Dance To Your Health
Life is movement, and nothing expresses vitality better than dance.
Regarded by many as mere ‘entertainment’, few other activities are more natural to humans or more complete in terms of benefits than dancing.
You probably know that dancing improves posture and is a good cardio workout, but did you know that dancing can actually make you happier and smarter?
Among many other benefits, dancing helps our neuroplasticity, improves our mood, memory, concentration, and visual recognition.
Dancing regularly improves our coordination and balance, and makes us feel alive and joyful.
Dance transcends language barriers, promotes self-expression, and brings people together.
Want to know more? Read on to learn all about the amazing but true benefits of dancing.
"Everything in the Universe has rhythm. Everything dances", said Maya Angelou. And, indeed, we seem to be ‘wired’ to dance.
Moving in response to a constant beat is an innate evolutionary response in all humans.
Even before we are born, motion is the first action of the nervous system, and it is through the spontaneous movement of the fetus that the nervous system and the brain can correctly develop.
Our early motor movements propel cortical brain activity, and these movements help babies develop cognitive skills such as language, and emotional intelligence.
You may have heard mothers claiming that their children danced while still in the belly, but now scientists have discovered that babies as young as five moths old have a natural tendency to follow rhythm even before they respond to visual stimuli.
The more synchronized babies were to the rhythm the more they smiled, and they also seemed to prefer music to mere spoken voices, all of which evidences our natural tendency for dance and movement.
Later in our lives, movement drives brain activity that increase synaptic plasticity, enhance communication between brain areas, and optimize brain functioning throughout adulthood and into old age.
Researchers have recently posited that movement is inherent to consciousness and may even control it.
The brain-body connectivity works both ways: our brain activity drive our movements, and our movements influence our brain activity.
Another evolutionary theory posits that dance evolved as a form of interpersonal coordination, which includes both imitation and synchrony.
These actions help create social bonding within a group, something which would increase the possibilities of survival of our early ancestors.
"Shall We Dance?"
Some of the physical benefits of dancing frequently include:
-Improve posture, physical reflexes, and muscular tone.
-Strengthen the heart, bones, the muscles, and the immune system.
-Improve circulation and cellular oxygenation.
-Help control blood pressure, and the glucose and cholesterol levels in the blood.
-Help in decision taking by exercising the frontal cortex during frequent split-second decisions between step and step.
Although many sports - such as volleyball, basketball, tennis, etc.- may render similar benefits, dancing is a more complex form of physical activity which incorporates a series of cognitive functions, including memory, learning, attention, imagery, and quick problem-solving.
Due to its controlled nature, dancing improves coordination and balance better than most sports, since it demands precision and fine motor control.
In a 2007 survey carried out by ODC/Dance jointly with the University of California at Berkley, they compared the physical resilience of student dancers and athletes.
They concluded that, while both groups were leveled in physical terms, dancers took the lead in adaptability (being able to efficiently execute a wider range of tasks), which points to the greater complexity of dancing for our brain.
Unlike most sports, unless done competitively dancing doesn’t imply competition, so the pressure of winning or beating an opponent is off. Even professional dancers acknowledge that they only dance to be better than themselves.
Another advantage of dancing over sports is that it requires no special equipment, and little to no training in order to engage in it - all you need is music, and you can also dance to the music in your mind.
In addition, unlike most sports - which require a lot of stamina or have an important impact over joints -, dancing can be practiced at any age.
One of the main benefits of dance - and perhaps the most evident- is given by its link to music.
The benefits of music on the brain are well-known, and they are doubled when they’re paired with coordinated physical movement.
The areas that process music and motion are closely linked in the brain, and both activities render innumerable benefits to our overall health.
As it happens with music, early dance training renders the most benefits, such as enhanced motor development, improved balance, a natural protection to motion sickness, better alignment and postural control, a more extended range of motion and flexibility, fine motor skills and better planning and sequencing of movement.
In addition, when practiced from a young age dancing helps develop discipline and resilience, and it also fosters neuromotor development.
However, it is never too late to reap the benefits that dance can render, as they stretch across all stages of life.
"Billy Elliot"
Dance is the hidden language of the soul, said Martha Graham, and dancing is a form of expression so intrinsic to the human experience that tribal dances are found all over the world to accompany every event of human life.
We dance in celebration, in mourning, in adoration, in gratitude, in war, in prayer, to tell stories, to mark rites of passage, etc.
