Benefits of Dance

Dance Offers So Many Benefits!

fred astaire dance studioBallroom dancing is a rare combination of social interaction, mental stimulation, and physical exertion. For this reason, it can add so much to your life with just one kind of activity. It comes with a plethora of mental and physical health benefits: it enriches your social life, boosts self-confidence, decreases stress and depression, provides a great workout, and helps you relax. On top of all that, it serves as a fun and powerful outlet for creativity and self-expression. Anyone could benefit from ballroom dance!

BALLROOM DANCE IS A GREAT WORK-OUT!

fred-astaire-dance-studioMelt Fat / Lose Weight / Boost Metabolism.
As an exercise, ballroom dance serves as a low-impact aerobic workout that can transform your body. In just half an hour of dancing, you could burn anywhere between 200-400 calories – that’s roughly equivalent to what you’d burn while cycling or running! Dancing every day could help you lose over a pound of week, which adds up rather quickly. According to the Journal of Physiological Anthropology, dance as an exercise can be just as effective for losing weight as jogging and cycling. Looking to just maintain your weight? Dancing can keep you toned and fit. Finally, since ballroom dance is so fun, you’ll get all these benefits without even feeling like you’re working out!

Increase Flexibility.
Any good ballroom dance class will typically start with a few stretching exercises to allow students to warm up. This protects against dance-related injuries while generally helping dancers execute their steps with comfort and ease. Over time, beginning dancers will note that the more they dance, the better their flexibility and range of motion becomes. Increased flexibility not only helps you dance – it also decreases muscle soreness and joint pain after exercising while improving core strength and balance. Yoga and typical ballet stretches can also be valuable pre-dance tools; however, we always recommend talking to your Fred Astaire Dance studios instructor about the ideal warm-up regimen for you.

Increase Muscle Strength & Endurance.
Ballroom dancing contributes to muscle strength because the act of dancing forces a dance to resist their own body weight. The exercise you get from the quick steps, lifts, twists and turns, will help you develop more muscle strength in your arms, legs and core as your lessons continue. Endurance is the ability of your muscles to work harder and longer without getting too fatigued. Ballroom dance as an exercise is particularly effective at building up your endurance – so as you work on your dance steps, you are conditioning your muscles to perform these feats with longer and with greater ease. And the added bonus is that you’ll look and feel toned, strong, and sexy

Great for All Ages.
Ballroom dance is a fun activity for all ages – from children to seniors and everyone in between. At Fred Astaire Dance Studios, our instructors work with students of all age groups, skill levels, and physical abilities and will create a custom-tailored dance program that’s challenging yet comfortable, and will help you attain your dance AND exercise goals.


Click the images below, to read more about the health benefits of Dance:

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Click the images below, to read more about the social benefits of Dance:

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PHYSICAL HEALTH

fred astaire dance studioRegular ballroom dance sessions can decrease cholesterol and blood pressure, improve cardiovascular health, strengthen bones while delaying or prevent bone loss due to osteoporosis altogether, lower the probability of developing diabetes or obesity, and promote increased lung capacity. It can help speed up recovery after orthopedic surgery since it’s a lower impact exercise than jogging or biking. The movements and coordination required in ballroom dance help enhance balance and stability, especially among older people (which can help prevent falls and stumbles). Ballroom dance can even help improve your intellectual and mental abilities. A New England Journal of Medicine study looked at adults for 21 years, and reported that dance was one of the only activities that improved both cardiovascular fitness and reduced the risk of cognitive impairments like dementia. To receive the full body-conditioning benefits of ballroom dance, dance for at least 30 minutes a minimum of four days a week.

