Dancing for fun is good. And if it allows you to take care of your health and build muscle, it’s better. Dance has many virtues that are too often overlooked.
It allows you to exert yourself, to express your creativity and to boost your body. As neurobiologist Lucy Vincent explains in her book Make your brain dance .
Take care of your body
Cadence, catchy rhythms, repetitive movements… Dance is a complete sport that strengthens the body and improves motor coordination. It has a boosting effect on the whole body and on health.
It improves abdominal sheathing which, if the activity is practiced on a floor in a dance studio, reduces back pain.
Keeping the line while dancing
Dancing allows you to maintain or improve your line. Combined with a balanced diet, it allows you to lose weight and reshape your figure.
In fact, dancing solicits the whole body: from the arms to the legs, from the back to the ankles, passing through the buttocks, the thighs or the stomach, the areas most prone to cellulite.
The University of Sydney study found that people who dance at least once per person have a lower BMI (body mass index) than others.
Dancing 30 minutes allows you to lose an average of 200 calories in a good mood. Depending on the different dance styles, it is possible to target the areas of the body to refine or build muscle: For the legs, tap dancing; for the waist, oriental dance, Bollywood or Bharata Natyan, for the buttocks salsa or bachata, for the arms African dance, For the whole body modern jazz, ….
Improve your heart rate and breath
Dancing is an endurance activity like running or swimming. It allows you to maintain and strengthen your heart, improve your blood circulation and your breath.
Whatever the dance, whether it’s individual like oriental dance, bollywood, modern jazz, flamenco, tap dancing… or in pairs like Cuban salsa, bachata, kizomba… dancing brings a noticeable improvement and felt.
According to the same Australian scientific study that observed the behavior of 40,000 people with no heart disease, researchers noticed that the practice of dancing reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Gain flexibility through dance
Warm-ups, stretching, sequences, dancing makes you gain flexibility.
Flexibility is an appreciable quality to stay in shape. Being flexible allows you to have no difficulty climbing stairs, sitting on the ground, getting in and out of a vehicle…
Balance and stability: the qualities of dance
Dance makes you aware of your body in space. It improves balance and posture by stimulating the inner ear.
Dance classes bring a better knowledge of one’s body and a better ability to control and use it. The training also makes it possible to acquire a better support, a better anchorage to the ground.
The movements of the dance allowing to reinforce the solidity of the bones of which in particular the hips and a better musculature of the legs and thighs.
Dancing every week limits the problems of vertigo, whatever the dance practiced.
Boost your brain
The brain also finds its account in the practice of dance. For Lucia Vincent:
“Dancing provokes an intimate and talkative conversation between the body and the brain”
This physical activity is also very beneficial for our psyche. Indeed, most dance styles are based on learning steps, passes and/or choreography. The ability to concentrate, memory and attention are essential. You have to be able to observe the gestures to reproduce, to remember the sequences, then to restore them. Nothing like it to maintain a lively and alert mind.
Working on memory while dancing
Dance classes do not only work the body, the memory also has to work seriously. Several dances such as hip hop, modern jazz, Bollywood or Bharata Natyan require you to remember a sequence of steps to create a choreography.
It is therefore essential to remember each step so as not to lose the thread.
As the year progresses you will learn to find tips for remembering the steps to take.
Music plays an important role in the memorization process. You are going to “place markers” at certain moments in the music, at the arrival of an instrument, at a silence or break. Your memory will take a step there. Memorizing a choreography will become easier and easier over time.
8 Work on your concentration through dance
Dancing helps improve concentration. Dance lessons last on average one hour. No distractions can distract you around since you are most often in an enclosed dance studio.
As it is an activity that you like, your brain then learns on its own to stay focused on a single task: follow the sequence, the choreography, the explanation, the step….
For children accustomed to screens and the generation “zapping as for everyone else, observing the gestures to be reproduced and remembering the sequences allow them to work on this concentration and sharpen their minds.
Develop your creativity with dance
Dance is above all an artistic activity that allows a message or an emotion to be conveyed through choreography. Bodily expression appeals to the imagination.
Apprentice dancers then seek inspiration in other artistic fields (music, painting, etc.) or by observing other dancers or choreographers.
Dance lessons challenge students to tap into their imaginations and create new moves. This ability to create and imagine is in great demand in the professional world. It is therefore a quality not to hesitate to work on.
Gaining rigor with dance lessons
Although dancing is an artistic activity, it is important to follow a certain rigor, to follow certain rules so that the connection, the guidance, the steps and the passes for salsa, bachata or even kizomba, the choreography learned for the modern jazz, bollywood, Bharata or even hip hop looks as neat as possible.
Indeed, in most dances, you are not alone.
The choreographies are often done in groups and the dances for two are done in pairs. It is therefore necessary to be able to follow the rules imposed by the dance to be sure to be in symbiosis with the rest of the group.
This ability can serve you in everyday life. It’s about doing your best to give your best.
Build self-confidence
“When we dance, we give voice to our body and it takes it! Despite what goes on in our head, our doubts and hesitations. Over the sessions, he asserts himself, dares to move more freely, occupies more space. Trained by him, we gain confidence. Veronique Sommer.
Dancing is a great way to build self-confidence. It allows you to learn to discover your body, to no longer be afraid of the gaze of others, to reveal yourself, to invite partners.
This is a positive point because, according to several studies, the creation of friendly bonds with other people promotes self-esteem.
In addition, by making us learn new movements and giving us the opportunity to improve each time, dance promotes self-confidence. A feeling that you will take with you off the track. The effects are seen from the first year of the course.
To dance is to become, to be yourself.
Dancing to release stress
Dancing is a playful way to get rid of daily stress. The body spends and relaxes.
Dancing between 30 and 45 minutes releases serotonin, dopamine and endorphins, the natural hormones of happiness, pleasure and euphoria. Their presence in number in our brain makes it possible to fight negative emotions such as stress, even depression.
These moments of letting go help occupy the mind. A few weekly sessions can settle daily anxiety.
Finally, through her group practice, she forces you to come out of your isolation.