Dance

Movement | 4.13.2015 | By Daya Alexander Grant, M.S.

With spring we welcome the beginning of wedding season: a time full of celebration, love, food, and the dance floor.  Oh, the dance floor.  Dancing is a fundamental form of human expression, but most of us are too concerned about our two left feet to dance freely.  Here are a few brain-worthy reasons to put your insecurities aside and “let the rhythm move you”:

• Endorphins, endorphins, endorphins.  The combination of physical movement and music releases a high level of those “feel-good” neurotransmitters

• Dance reduces anxiety more than other types of exercise

• Improvised dance improves divergent thinking (i.e. creative thinking) in people with Parkinson’s disease

• In a 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, participation in dance was associated with a lower risk of dementia in people older than 75 years of age

So, whether you’re in to salsa dancing or square dancing, the moonwalk or the cupid shuffle, it is your birthright to dance.  This week, instead of just tapping your feet to a good beat, go take a dance class or put on some music and improvise in your living room.