, his absolute mastery in each piece of music and, above all, he connects with happiness and his environment.

The writer Lawrence Durrell once said that ““Music is love looking for words.” Now, we could point out that Music is life helping us remember who we were.