This January we’re celebrating our love of Dance by giving you our top 19 reasons to give it a go in 2019! Whether you’re a complete novice, a pro or you just enjoy busting a move on the dance floor on a Friday night there’s a style and class to suit everyone. Dancing is great for the mind and body and can improve and enrich our lives in so many ways, not to mention it’s fun! Need convincing?
- You can dance your way to a healthier heart
A recent study across 48,000 people in the UK found that moderate intensity dance (even just a regular whirl on the dance floor) was linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular complications, i.e. Dance makes for a healthy heart!
- Dance can make you stronger
While technical classes are specifically designed to improve strength, the jumping stretching, balancing and moving involved in even low impact styles builds strength in our muscles.
- It improves coordination and agility
Dancing challenges you to consider your movements and respond to the environment around you which in turn improves coordination and agility.
- Dance can improve your aerobic fitness levels
The cardio workout dancing provided both in classes and when busting a move in toon greatly improves your aerobic fitness especially when done regularly. High energy classes such as Fitsteps, Afro Mix and Dance Workout are a great way to get fit and have fun at the same time.
- Dancing promotes physical confidence
Dancing whether it’s good, bad, trained or just for fun, helps us to understand our own bodies and express ourselves through them – this is why babies and toddlers love to dance. When practiced regularly this can make us feel more confident and assured in our movements.
- Dancing can strengthen bones and reduce risk of osteoporosis
Dance is a form of weight-bearing exercise, a type of exercise that has been proven to improve bone condition and help them grow healthy and strong!
- Study of dance can build your cultural and historical knowledge
Studying a new dance style whether it be ballet, salsa, capoeira or even jazz and tap is a fantastic interactive way to learn all about an era of history or a new culture you would never have known of before.
- Dancing is a great way to tone up
Dancing uses so many muscles we don’t use in our everyday lives and is a great way of toning up your limbs and core!
- Dance has been shown to improve social skills
Group participation, interacting with others and utilising your peripheral vision to move in harmony with other dancers when learning choreography are all skills you can utilise in everyday life.
- Studies suggest dance can actually improve mental functioning
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest dance improves mental functioning and actually reduces symptoms of many illnesses including Parkinson’s disease and even depression.
- It’s a fun way to lose weight
Why go to the gym when you can get the same cardio workout from an hour of salsa dancing? Classes like Pilates and Yoga are also a great way to build strength and muscle definitions in an enjoyable, low impact environment.
- You can dance your way to better balance and spatial awareness
Dancing of all styles requires you to consider the alignment of your body and shift your weight from limb to limb in a controlled way, as well as challenging you to move in harmony with those around you.
- It improves memory retention
Dancing has been found to blend cerebral and cognitive thought processes with muscle memory, meaning that regular dancing can help strengthen and improve anyone’s memory retention.
- You can Dance anywhere!
One of our favourite things about dance is that you can do it almost anywhere, whether it’s a dance floor, a studio or in the comfort of your own bedroom.
- Dance lets your creativity flow
Dancing offers an outlet for you to express who you really are through movement, music and costumes and express yourself in ways that you can’t in day to day life!
- There’s no age limit to dance
You are never too old (or too young) to dance, here at DC we offer classes for all ages from 0 to 100 and you can choose to dance!
- Dance can reduce stress
When the body feels good, the mind does too! There’s extensive research that supports dance’s ability to act as a stress reliever as it produces endorphins that cause our bodies to feel calm and optimistic.
- It’s a great way to make new friends
Dancing is a great way to meet new people with a common interest from all walks of life and spark new friendships outside of work.
- Dancing improves poise and posture
Many dancing styles including ballet, contemporary, salsa and flamenco strengthen your upper back and the muscles under your shoulder blades which can lead to better posture.
Here at Dance City we offer over 100 dance classes a week across our Newcastle and Sunderland studios so where better to give it a go! Our lovely staff are always on hand to give you any advice if you’re not sure which style to take up or if you’d like to know what to expect from the class.
You can find all of our classes and workshops here.
