Hate exercising but love dancing? The good news is that dance in all its various forms has taken over the world of exercise and fitness and has proven to be a jolly good workout too.

Shall we dance?

A lot of people hate exercising; the huffing and puffing, sweat and steam not to mention all those perfect, lycra-clad, bodies on show. Most love dancing even though they won’t admit it or are too shy to try. “Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health; it rusts your spirit and your hips”, says Terri Guillemets. “There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good”, adds Edwin Denby. Even Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of him had been neglected.

Point made! Now add the benefits of a jolly good physical and emotional workout to the brew and you have the perfect solution to staying fit and healthy. Paula Abdul, American singer/songwriter, dancer/choreographer and judge on Fox TV’s Idol show has this to say: “Find fitness with dancing; it is fun and makes you forget about the dreaded exercise”.

Benefits of dancing

Regular dancing is great for:

    • Having fun and making new friends
    • Beating stress
    • Challenging your mind and helping your brain
    • Burning calories and losing weight
    • Maintaining strong bones
    • Improving posture
    • Increasing flexibility, balance and coordination
    • Strengthening core muscles such as the abs (stomach) and back muscles
    • Improving endurance.

Dance styles

Not sure which style to choose? Here’s a list of some of the more popular and well-known styles:

    • Ballroom dancing. This very popular dance style, sometimes called smooth dancing, includes dances such as the waltz, tango, foxtrot and quickstep as well as Latin-inspired dances such as the rumba, samba, paso duble, jive and cha-cha-cha, to name a few. The exercise benefits of ballroom dancing apply to all age groups and include a full body workout that targets the heart, head and muscles. All those long, sweeping back- and forward leg movements, bending and stretching, twists and turns not only challenges your brain but gets your heart beating faster and forces your muscles, especially the core back and abdominals and your leg muscles to work harder.
    • Spanish, ballet and tap dancing. These are all well-known dance styles with tremendous physical and mental benefits. An added benefit is that adult classes, for those who missed out when they were younger, are all the rage today.
    • Salsa dancing. Offers a fun, flirtatious dance style with lots of simple but lively movements that keep the body moving at all times. Add lots of lower body and hip movements and you have a winner that will keep those hips flexible, the muscles strong and the heart beating faster.
    • Bollywood dancing. Inspired by the Indian film industry, this dance style is a combination of classic Indian dance forms and modern western style dance moves.
    • Modern jazz and swing dancing. The latter evolved during the jazzy 1920s and offers an energetic, fun dance style with fancy footwork and a vigorous, aerobic workout that will leave you breathless and hopefully a few kilos lighter too! According to the experts an average person can burn up to 300 calories per hour while swing dancing. It also increases both upper and lower body strength.
    • Hip hop. Offers a high-impact cardio workout that also strengthens most muscles and increases flexibility.
    • Ceroc (“C’est rock”).It evolved from the jive dance style introduced to France by American GIs during Wold War II and is similar to swing. It is also fast paced, easy to learn and fun with all the physical benefits associated with dance.
    • Zumba. This dance cum exercise style fitness programme has taken the world by storm. It offers a highly effective and lively set of interval type, cardio-vascular exercise, dance moves to upbeat Latin music. Its marketing slogan “ditch the workout; join the party” says it all.
    • Bokwa. A new American, fun dance style that entails writing letters and numbers with your feet. It is an especially appropriate dance style for the hearing impaired and those who find it difficult to follow intricate dance moves and choreography.
    • Folk dancing. There are many different styles to choose from and all are energetic, fun and sociable forms of exercise.

The above-mentioned are but a few of the dance style fitness options open to you today. New forms of dance as exercise are evolving all the time. The physical, mental and spiritual benefits are obvious and well documented. All that is left to do is to choose a style of dance that suits you. Go for it and experience what famous dancer, Martha Graham, called “a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening translated through you into action”!

 

Sources
Dance for fitness. 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/getting-started-guides/Pages/getting-started-dancing.aspx
Dance quotes. Retrieved from: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/dance
4 Exercise benefits of ballroom dancing with a partner. Retrieved from: http://www.fitday.com/fitness articles
Hitti, M. 2013. Dancing your way to better health: ballroom dancing may help mind, body and spirit. Retrieved from: http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/dancing-your-way-to-better-health
Williams, L. 2013. Trending now: fitness dance classes worth trying. Retrieved from: http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/994081/trending-now-fitness-dance-classes-worth-trying