Judith Sachs
JUDITH SACHS is Founder and Director of ANYONE CAN MOVE, an adaptive movement program in Philadelphia, PA. She is the certified Dance for PD® teacher and a certified A Matter of Balance (MOB) teacher in Pennsylvania. Her goal is to get everyone moving, whether in a chair or across the floor. See more at www.anyonecanmove.com.
In 2020, she was awarded a Parkinsons Foundation COE grant for her innovative program, CLOSE CONTACT for COUPLES® with PD to work with improved partner communication with couples living with Parkinsons, and currently runs this program with a 2024 Pacing4Parkinsons award from Johns Hopkins. CLOSE CONTACT was a poster presentation at the Barcelona World Parkinsons Congress in 2023. She also teaches qigong and balance classes through the Parkinsons Disease and Movement Disorders at Penn Medicine and for elder groups in Philadelphia.
She was a Leeway Arts and Change grantee in 2015 and is currently the recipient of a 2025-26 Curriculum in Motion grant from Jacob’s Pillow. She hopes to evolve her community work with elders and those with movement disorders.
Awarded Grants
2025
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Judith Sachs has been accepted into the 2025-26 Curriculum in Motion program at Jacob’s Pillow, a 10-month training and mentorship opportunity for choreographers working in community-based settings. With only 14 artists chosen annually, this program will support Judith in deepening her practice of bringing accessible dance to elders, including those who use wheelchairs, walkers, or trekking sticks, by teaching new techniques to support movement that fosters creativity, safety, and body awareness.
The WOO Grant will support Judith with partially covering the program fee and securing her spot for the opportunity.
2022
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Judith Sachs (ACG ‘15; WOO ’18, ‘22) has been invited to share her movement work in collaboration with couples dealing with Parkinson’s disease at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. This grant will support with transportation and accommodations, as well as meal costs to work in collaboration with individuals for a week.
2017
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Judith Sachs has the opportunity to attend The International Society of Gerontology World Congress, held this July in San Francisco. The Congress is the largest group of individuals working for the advancement of the elderly, and this year it features Age Stage, where those, like Judith, involved in fostering creative aging will speak and perform. Judith will take part in a variety of improvisatory sessions with them, and will also be able to network and expand the scope of her adaptive dance program and her founding group, National Council on Creative Aging, internationally.
2015
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Judith’s elder Yorkhouse Dancers (ages 70 to 87) will work with a group of younger dancers (ages 11-14) from Lori Lahnemann’s Philadelphia Dance Academy in a process of intergenerational learning and performing. Judith sees that society’s stereotypes patronize and exclude our elders, and she believes that this dance project will challenge mainstream assumptions about this population. Inspired by her own return to dance at 65 years of age, Judith studied adaptive dance and developed her own program for those using wheelchairs and walkers, and other elders with movement restrictions. Both groups will perform matching choreography, some designed by Lori and Judith, and some coming out of improvisational sessions with all the dancers. The project will culminate in public performances and talk back sessions.
Window of Opportunity Grantees" class="img-fluid" />
