Dance around the world

Is it only yesterday that Talia http://taliamana.blogspot.com  stirred me to be more proactive with my blog? 

Talia invited me to write a dance related item for her blog and suggested I write my list of 20 reasons why dancing is good for your well-being, obviously a relevant topic for her Centre for Emotional Well-Being site.  Preparing the list took no time at all, but then through our subsequent discussion,  Talia suggested that every few days I could add more detailed information on each of the stated reasons. So here's the list of 20 reasons followed by more detail on the first one.  They are all purposefully written from a guy's perspective and some, but not all will be applicable to women too.  Who knows where this will go, but let's have some fun along the way. 

Emotional

1. Endorphins give a natural high

    

2. Forget life’s pressures for a moment or longer 

    

3. Feel gracious as you bow to your partner and escort her off the floor

    

4. Catch the rhythm of different music styles.  Know your tango from your rhumba

    

5. Dance in your head and in your heart when it’s not possible to dance on the floor

    

6. It feels good when a woman asks you to dance.

    

7. Novice dancers melt in your arms as you gently but firmly lead

    

8. Feels three times better than it looks

    

9. Physical contact without getting your face slapped

    

10. Improved posture

     

11. Burns calories

     

12. Tightens leg and thigh muscles

     

13. Creates new patterns in the brain and reduces risk of Alzheimer’s

     

14. You drink plenty of water

     

15. Lifelong learning? Learn to dance. No-one lives long enough to learn them all

     

16. Dance is an international language that you can speak anywhere.

     

17. As a competent pilot and navigator, you engender trust in your partner.

     

18. Thinking about and recognizing the rhythm is a prerequisite to ‘feeling’ it.

     

19. Those smiles of appreciation from a dance partner get embedded in memory

     

20. Everything in the world is connected.  Dancing builds connections.

     

21. From East to West, dance is a spiritual expression

     

1st of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being
Endorphins give a natural high
I used to get my natural high from jogging.  Jogging used to be a time for inspiration and reflection and after 30 mins or so, the endorphins would kick in and I felt I could keep jogging at the same pace indefinitely.  When my knees started whispering to me that they did not like to jog so much, I did listen and now dance instead.  The best dances for me are when my dance partner and I get into the flow of the dance and we glide around the floor.  When this happens the endorphins kick in much more quickly than when I used to jog and the natural high is tangible.  My knees appreciate the difference and have stopped nagging.

Loui Tucker confirms that dance increases the production and release of endorphins.
http://www.louitucker.com/dance/DanceAsTherapy.htm

A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
             --Angela Monet (also attributed to Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche)

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