Dance Fitness: How Getting Down Helps Your Health

As a young woman growing up in New York, I fondly remember the many Sunday dances my friends and I would attend. Unbridled joy would prevail as our hips swayed and our spirits soared to the irresistible rhythms of Latin greats, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez. 

Over the years, as professional pursuits and life in general have gradually encroached on leisure time activities, dancing has been relegated to memories. I read a quote last year by the former great ballet dancer, Jacques D’Amboise: “Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It's the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy."

All at once, memories were not enough. I am a woman of a certain age, journeying through my “third chapter.” Taking a dance class was at the top of my 2011 Bucket List. The return of swaying hips and pulsating rhythms will make the journey so much more fun, I thought. Added to that was a promise to myself to keep dancing for as long as I could.

I joined a World Dance class. It’s dance fitness (otherwise known as exercise in disguise), but we learn actual dance routines — all carried out to the throbbing beat of African, Reggae and Latin rhythms. Not only is it a great way to have fun, but it has a bonus of often providing me with many health benefits that are of particular value to older adults.

Most experts agree that dancing can lower the risk of coronary heart disease, decrease blood pressure, increase stamina and flexibility while improving strength, loosen and tone muscles and coordination, and strengthen leg and thighbones.

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that dancing can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly. “Dancing might even be a triple benefit for the brain,” says Dr. Joe Verghese, a neurologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a lead researcher of the study.  

Verghese went on to note that not only does the physical aspect of dancing increase blood flow to the brain, but the social aspect of the activity leads to less stress, depression and loneliness. “Dancing requires memorizing steps and also working with a partner,” he adds, “both of which provide mental challenges that are crucial for brain health.”

It is never too late to embrace some form of dance, whether it is swaying, tapping or do-si-do-ing. Even Socrates learned to dance when he was 70 years old, because he felt that an essential part of him had been neglected.

Folk Dancing meets each Wednesday 10:15-11:45 a.m. at . The cost is $3 for members and $6 for non-members. And for more options, check out the West Hollywood-based Balliamos Dance Studio.