The Science Behind Dancing

Nightclubs, events and bars are popular amongst British citizens – not only for the booze but also for the social unity everyone experiences whilst listening to music and dancing. Dancing is something that has been in the human experience since the birth of music. Dancing figures can be found in cave paintings, ancient journals and more recent film. The question is why? Why do we dance?

Unlike other animals that have similar social structures we seem to be the only species that dances – aside from Snowball the dancing Parrot (https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/04/01/297686709/the-list-of-animals-who-can-truly-really-dance-is-very-short-who-s-on-it?t=1583936840046) who is the only known non-human ‘dancer’.

According to Dr Peter Lovatt, “You appear to get a much bigger release of endorphins when you dance than during other forms of exercise; it also connects with the emotional centres in the brain.” (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/good-news/seven-seas/why-dancing-feels-good/) Studies taken at the University of York show that dancing improved problem solving capabilities and that “dancing along to music even for five minutes can boost happiness and improve creative-thinking patterns.”

It was also shown to raise peoples heart rate which caused a release of feel-good endorphins and improve spatial awareness. Also, put simply, it allows our body to move freely which is imperative to our body’s health.

Additionally, Ginny Brown of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing says that “Dancing brings people into social space where they can work together on mutual enjoyable activity.”. Dancing brings us close together and gives us an environment to share a mutual pleasure of something beyond the norm, whilst simultaneously helping our bodies move around in a way we might not in our day to day lives.