music video
PWP has produced an original music video, “I Got You,!“ by Arlon Bennett, dedicated to care partners everywhere
To be shown at World Parkinson Congress, Barcelona, 2023
“I GOT YOU!”
Sunday, Nov 6th, 2022, was a warm, overcast, and rainy day in Pomona, NY’s Clover Stadium, where several PWP Parkinsons events had taken place, and now was the venue for a stirring music video tribute to caregivers everywhere, based on a song written by Rockland County’s Arlon Bennett, a folk Americana singer songwriter who himself has championed the cause of living with PD.
PWP is headquartered just down the road from the Stadium, which is becoming a rallying point for the fight against Parkinson’s. Just outside the gates they are developing a “Garden of Hope” pocket park featuring bricks inscribed with messages of hope and inspiration in the “Path to a Cure.”
(Cont’d below)
"I Got You!"
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Written And Performed By Arlon Bennett
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MUSIC Produced And Arranged By Frankie Vinci
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Danny Feder, Director
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LARA AQEL, Cinematographer
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Edited by Adam Little, FILMWORKERS
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Gately Production Services
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Thanks To:
Jon small
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Alex Tressor (Ballet Choreography)
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Cecilia Fontanesi
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brett raphael, Connecticut Ballet
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J. Antonelle De Marcaida, M.D., hartford healthcare
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Vlad Astafiev (Ballroom Choreography)
"I Got You!" 〰️ Written And Performed By Arlon Bennett 〰️ MUSIC Produced And Arranged By Frankie Vinci 〰️ Danny Feder, Director 〰️ LARA AQEL, Cinematographer 〰️ Edited by Adam Little, FILMWORKERS 〰️ Gately Production Services 〰️ Thanks To: Jon small 〰️ Alex Tressor (Ballet Choreography) 〰️ Cecilia Fontanesi 〰️ brett raphael, Connecticut Ballet 〰️ J. Antonelle De Marcaida, M.D., hartford healthcare 〰️ Vlad Astafiev (Ballroom Choreography)
Comments:
Thanks to partial funding by:
The song was written
originally for PWP’s first in person event since COVID, the TulipFest Wellness Expo and Concert at the Stadium in October 2021, with major funding from Supernus Pharmaceuticals. The long range plan is to screen the video in Barcelona, Spain for the upcoming WPC Parkinson’s Tulip Project. The tulip flower is the international symbol for the Parkinson’s Community, signifying, hope, advocacy, and research for a cure.
Although he comes across as a smooth performer in the video, swinging along with his wife Catherine, Arlon faces daily struggles with life’s regular routines. His philosophy is to keep going, to keep getting up again and again. And he does it with the help of close people in his life. PWP wanted to celebrate that spirit in the song and video, encouraging people to transform themselves from Worrier to Warrior.
Choosing the vehicle of dance
and music was no accident. It comes naturally to Susan Lust, Director and Founder of PWP. As a dancer herself, she has always felt the important connection of music and dance to Parkinson’s, with research showing how they can help improve symptoms and slow progression.
credits:
Legendary musicianʼs director and producer Jon Small channeled some enormous production talent our way.
Multi-Platinum Songwriter Frankie Vinci, a Music Producer and Film Composer who has shared the stage and worked in the studio with some of the biggest names in the music business, produced and arranged the song.
Adam Little, Senior Creative Editor at FilmWorkers in Nashville, brought the "Music City’s" energetic and colorful vibe to bear on what started out as a bleak and rainy shoot day.
credits:
Award-winning and Emmy Nominated Director Danny Feder, with extensive television promo and commercial brand experience, along with noted Cinematographer Lara Aqel, felt passionate enough about the project to come on board right away, beginning with a shoot of the tulips in bloom at the Garden of Hope.
Gately Production Services (GPS) ran a tight squared away ship, thanks to Executive Producers Maxwell Gately and Amy Fruchtman, Line Producer Lyman Creason, and Production Designer Megan Elizabeth Bell.
credits:
Alex Tressor has been teaching at PWP for the past three years with his specially designed movement program called PDontheMove. He is a ballet master and choreographer, himself living with Parkinsons’s for the last 15 years. He is an inspiration to us all. Alex has been a teacher at the Connecticut School of Ballet for over 30 years and was able to recruit and choreograph the 6 ballet dancers in the video, with the generous support of Brett Raphael, Artistic Director and Founder of Connecticut Ballet.
Cecilia Fontanesi, teaches PWP’s Dance/Movement class. She is a beautiful dancer herself, besides holding a PhD in Neuroscience with a research paper on Dance for PD. Cecilia is the dancer in white throughout the video.
credits:
Dr. Antonelle de Marcaida, Neurologist, Hartford HealthCare, is dancing in the video with husband Vlad Astafiev, a world-class Ballroom Dancer. Dr. de Marcaida, a major advisor to PWP, is also a staunch advocate of dance in helping People cope wth Parkinsons.
People with Parkinson’s, dance teachers, and dancers comprise the group shot at the end of the video, with Arlon raising his guitar in the air triumphantly.