MENTAL HEALTH

Research has shown that ballroom dancing improves mental acuity throughout a dancer’s life and that there are also substantial benefits to those who start ballroom dance as adults. Ballroom dancing can help enhance alertness, awareness, concentration, focus, and memory. It can prevent the development of dementia in seniors while significantly improving spatial memory.

enhance memory, alertness, awareness, focus, and concentration. It can prevent the onset of dementia and significantly improve spatial memory in elderly patients. Participating in an activity like ballroom dance helps create more complex neural pathways, which can ward off the weakening of synapses that often accompanies old age. Among younger dancers, the results can also be significant. Swedish researchers studying teenage girls struggling with stress, anxiety and depression observed a significant decrease in anxiety and stress levels among those who took up partner dancing. They also saw marked improvement in mental health and patients reported being happier than those who did not participate in dancing. Partner dancing can also alleviate loneliness among all age groups because it’s a goal-oriented social pastime that brings like-minded people together.

CONFIDENCE

Every opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing – whether during a social event or lesson, whether with a new dance partner or your significant other – will help improve your comfort level, confidence and communication skills on the dance floor. As your dance technique improves and you feel more comfortable with other people, your sense of accomplishment, confidence, and innate motivation will continue to increase. Even better – you will notice these new attributes taking root in other areas of your life as well.

SELF-EXPRESSION & CREATIVITY

Dancing comes naturally to people, and it’s an easy activity for anyone to partake in. Dance provides a creative outlet to express your emotions through bodily movements. Ballroom dancing can be a wonderfully expressive outlet that enhances your ability to permanently use these expressive qualities even when you are not dancing and to ultimately share that creativity with others. After just a few lessons, you will start to find yourself moving more and more effortlessly through your dance steps, while you get lost in the music. You will find a beautiful rhythm your body may have been hiding. Once you do, you’ll achieve a sense of satisfaction, pride, and peace that will stay with you for a long, long time.

STRESS & DEPRESSION

In today’s hectic world, we sometimes forget to take some time for ourselves. Dance lessons provide the perfect escape from your normal daily routine and give you a chance to relax, relieve stress, and concentrate on you and only you. Our students often tell us that even if they’re “not feeling it” when they arrive for a lesson, once they stretch and start dancing, they’re able to forget about the day’s triggers, simply breathe, and let the dance take over. There’s also a growing body of evidence that indicates that dancing has a significantly positive effect on the treatment and prevention of depression and other mood disorders.

  • Group activities such as ballroom dance lessons can enhance your sense of social “connectedness”, which is critical for lowering stress and depression levels
  • Ballroom dance bears many similarities to the practice of mindful meditation, which has also been proven to significantly reduce levels of depression and stress) in that it requires you to fully focus your attention, and be present in the moment. This meditative state can help you disengage from the negative thought patterns associated with stress, anxiety, and depression. For those who are not interested in traditional meditative practices, ballroom dance can be a great way to receive the same benefits.
  • The physical act of dancing releases endorphins while lowering the levels of stress hormones in our bodies. This creates a sense of alert calm, and improves mood and energy levels
  • Participants are more likely to voluntarily continue ballroom dance lessons as a form of depression or anxiety treatment than some traditional forms of therapy, further increasing its effectiveness.

THE SOCIAL BENEFITS

fred astaire dance studioIf ballroom dancing is good for any one thing – and it’s great at much more than that – it’s good at bringing people together. Ballroom dance lessons offer you a fantastic opportunity to expand your social circle, build connections, and interact with new people in a low-pressure environment where there are no expectations. It’s perfect for younger singles who want to step up their dating game, couples looking to reconnect, and for adults interested in discovering something new and inspiring, just for them. Learning to dance does take focus and dedication, but you will be surrounded and encouraged by artistic, positive and cheerful people who make learning enjoyable and rewarding. In group lessons, weekly practice parties, regional and national competitions and studio events and outings, you’ll meet a melting pot of people of all ages, with varied cultural and occupational backgrounds. And the best part? Since they all share your passion for dance, these meetings often transition into lasting friendships. At Fred Astaire Dance Studios, we are truly proud of the supportive, welcoming and warm environment you’ll find in every one of our studios.

So why not try it out? Come alone or with your dance partner. Learn something new, make new friends, and reap numerous health and social benefits… all from merely learning to dance. Call today and join us for some FUN!

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