Free-Flowing Dance

According to a UCLA Health study published in the August 2021 issue of Complementary Therapies in
Clinical Practice, conscious, free-flowing dance produced positive mental health benefits among
participants.1 It was based on a survey of 1,000 dancers across the world who had depression, anxiety,
or a history of trauma.

A huge majority—98%—of all dancers said the practice improved their mood. Many also reported that
conscious dance gave them more confidence and compassion.

Prabha Siddarth, PhD, research statistician at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and
Human Behavior at UCLA and senior author on the study noted how participants felt in the flow or in the
zone by performing this self-led dance.

Choreographed Dance

In another recent study, published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience,2 researchers compared the effects
of walking, stretching, and dancing on the wiring and gray matter of the aging brain. Dancing had the
most notable positive effect.

After recruiting volunteers in their 60s and 70s with healthy brains that didn’t show signs of cognitive
impairment, researchers randomly placed them in three groups. One group walked, another stretched
and did balance training and the last group learned country dancing. The choreography of the dancing
became progressively more challenging over time.

They all did the assigned activity for one hour a day, three times a week. After a period of six months, the
volunteers’ brains were re-scanned and compared to when they had begun their regimens.

Agnieszka Burzynska, the study’s lead author who is currently a Neuroscientist and Director of the BRAiN
Lab at Colorado State University, but was formerly from the University of Illinois in Urbana, found only
one group showed an improvement—the country dancers.

The participants who learned country dancing now had denser white matter in the part of the brain that
processed memory. White matter usually breaks down as a person ages, which may contribute to
cognitive decline. Dancing, therefore, protected the brain from aging-induced neurodegeneration. So,
dancing is not only an aerobic activity good for your physical health. It helps your brain!
Country dancing, ballroom dancing, tango, salsa, and waltz are all done with others. When you
participate in these dances, you’re involved in a beneficial social activity as well. You are also cognitively
stimulating your brain as you learn the steps to the dances. Dancing therefore might be one of the best
physical activities you can choose for brain health.