“Let's dance
Put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let's dance
To the song they're playin' on the radio
Let's sway
While colour lights up your face
Let's sway
Sway through the crowd to an empty space
”
(David Bowie)
David Bowie got it right andhe wasn’t talking about just at weddings or around the proverbial handbag on aSaturday night. Dance has a firm place in our hearts thanks to TV shows likeStrictly Come Dancing and movies we all love like Dirty Dancing. However, it’snot only a great social thing to do with friends and loved ones, but is also afantastic way to get fit whilst learning a new skill.
Benefits of Dancing
Dancing not only uses and develops physical abilities, but it alsostrengthens your emotions, cognitive skills, and enhances social connections –all of which are vital skills for daily life. You’ll rarely see people walkingout of a dance class looking miserable; they’ll be smiling and chatting and feeling on a high. And here’s why.
Physical Benefits of Dancing
Dancing is a low impact exercisewhich raises your heart rate. It’s not unusual to burn over 400 calories in anhour of solid dance practice. At thesame time, it makes your muscles work hard, so helps to maintain and improvestrength.
You use lots of different parts of your body, literally head to toes,and often your upper body and arms aremoving in one direction, while your lower body and legs are doing somethingcompletely different. This contra action, or what in dance terms is calledcontrabody movement, is a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head. Itreally develops your ability to concentrate, improve coordination, balance andagility, while having fun.
Mental Benefits of Dancing
Research has looked at the evidence for the effects of dancing and Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) for over the last 20 years, studying different aspects of psychological wellbeing.
The review findings suggest that dancing has a noticeable positive effect on our quality of life, body image and mood resulting in reduced depression and anxiety challenges.
Most forms of exercise is thought to be a mood booster, because it affects certain chemicals in your brain, such as dopamine and serotonin, which in turn can affect your mood and thinking.
Dancing isn’t for you, or is it?
Just a few of the common reasons people use to stay away from the dancefloor.
You don’t need a partner for many dance styles or indeed to attend a dance class. Okay some dance schools do insist on couples only, but there will those, like comedancingwithme.co.uk, who don’t. There are always spare partners, usually students who can already dance and just want more practice together with an opportunity to share their love of dance. So, no partner, no problem.
Wow, never! I didn’t start dancing till I was 50 years old, and the age range of my dancers is 18-87 years of age. Honestly, dancing is for everyone who wants to do it and you don’t have to be a spring chicken or an old rooster to enjoy it. Also you don’t have to be Fred Astaire or Ginger Rodgers, you just need to want to learn.
It’s a bit like learning to drive a car or ride a bike, it can be intimidating initially, but remember everyone was once a beginner. Join a beginner class and be patient with yourself, after all part of the challenge is to learn something new so enjoy the moment, you won’t be alone.
Rest assured that dance teachers do not teach for the money, they do it because they love it and want to share their love of dance others. Naturally, they will do everything they can to encourage an open and supportive atmosphere, indeed other dancers will do the same. To be honest in classes everyone is busy concentrating on their own steps so won’t be looking at how others are doing. Everyone can dance so don’t let this hold you back, you’ll likely find that everyone else feels the same as you do. The benefits of dancing far outweigh the worry of how you look.
Get Dancing
So if you’re feeling inspired and want to give dancing a go for a New Year, just sign up to a £10 taster session with comedancingwithme.co.uk or a group class for beginners and get started. It can be a scary walking into a room of strangers the first week, but they won’t be strangers for long and you can be assured of a warm welcome every week.
