Benefits of Dance
We know we feel amazing after dancing it out in class, but knowing that feeling is backed by science makes it even better! Here are some of our favourite facts about the multitude of benefits dance gives both our bodies and our minds.
“Why dancing is the best way to enhance your brain and your fitness”
This article from the BBC outlines a number of studies that show dance has a positive effect on everything from your memory and your long-term cognitive functioning, to your overall satisfaction with your social connections.
Highlights:
Dance can be an effective way to manage depression and the symptoms of conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
Dancing with others can raise feelings of social bonding.
Almost 50,000 adults were surveyed about their hobbies and again 12 years later - dancing was linked to a 46% reduced risk of stroke or heart attack when compared to other types of activities of the same intensity.
The multi-tasking done when you dance is at a much higher level than other fitness activities, and challenges your brain. Talk about building the mind-body connection!
For example, “a 30-minute salsa class was shown to boost spatial working memory by 18% after just one session.”
“synchronizing music and movement—dance, essentially—constitutes a “pleasure double play.” Music stimulates the brain’s reward centers, while dance activates its sensory and motor circuits.”
This Harvard School of Medicine article delves deeper into why dance is such a powerful tool to building cognitive, mental and physical health.
Highlights:
Dance helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, and helps develop new neural connections.
This is especially the case in regions that are involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition.
Of various types of physical activity, such as cycling, golf, swimming, tennis, and dance, only dance lowered a persons risk of dementia.
Dancing involves both a mental effort and social interaction and this type of stimulation is the key.
“Dancing requires not only balance, strength, and endurance ability, but also cognitive ability: adaptability and concentration to move according to the music and partner, artistry for graceful and fluid motion, and memory for choreography.”
Studies outlined by this article in TIME also explore the mind-body benefits of dance.
Highlights:
60 to 120 minutes of tai chi or dance per week could improve cognition, even when some impairment was already present.
Tai chi and dance also appears to positively affect cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt to new and changing situation), as well as language fluency, learning, and memory, even more than other mind-body pursuits.