Have you ever taken a dance class? Maybe it was ballroom dance, ballet, tap or a cardio hip-hop dance class. An article published in the National Library of Medicine asserts that “dance, regardless of its style, can significantly improve muscular strength, endurance, balance and other aspects of functional fitness.” With this newfound knowledge, next time you try a dance class, pay close attention to how you feel afterward. When we dance, it feels good in our bodies, and we may even notice that we feel much sharper mentally. That’s because when we dance, we’re not only doing something positive for our body – we’re doing something positive for our brain, too!
Dancing requires the brain and body to work in sync, strengthening the mind-body connection and in turn, our physical and cognitive health. Dancers recall steps and patterns while simultaneously performing the movements. According to Harvard Medical School, studies have been done to identify regions of the brain that contribute to learning and performing dance. The regions involved include the motor cortex, somatosensory cortex, basal ganglia and cerebellum. In Layman’s terms, these regions of the brain are responsible for our voluntary movement, motor control, hand-eye coordination and complex motor actions. There is a lot happening in the brain when we dance! Additionally, further studies have explored the physical and expressive elements of dance and how they change our brain function. The results have shown that dance can provide benefits such as memory improvement and strengthened neuronal connections in the brain. In fact, dance has such beneficial effects on the brain that it is suggested that it has been used to treat people with Parkinson’s disease.
To go even further into the effect dance has on our brains, music adds another important layer to the many benefits dancing offers. While you can dance with no music playing, when dance is accompanied by music, the combination can further stimulate the brain and body. In a TEDTalk that emphasizes the benefits of music on the body, Listen For Life founder, Donna Stoering, discusses the physiological changes that happen in our body, mind and emotions when we listen to music. Music has been shown to reduce anxiety, blood pressure and pain while improving our sleep quality, mood, mental alertness and memory. As Stoering highlights in her TEDTalk, “Music is a channel of communication; it isn’t just background noise, or a soundtrack to your workout. It’s much more.” Consider this a sign to bring more song and dance into your life.
