Author: Sarah Joseph
Category: Health and Wellness
All Ages Can Dance
Studies show that dancing has major health benefits for all ages!
Dancing is an activity that can not only be enjoyed by people of various ages, but it is also an activity that has many benefits on the mind and body. There are several types of dance such as ballet, jazz, bollywood, tap, salsa, etc., each style requires an individual to focus on different aspects of themselves. For instance, ballet focuses on balance and strength whereas salsa focuses on having a good sense of rhythm. Regardless, the health benefits dance provides is undeniable. Dance is able to improve the heart and lungs, help manage weight, boost self-esteem, improve one’s strength, and it can even tone one’s muscles. It is also believed that those who dance from a young age develop a better sense of creativity and have more advanced social skills.
To add, although starting dance at a young age will have promising effects on one’s life later on, a study was conducted to analyze if dancing is still beneficial to the elderly as well. In this study,130 elderly people with an average age of 67 attended traditional Greek dance classes for 32 weeks. The group met twice a week, with each class lasting around seventy-five minutes. The dances this group learned ranged in three categories: mild, moderate, and high intensity. The dances started out very easy, with around six steps with minimal hand movements for the group to learn. Yet by the end of the study, the dances became more and more involved, with around eight to sixteen steps with movements incorporating both arms and legs. A control group of 20 people was also included, and this group did not receive any training whatsoever. Before the dance classes, all the participants were given various physical tests, such as the chair stand, sit and reach, arm curl, and balance one leg tests. By the end of the study, all the participants were tested again, and the results showed that those in the dance group were not only able to perform better on the tests the second time they took it, but they also performed better than the control group. Those in the dance group had an improved sense of balance, aerobic endurance, and flexibility.
Overall, the results of the aforementioned study reveal that dancing at any age is able to improve one’s health in great ways. It is an activity that creates challenges for the mind and body to overcome, and in doing so, the individual receives a sense of accomplishment and a healthier mind and body.
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/dance-health-benefits
https://www.reyn.org/Downloads/The_Benefits_of_Dance.pdf
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2019.00075/full
August 1, 2022
