- “Dancing is silent poetry.” — Simonides
- “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” – Vivian Greene
Dancing can be an excellent form of exercise and workout, with style, rhythm and joy!
You can dance alone, with a partner or with a group.
As an exercise helps you to engage and coordinate body, mind and soul. Dancing your favorite music and rhythm, is also a joyful action that becomes a celebration and brings unforgettable moments and experience.
A unique feature of dancing is the movement structure and patterns that follow the music and the beats. This can benefit the brain and enhance the memory to remember the choreography and create skills to coordinate the body following the rhythms.
In general, dancing has a broad range of benefits for all ages, in regards to physical and mental fitness, social skills, self-esteem and health of heart, bones and brain.
This research article on "Why Do You Dance? Development of the Dance Motivation Inventory (DMI)" (2015 PLOS one) was based on a study to explore the motivation of social dancing and to develop a new method to assess its motivation. The authors identified 8 motivational factors towards a new Dance Motivation Inventory: 1.Fitness, 2.Mood Enhancement, 3.Intimacy, 4.Socialising, 5.Trance, 6.Mastery, 7.Self-confidence and 8.Escapism. The data shows that the Mood Enhancement was the strongest motivational factor for dance activity (similar to exercise) since it can improve mood and reduce stress, anxiety and other mental health issues. A similar study in 2018(Dance your stress away: comparing the effect of dance/movement training to aerobic exercise training on the cortisol awakening response in healthy older adults), measuring the cortisol levels, concludes that dance/movement training (DMT) reduces the chronic stress better than other types of exercise.
The list of dances around the world is endless (some popular categories are highlighted), and this is another reason to support that dance is an important factor in lifestyle and culture of every country.
However, more than a research and exercise style, don't forget that dance is fun. Enjoy!
.jpg)