“Dance your emotions” is a common dancer’s motto. And in truth, our emotions are so tightly connected to our bodies that they are indivisible.
Even unconsciously, our bodies reflect our thoughts and moods, and at the same time our physical sensations have an impact in our emotions.
A simple experiment to prove this is the following: sit hunched, deflated, and with the head low. Then, sit upright with shoulders back and looking straight up - notice the difference?
Dancing to music we like stimulates the production of serotonin and endorphin, two hormones that regulate our emotions and make us feel happy, joyful, and alive.
Yet dancing is not only pleasurable for those who dance, but also for those who watch them dance, rendering thus a double benefit.
"Top Hat"
“The body never lies” is another common dancer’s motto. And in truth, even if you manage to control your body and repress your emotions, sooner or later they will come afloat as a twitch, a skin rash, or more severe complications - such is the deep connection between our bodies and our psyche.
Body language is the most primitive and essential form of communication, and one that transcends all other barriers.
With few exceptions, we all share the same physical expressions for the basic emotions and can read them across cultures without the need for translations or dictionaries.
Interestingly, not two people move in exactly the same way - the way we move is as individual as our fingerprints. Our personality and uniqueness are revealed through our movements, and dancing takes them to a higher level of expression.
Dancing is a powerful form of self-expression which allows us to release tension and explore all range of emotions, articulating our desires, hopes, fears, and more - all of it simply by using our bodies in motion.
In addition to being a tool of self-expression, when practiced in a supportive and non-competitive environment, dancing can improve our self-esteem and boost our self-confidence.
"Center Stage"
Mobility is essential to anything that is cognitive.
Dancing integrates several brain functions at once - kinesthetic, rational, emotional, musical - thus increasing our neural connectivity. This allows our brain to perform more efficiently; in a word, it makes us smarter.
Dancing helps in the creation of new neural pathways in our brain, increasing neural connectivity and synchrony, and thus improving the overall brain function.
In addition to oxygenating our brain and improve our circulation, dancing offers a total workout for the brain, and practicing it regularly is a complete exercise for our cognitive system.
The action of dancing requires the harmonious collaboration of several parts of the brain working at unison: the visual cortex controls our spatial location; the prefrontal lobe controls our decisions (Left or right? Stop or continue? Faster or slower?); the motor cortex controls voluntary movement; the basal ganglia controls motor coordination; the somatosensory cortex mediates all physical internal and external physical sensations, and the cerebellum integrates the input from the brain and the spinal chord.
At the same time, music stimulates the auditory cortex, the hippocampus controls or musical memories and the emotions related to them, while the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala control our emotional responses to music.
"Save The Last Dance"
Interestingly, brain scans revealed distinct brain activation patterns during different periods of dancing, whether learning new steps, leading, following, coordinating movements together in rehearsal, or improvising.
In addition, the somatosensory cortex appears to have a fundamental role in our sensory sensitivity, cognitive processing, and emotion regulation.
Researchers have found that alterations in the structure and function of the somatosensory cortex often come paired with mental health problems such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
Physical activities such as dancing, mindful breathing, Tai-Chi and QiGong have a positive impact over the somatosensory cortex, and researchers have found that people who practice these activities often are generally less reactive and more emotionally resilient than those who don’t.
The reason for this seems to lie in the connection between the controlled physical action and the conscious awareness of our bodies (breathing, posture, alignment, balance, touch, etc.)
"Take The Lead"
You probably know the cliché from countless films: a problem child arrives to a dance class and dance changes his/her life. However, unlike many other fictional stories, this one has roots on actual scientific fact.
Due to its social nature, dancing offers emotional and personal benefits not found in other activities.
Although many sports, such as volleyball or football, require cohesive teamwork and collaboration, dancing requires a closer level of interpersonal connection between participants, often involving sustained direct physical contact and subtle wordless communication.
This close interpersonal coordination plays an important evolutionary role in social bonding, and recent studies have shown that they also promote neural coupling.
Dancing together helps strengthen the social bond of a group
Touch, gaze, and coordination of physical movements, are all aspects of interpersonal coordination found in dance, in addition to coordination of facial expressions, breathing, mimicking of gestures, etc.
Interpersonal coordination and social bonding are essential for the effective dynamics and social interaction between members of a group or society.
