Move Those Feet! Dancing is Good for the Brain

I’ve never considered myself more than a passable dancer.  As Billy Crystal put it in the Rom-Com When Harry Met Sally, seeing me dance for much of my life was watching the “white man’s overbite” – clenched teeth and rigid body movements. 

My most frequent justification was that white guys lack rhythm.  But that rationalization faded with the likes of Patrick Swayze, Channing Tatum and Kevin Bacon.  Nor could I rely on the excuse that I never had the chance to learn.  After all, my mother used to tell me, “I gave you dancing lessons, so get out there and dance.”  What she didn’t know was that the lessons in the parlor of a nice old woman (probably in her 40s) came with a treat after each lesson: cookies and milk in the kitchen with her father.  So, on the second and the rest of the lessons, I just skipped the parlor and went straight to the kitchen.

My wife is a terrific dancer, as were her parents, so she became my teacher.  I did get better, but not so my ballroom dancing brother and his wife would ever notice.  For the first fifty years of our marriage, she would gently, sometimes pleadingly, say “let’s take dancing lessons and learn so new moves.”  I knew I’d never get the chance for cookies in the back room again, plus I honestly didn’t think there was much hope for me.

But I love her. So after our 54th anniversary, I agreed to one lesson with a local teacher.  (I’m not asking for any attaboys here . . . I mean it took me 54 years!).  The deal was that, if I liked the first lesson, we’d do another four. Which we did.  Yes, I felt kind  of klutzy and yes, the instructor had to video himself doing the steps with my wife so I could painstakingly, in slow motion, watch the video over and over again to practice.  But I did get a bit better (measured in the context of how bad I was at the start).

Enough of my saga.  I’m telling you this not to pat myself on the back (which I truly do not deserve) nor to offer any advice to guys like me but to say that what I learned just recently made me wish I had forgone the cookies and milk and not kept my wife waiting 54 years.

Dancing, researchers are finding, improves the brain.  A 2018 study using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) found that the parts of the brain concerned with perception, memory and movement were enhanced in ballroom dancers – even when they were not dancing. As a different writer put it, dancers tend to think faster, process information and remember better and get less stressed when confronted with change.  The music for dancing plays a part as well, since music stimulates the brain’s reward centers.

A 2012 study by researchers at Minot State University found that Zumba dancing improves visual recognition and decision-making.  Studies have also shown that dancing increases serotonin, a neurotransmitter associated with improved moods, and helps develop new neural connections (all those new steps require brain changes to master them!).

Now, for people who waited 54 years to begin to get some of these brain benefits, a 2003 study by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine looked at the effects of 11 types of physical activity.  Only one lowered participants’ risk of dementia: not cycling, golf, swimming, tennis – but dancing!  At my age, that’s money in the memory bank.

For those of you hoping for a long-term marriage or relationship - or even to find that special person with whom you can begin that journey, here’s something else that dancing does for your brain.  A team at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that long-term ballroom dance improves empathy. This makes intuitive sense of course.  As the authors of the study noted, dancers need to cooperate, interact with each other and, over the long-term, understand what their partner is thinking and feeling.  Looking at fMRI images, they found increased activity in brain regions associated with perspective taking, empathic concern and personal distress – all associated with empathy.  The longer the dancers had worked together, the greater the empathic concern.

Now, if you are reluctant as I was, just get out there, take a few lessons and dance a little better.  It’s fun after all – and you just might live longer.  You won’t get any of that just watching Dancing with the Stars.

Photo Credit: mimi lalaa - unsplash.com