Dance and its Health and Mental Health Benefits

Sara E. Ottesen

Florida State University

ENC2135-0051

Sophia Shealy

March 26th, 2023

 Introduction

Dance is a powerful form of art that can help dancers emotionally and physically. Two

sources explain this idea in detail. This includes a TED Talk, “My Journey with Dance and

Mental Health” and an article, “The Health Benefits of Dance.” The YouTube video, "My

Journey with Dance and Mental Health" uses specific experiences to not only explain how dance

can improve mental health, but express that idea as well. It uses pathos by sharing an emotional

story and videos of moving choreography. The article, "The Health Benefits of Dance" uses

more logos based arguments. This article goes into more information about how and why dance

can improve health. In both artifacts, you could argue that they want to get others to dance so

they can receive the benefits of dancing. The YouTube video does a better job of portraying this

message because it uses pathos so that viewers can feel for themselves how powerful dance can

be, instead of just reading about how powerful it can be.

Background Information

The TED Talk, “My Journey with Dance and Mental Health” is spoken by Kevin Turner.

He is a dancer that has struggled with his mental health. He explains how dance has been part of

his journey as he has improved his mental health. He gives a large amount of credit to dance and

even calls it a “transformative power of art,” (Turner, 0:11). He also shows clips from a dance he

choreographed to support this argument. The audience of this video includes people who have a

passion or interest in dance and who might have struggled with mental health. They would be

able to relate to the speaker’s story and it might even encourage them to start dancing. The

unintended audience would be who the speaker would not expect to enjoy the speech. For

example, not everyone enjoys dance or may have had bad experiences with it. The second

artifact, “The Health Benefits of Dance,” has the same unintended audience, however their
intended audience would be for people who are looking for more information about how dance

positively impacts a person’s health. This source talks about various ideas related to the topic of

dance. It focuses on “the healing nature of dance and music [being] informally recognized for

their mind-body restorative capability,” (Alpert, 2011). It also mentions health benefits, music,

and therapy to support this argument.

Although these sources share similar ideas, they differ in the way they are presented and

the information they use. The TED talk has a visual mode and the article is written. They both

have digital mediums, however the article can also be face to face. In addition, the tone of the

artifacts are different. The TED Talk is casual and emotional whereas the article is formal. These

three differences change how the viewer sees the media and takes in the information. Both

artifacts have similar purposes, which are to share the positive health impacts of dance. The TED

Talk focuses on mental health and explains this idea through his personal story. The article looks

at how dance benefits a person’s health by looking into fact based statements. For example, it

mentions how dancing directly affects the brain, how different types of dance affect how many

calories a person will lose, and how dance therapy is effective. Although both claims are similar,

their different modes and purposes make them entirely different artifacts.

Organization

These artifacts not only have differing purposes, but they are presented in different ways.

In “My Journey with Dance and Mental Health,” the speaker organizes his speech by grouping

together points in the order they occurred and by talking about choreography based on who he

was performing for. Throughout the entire video, pathos is the main form of rhetoric being used.

Kevin Turner’s narrative is a very emotional and relatable topic. By showing the choreography

he worked on, it adds to the emotion of the story. When watching a dance that is performed well,
the viewer can feel the passion from the dancers and even connect the piece to their own life.

Kevin Turner and his friends performed a piece outside in a busy area. It was about how he has

struggled with his mental health. Even though some people that were watching had never seen a

dance performance before, they were still moved by the choreography. Turner explained that

some people came up to him after and opened up about how watching his performance helped

them. For example, one person said that it helped them process their feelings about their wife

passing away, which he had not talked about before. Turner supports this by saying, “it really

allowed people the permission to be able to start talking about these things,” (Turner, 11:24). The

experiences of audience members show how important pathos is in an argument.

In the article, “The Health Benefits of Dance,” the author organizes the information by

putting together similar ideas. Throughout the entire article, she relies on logos based

information and does not include any visuals. Because information is the only thing supporting

her argument, the information that the author chooses to use is important. For example, she

explains how “dance is a mind-body experience that increases blood supply to the brain,

provides an outlet for releasing emotional expression, allows for creativity, and the socialization

aspect lowers stress, depression, and loneliness,” (Alpert, 2011). By stating these examples and

explaining the scientific effects music has on the brain, it helps the reader understand how

dancing can be beneficial. The author gives additional examples of types of music and dance to

help further convince readers to dance over other forms of physical activity.

Compare

Although both sources were informative and interesting, the TED Talk was more

effective with its argument. The video uses personal experiences and choreography to relate to

the audience. The emotional story that is expressed in the choreography is an effective use of
pathos. On the other hand, the article relies almost entirely on logos. Although this gives the

reader useful information, I do not think it is enough to convince someone to dance. In addition,

the article mentions many different health benefits of dancing whereas the video focuses on how

it improves mental health. This difference, along with the use of pathos or logos, adds to the

effectiveness of each argument. The joy someone gets from dancing is a feeling that cannot be

expressed through words and instead needs to be experienced. The use of pathos in the TED Talk

can persuade people to dance, just from feeling the emotion of the choreography second-hand.
 References

Alpert, P. (2011). The Health Benefits of Dance. Preventative Care

Corner.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1084822310384689

TEDx Talks. (2018, July 12). My Journey with Dance and Mental

Health [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/cC-K4IKpOQU