Studies have shown that social dancing reduces our sense of isolation, and dancing regularly can promote emotion regulation.
In addition, social dances or with a partner require a level of suppression of self and adaptability to one’s partner or the group in order to perform optimally, skills which are also required for harmonious coexistence in a community.
All of these factors may explain the effectiveness of balls and dances carried out since antiquity in order to bring people together and establish social connections, and may explain why all cultures around the world developed since antiquity their own group dances in order to tighten the cohesion of their communities.
"Pride and Prejudice"
Music and dance can be used as therapies to reduce agitation and improve behavioral issues, and it’s especially helpful for Seniors and patients with dementia, Alzheimer, or neuromotor diseases.
In a study published in 2003 by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York studied for 21 years the effect of eleven different activities often practiced by seniors, from reading to playing golf, and evaluated their impact on cognitive health.
Surprisingly, they found that dancing frequently was the only activity that significantly reduces the risk of dementia in old age, with a 76% of risk reduction rate, (in comparison, doing crosswords obtained a 47% reduction rate).
In addition to a greater cognitive reserve found in frequent dancers, dancing is the only activity among those studied that requires both mental effort and social interaction, and this combined stimulation protects the brain from cognitive decay.
A protection which continues even after the onset of the disease.
A few years ago, a video became viral: an aged former ballerina with Alzheimer who remembered the Swan Lake choreography when listening to the score. The register made a strong case for the power of music in the brain, but also for the power of dancing even in advanced stages of neural deterioration.
Video (3:16)
https://youtu.be/owb1uWDg3QM
According to a 2015 study published in the journal Brain, musical memory is considered to be partly independent from other memory systems in the brain, and therefore these areas are not affected by Alzheimer but very late in the process.
In addition, the motor memory region in the brain associated with music is less vulnerable to decay than other parts of the brain affected by Alzheimer’s.
Dancing, as a form of rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS), has also proven beneficial for patients with Parkinson’s and other neuromotor disorders, increasing balance and coordination, promoting the relaxation of limbs, and reducing tremors.
Dancing is such a therapeutic activity, that it is often recommended by psychiatrists to treat patients with emotion regulation problems or complex neurological disorders - from bipolar disorder to autism-, in Dance Therapy sessions.
Unlike regular dance classes, Dance Therapy sessions are conducted by a trained specialist in individually tailored sessions, using movement as a catalyst to express emotions and provide the required intervention.
For those who claim they have two left feet for not taking up dancing, you should know that you don’t even need feet in order to dance.
In fact, dancing is a recreational and physical activity proven to help people with all sorts of disabilities (visual impairment, cognitive impairment, reduced mobility, etc.) at any age.
Inclusive dance companies such as Infinity Dance Theatre, Stopgap Dance Company, and Step Change Studios have not only proven that dancing is for everyone, but also that its benefits can be reaped by all without limitations.
In addition to improving motor response, coordination, balance, and other physical benefits, dancing also allows disabled dancers an avenue for self-expression, increasing their sense of independence and self-confidence, and helping them to connect with others.
Video: Making Contemporary Dance Inclusive for All (3:27)
Are all kinds of dancing equally beneficial?
In general, those dances which require the most decision-making jog the brain the most, providing greater cognitive protection. Learning new steps and new choreography also activates the brain and creates more neural networks than repeating well-known steps.
Quick dancing provides the best cardiovascular exercise, improves the circulation and oxygenates the brain more than slow dancing, although you may prefer this latter for closest social bonding.
However, all dancing reduces the levels of stress and cortisol when practiced for recreational purposes.
"Grease"
Some feel intimidated at the thought of cutting the rug. “I have two left feet”, they excuse themselves. Others associate dance with exuberant youth and vitality and feel it’s not for them.
But you don’t have to be a Fred Astaire or do acrobatics in order to move to the rhythm of music.
No one is too young, too old, too poor, or too clumsy to dance, but in order to reap all its benefits, we must dance what we feel like and make the dance our own.
Whether it’s jazz, ballet, waltz, K-pop, hip-hop, mambo, or tango, the benefits of dance are there for everyone to reap and enjoy.
Related Articles
Sources: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, TheConversation.com, Dance Spirit Magazine, MoreThanDancers.com, Psicologosonline.com, SportandDev.org, GoodTherapy.org, Harvard.edu.
Comments
Post a Comment