- Type
- Collection
- Author
- Barry Clasper (barry@clasper.ca)
- Last Update
- 2023-02-23 18:15:34
- Description
-
We have accumulated a number of informative articles and reports on the health benefits - physical, mental, and social - of dancing. Not all deal specifically with square dancing, but it's not hard to see how their findings apply. The entire collection of media articles is available here.To make finding health-related items easier we have collected a number of them together in this article.
- Dance adds verve to life at any age
- This 2022 article from the Calgary Herald includes some good first person accounts of how dancing benefited them
- Walk, Stretch or Dance? Dancing May Be Best for the Brain
- This 2017 New York Times article is one of three in this collection that discusses a peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers of Aging Neuroscience. The study indicates that dancing seems to have beneficial effects on the aging brain.
- Dancing May Help Fend Off Aging in the Brain
- This 2017 Denver Post article is one of three in this collection that discusses a peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers of Aging Neuroscience. The study indicates that dancing seems to have beneficial effects on the aging brain.
- Dancing May Offset Some Effects of Aging in the Brain
- This 2017 Colorado State University article is one of three in this collection that discusses a peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers of Aging Neuroscience. The study indicates that dancing seems to have beneficial effects on the aging brain.
- Science says dancing with friends is good for your health
- This 2015 article in an Oxford newsletter discusses the health benefits accruing from music and dance (not square dancing in particular, but emphasising dancing in groups).
- Loneliness and social isolation linked to early mortality
- This 2015 article was in Medical News Today. Psychologists from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, discovered in a meta-analysis that loneliness and social isolation better predicted premature death among populations aged less than 65 years, despite older people being more likely to be lonely and having a higher mortality risk overall.
- Dance And The Mind
- Dr. Peter Lovatt, also known as Dr. Dance, is a dance psychologist whose work shows how humans are transformed by movement. In 2012 Dr. Lovatt delivered this 16-minute TEDx Talk, where he describes an experiment involving patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He explains how dance provides social, physical, and cognitive benefits. While not specific to square dancing, it's easy to extrapolate how square dancing would work to confer these benefits.