According to evolutionists, Dance was established among the human species, playing a fundamental role in the evolution of social relationships due to its ability to bond individuals emotionally, regardless of linguistic skills.
This turns the dance into a Universal language existing in all cultures. In 2009, the Hungarian István Winkler demonstrated that people are born with a rhythmic-musical sense, which makes the desire to move to the rhythm of music an innate capacity of human beings.
It has been known for many years that physical activity and playing sports provide many physical benefits, helping, for example, to improve the functioning of the respiratory, circulatory and bone systems. But when we dance, we get the benefits of aerobic physical activity, and we also benefit psychologically and emotionally
1. Dancing helps us connect with ourselves
Dancing awakens emotions and fantasies through movement, which facilitates the expression of sensations, emotions, feelings and moods in a natural and uninhibited way. This way we can connect with ourselves and with the emotions that we repress, such as rage and anger, or anxiety and anguish which through dancing can be channeled in a healthy way, which helps emotional control on a daily basis.
Furthermore, dance is a form of creative expression which helps connect with oneself, enhancing and encouraging the spontaneity and creativity that we carry within.
2. It helps us connect with others
As we have mentioned in the first lines, dancing is a social activity l, which makes it provide many opportunities to interact with other people. Attending dance classes can improve interpersonal relationships, as it is a meeting point to make friends and improve the development of social skills.
Another example of dancing as a socializing agent can be observed when young people reach adolescence (and the process of secondary socialization begins), a vital moment in which it is very common for boys and girls to begin going to nightclubs In this type of venue, the effect of dancing acts as a disinhibitor and social enhancer, and again dancing and meeting new people go hand in hand.
Dancing is a pleasant and relaxing distraction that practically everyone enjoys, so it is most likely that if we watch a person dancing we will surely find a smile on their face. By providing a distraction, helps the mind defocus from problems and worries that flood it during the day, making it easier for us to stop thinking in a negative way, and thus reducing states of tension and stress, obtaining feelings of well-being.
It also helps channel adrenalin and induce joy, increasing vitality, motivation and enthusiasm for life, which makes people more positive.
By improving the mood of people who practice it, various researchers have wanted to study its effects on mood disorders. One of the most conclusive investigations is a study carried out in Korea in 2005 and published in the journal International Journal of Neuroscience where it was proven that dance movement therapy (DMT) in adolescents with mild depression regulated stress by reducing dopamine levels and improved mood by increasing serotonin levels.
4. Improves self-esteem and self-confidence
As we mentioned in the second point of this list, dancing helps establish relationships with other people, and it has been proven that Maintaining good emotional ties and socializing with people contribute to increasing self-esteem and positive attitudes toward oneself and others Attending dance classes is an excellent method to overcome shyness by helping people overcome their fear “of ridicule” since, for example, falling while dancing is a typical mistake that all dancers have had at some point and it is not seen by them as a reason to be ashamed.
Another way in which it also helps to improve self-confidence is that every time a new dance step is mastered, the person experiences an increase in confidence by considering this fact as an achievement, and Each achievement you achieve positively reinforces your self-concept, transferring your self-confidence to other aspects of life.
5. Dancing increases intelligence and prevents brain aging
A few days ago we made Psychology and Mind a curious list of tricks to increase intelligence. Ballroom dancing, like most structured dances, requires memorizing the steps and working as a couple. To do this, the person must concentrate and maintain their attention in a sustained manner. All of this together provides mental challenges that are key to maintenance. of mental agility and brain health.
One of the purposes of human intelligence is decision making. While dancing, quick decisions must be made continuously and in many cases it is not useful to resort to a pre-established fixed pattern of action, as happens when we perform other physical activities such as running, riding. by bike or swim. In this way, when dancing the brain has to continually “reinvent” itself and make use of brain plasticity, which causes the neurons to be very active.
The psychologist Peter Lovatt a former professional dancer, has proven that dancing helps us with decision making. Their studies conclude that improvisation when dancing helps us deal better with problems in which there are multiple solutions different (divergent thinking), while highly structured dance is a type of dance that depends on very precise and highly structured movements, making thinking exercised on problems in which we have to find a single answer or solution (convergent thinking).
Another of the most relevant studies that relate dancing with an increase in intelligence is the one led by M. Joe Verghese (2003), who attributes this dance effect to the fact that when we learn to dance and we link new steps, the neuronal synapse
Benefits on brain structure
His team of scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York , reveal in their study that the aerobic exercise of dancing can reverse the loss of volume of the hippocampus, a key brain structure for memory, which over the years shrinks and causes memory problems, and can degenerate into dementia. With this they demonstrated that the physical and mental effort required by dancing can increase memory, reducing the risk of suffering from dementia and reduces its effects, which indicates that dancing protects the brain in the long term.
To reach these conclusions, what they did was, among other things, compare dancing with other mental activities such as reading, solving crossword puzzles and hobbies, etc. and with other physical activities such as playing sports, cycling or walking. According to their results, while crossword puzzles decrease by 47% the risk of dementia, dancing frequently reduces it by up to 76% So we can conclude that dancing is one of the best remedies against brain aging
Following the line of Joe Verghese, researchers from the Canadian university McGill in 2005 they studied the effects of dancing tango in people with Parkinson’s disease and concluded that Dancing stimulates the central nervous system and brain activity much more than other sports disciplines , since the emotional report being a social activity is much greater. But perhaps more interesting is what the patients themselves report, some of them express that when the music plays the tremor of their body fades to flow with the tango itself and that it also helps them improve coordination and balance.
In short: don’t forget to dance
After this presentation of the beneficial effects of dancing on the human psyche, it must be admitted that dancing has therapeutic effects on most people, and I would like to end this writing with a phrase that sums it up very well:
“Dance is medicine through rhythm, space, energy, form and time, which covers the body with substances that cure physical and psychological ailments.”
