Dancing makes you smarter? Really? Apparently it does!

According to a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine the magic of dance doesn’t only keep you physically in shape but also gets your brain cells going…

Stay smart

The study particularly focused on the effects of recreational activities on mental acuity when we get older and – surprise – the only physical activity which offered protection against dementia was frequent dancing.

Other activities studied by the team were six cognitive activities (reading books or newspapers, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, playing board games or cards, participating in organized group discussions, and playing musical instruments) as well as 11 physical activities, such as playing tennis or golf, swimming, bicycling, dancing, participating in group exercises, playing team games such as bowling, walking for exercise, climbing more than two flights of stairs, doing housework, and babysitting.

Surprisingly the study’s results showed that although the physical activities can have cardiovascular benefits almost none of them seemed to protect the human brain against dementia. However, the only exception was frequent dancing which scored a whopping 76% of risk reduction.

Dancing creates new neural paths

Study member Dr. Joseph Coyle explains: “The cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are critical to these activities, are remarkably plastic, and they rewire themselves based upon their use.” That means that human brains continuously rewire neural pathways when needed. And if it doesn’t need to it won’t.

In order to continuously create new neural paths we need to let go of old routines that we repeat over and over again and instead motivate our brain to create new cells and parallel process information.

Dancing requires the participants to make conscious and unconscious rapid-fire decisions and thus integrates different brain functions at once: rational, emotional, kinesthetic and musical decisions.

Lead and follow – learn both?

Your brain will experience an even bigger challenge if you decide to learn both how to lead and how to follow in partner dancing. The decisions a follower has to make are not merely passive but, quite the contrary, very active.

The follower has to interpret the leader’s signals within a split-second and act accordingly. It requires a highly active attention to all kinds of possibilities.

A good leader, in turn, will pay close attention to his/her follower, be able to assess the follower’s level (especially when they dance together for the first time). The leader will adapt his/her dancing according to this assessment and so also has to make rapid-fire split-second decisions.

Most-wanted leader

Pretty much every follower at least once has experienced a situation where a leader tries to show off his fancy moves on the dance floor. Totally oblivious to the follower’s abilities the leader leaves the follower gasping for air and with the only thought possible: “Please let me stay on my feet and not slip.” Not an enjoyable situation.

A good leader adjusts to the situation and makes his partner feel good which will the followers have lining up to dance with him/her as the evening progresses (word-of-mouth spreads fast – not only in dancing 😉

Join us and learn dancing or improve your skills at Ubud Studio

If you want to stay fit and healthy, enjoy meeting new people and have fun in a relaxed environment please come and join us at Ubud Studio!

We offer lots of different kinds of Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba and Zouk classes, workshops and hold special events. All levels are welcome. Whether you have never danced before or want to expand your knowledge please drop-in, send us a message and join us for social dancing!

Please click here for our current schedule.

See you soon 🙂