{"id":7139,"date":"2019-10-04T12:22:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T16:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/?p=7139"},"modified":"2021-05-07T12:08:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T16:08:31","slug":"is-dancing-the-kale-of-exercise-via-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/blog\/dance-lessons\/is-dancing-the-kale-of-exercise-via-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Is Dancing the Kale of Exercise?’ Via The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times<\/a> | By\u00a0Marilyn Friedman | <\/span>April 2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Research shows that dance offers a wealth of anti-aging benefits. It\u2019s also fun.<\/h2>\n

In a packed ballroom, a dapper man in a silver tuxedo swing dances with a young woman to Count Basie\u2019s jazz classic \u201cShiny Stockings.\u201d A parade of 93 other women patiently wait their turn. The man smiles wide, playfully wiggling his hips at the end of the eight count beat. He\u2019s surprisingly spry for a 94-year-old.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The occasion? A birthday celebration for the Lindy Hop legend Frankie Manning. From the age of 80 until his death at 94 in 2009, he celebrated annually by\u00a0dancing with as many partners as his age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew that people loved that such an old guy could dance with so many partners,\u201d said Judy Pritchett, Mr. Manning\u2019s girlfriend of 21 years.<\/p>\n

Mr. Manning shimmied and taught dance classes around the world 40 weekends a year until he died. \u201cDancing is what keeps me young,\u201d he said\u00a0in a television interview<\/a>\u00a0with the ABC affiliate in Seattle in 2007, just before his 93rd birthday. \u201cIf I was not dancing, I don\u2019t think I would be living to be this age.\u201d<\/p>\n

For other examples of the age-defying properties of dance, look to 93-year-old Dick Van Dyke vigorously tap dancing atop a desk in last December\u2019s \u201cMary Poppins Returns.\u201d The modern dance icons Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham also danced through their 80s.<\/p>\n

Studies show that dance provides multiple cognitive and physical health benefits, suggesting it may be the kale of exercise.<\/p>\n

A 2017 German report in\u00a0Frontiers in Human Neuroscience<\/a>\u00a0analyzed brain scans from subjects who were on average 68 years old and engaged in either interval training or social dance. The study found that while both activities increased the size of the hippocampus, a region of the brain critical for learning, memory and equilibrium, only dance improved balance.<\/p>\n

These results echo those of a\u00a02008 Journal of Aging and Physical Activity study<\/a>\u00a0by Patricia McKinley of McGill University in which seniors participated in a tango dance program. The report showed that long-term tango dancing was associated with better balance and gait in older adults. Since falls are the top cause of injury and death among elderly people, dancing can be a potent tool in extending one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

In a 2003 study published in the\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine<\/a>, researchers were surprised to discover that dance may help to improve cognitive function, similar to other studies that suggest that solving crossword puzzles may help to keep the mind sharp. The paper examined the relative benefits of both intellectual and physical leisure activities in older adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe broadly divided the activities into those that were cognitively stimulating, such as reading, and those that were physical, like riding a bicycle,\u201d said Dr. Joe Verghese, lead author of the study and Chief of Geriatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. From his clinic at the Bronx-based Montefiore Einstein Center for the Aging Brain, he said in a phone interview that out of 11 different physical activities his team studied, social dance was the only one associated with less dementia risk. He speculated that dance functions like an involved intellectual activity because it\u2019s complex. Unlike walking on a treadmill, dance demands sustained mental effort to master new steps and requires coordination with a partner and the music.<\/p>\n

Dr. Verghese cautioned that this was an observational study, not a clinical trial. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t prove cause and effect. We can\u2019t say that the dancing prevented the dementia. We can only say that it was associated with reduced risk of developing dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deborah Riley, a professional modern dancer and instructor, has seen firsthand how crucial a frequent dance program can be for seniors to fight frailty and memory loss. \u201cThe old adage \u2018move it or lose it\u2019 is pretty much true,\u201d Ms. Riley said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t move your feet and your legs, you will lose your ability to do that.\u201d For 15 years, Ms. Riley has taught dance to adults 50 years and older. She currently teaches\u00a0<\/strong>in a program called Arts for the Aging and at Georgetown University Hospital. She said that music and movement help older people by triggering positive memories, sometimes transforming withdrawn seniors into talkative, engaged individuals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the mental and physical benefits of dancing aren\u2019t just for the young at heart. \u201cDancing increases cognitive acuity at all ages. It integrates several brain functions at once \u2014 kinesthetic, rational, musical and emotional \u2014 further increasing your neural connectivity,\u201d said Richard Powers, a social and historic dance instructor at Stanford University.<\/p>\n

Mr. Powers teaches waltzing and foxtrotting to 300 undergraduates, often using the soundtrack of \u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d\u00a0<\/em>or Bollywood music to reflect their cultural backgrounds. For three decades, he has espoused the numerous health benefits of dance to students, including enhancing one\u2019s abilities to handle stress and adaptability to change. Students often tell him that they feel increased concentration in classes they attend right after social dance.<\/p>\n

One of the attention-getting moments from Mr. Manning\u2019s 85th birthday party video is when he flips a redhead in a black and red minidress around his hip and over his shoulder. It\u2019s his signature dance move, the same one he showcased at age 27 in workman\u2019s overalls in the 1941 movie \u201cHellzapoppin<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Norma Miller also danced in the film with the same gravity-defying bravado, dressed as a chef. She and Mr. Manning went on to tour with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong and danced socially together until Mr. Manning\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Ms. Miller, who lives in Florida and sports a sassy ombr\u00e9 pixie cut at 99, mused on the role of dance in her longevity. \u201cDo you know any woman in the world who gets hired to do a job at 99 years old? But I am hired up until my hundredth birthday!\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past 20 years, she has traveled the globe speaking at\u00a0swing dance events including the Herrang Dance Camp<\/a>\u00a0in Sweden.<\/p>\n

Ms. Miller reflected on the source of her positivity. \u201cWhy I survived all this time, I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cWhenever there was a difficult crisis, going back to dancing always made me overcome it. Dancing has been the elixir of life, all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marilyn Friedman is a writer and co-founder of\u00a0<\/em>Writing Pad<\/em><\/a>, a creative writing school in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and online. She is working on a memoir about swing dancing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times | By\u00a0Marilyn Friedman | April 2019\u00a0 Research shows that dance offers a wealth of anti-aging benefits. It\u2019s also fun. In a packed ballroom, a dapper man in a silver tuxedo swing dances with a young woman to Count Basie\u2019s jazz classic \u201cShiny Stockings.\u201d A parade of 93 other women patiently wait […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,23,24,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance-lessons","category-lifestyle-self-improvement","category-nutrition-health","category-staying-young"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/glenn-heights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}