Tear-jerking viral video shows ballerina with Alzheimer's remember her routine to Swan Lake

We all know music has long been used to express emotions and evoke memories, whether it's a couple's wedding song, a breakup anthem, or something that simply reminds you of childhood.

But for those suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, the power of music can unlock memories which would otherwise be lost completely.

Over the past week, a video has gone viral of the emotional moment Marta C. González, a former prima ballerina living with Alzheimer's, recognises the sound of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and begins reenacting the dance from her wheelchair.

Listening to the music through headphones, she is transported back to the New York stage where she performed in the 1960s.

Her long, elegant limbs form graceful arcs, her neck and shoulders no longer slumped into the back of her wheelchair. Her face is poised, eyes vibrant and focused.

The emotional moment, which has more than one million views on YouTube, was captured on film by the Asociacion Musica para Despertar, a Spanish charity which uses music to improve memory and mood in dementia patients.

Not long after the video was filmed, González sadly passed away at her care home in Valencia in 2019.