Dancing is a form ofcardiovascular aerobic exercisethat comes with many health benefits, like building balance and strength, and improving mental and emotional wellness. Depending on your underlying health and current circumstances, you could consider incorporating dancing into your life as a social activity, through an exercise class, or as part of physical therapy for a health condition.
Dancing has been shown to support several health outcomes, including helping with weight loss and improving heart function. These effects can be beneficial for you whether you’re healthy or if you have a medical condition.
1. Better Cognition
Cognition involves thinking skills, such as decision-making, memory, and planning. Dance intervention can improve cognition among older adults.
Cognitive skills require collaboration between different brain regions, so improving one aspect of cognition also helps improve other aspects.
Parkinson’s DiseaseDance has been used as a type of therapy for people who haveParkinson’s disease, which is a degenerative movement disorder that causes tremors, stiffness while walking, and slowed movements.
Parkinson’s Disease
Dance has been used as a type of therapy for people who haveParkinson’s disease, which is a degenerative movement disorder that causes tremors, stiffness while walking, and slowed movements.
2. Improves Cardiovascular Health
Dance has also been shown to improve components of cardiovascular health, including loweringblood pressureand loweringblood lipid levels.
Additionally, dance intervention can be useful duringcardiac rehabilitation, and has been shown to help prevent future cardiac symptoms—such as shortness of breath or chest pain.You can gain the benefits with low-impact dance and without exerting yourself to the point of becoming uncomfortable or short of breath.
More importantly, dance is a safe physical activity, even if you have heart disease.Your cardiologist may recommend that you participate in dance therapy under the supervision of a physical therapist or might recommend certain guidelines regarding yourtarget heart rateduring dance exercises.
3. Strengthens Muscles
Over time, consistent dance exercise can help build muscle power and endurance.Dancing uses muscles throughout the body, which helps strengthen them while improving coordination.
Dancing also improves lung function.Better lung function means your body can efficiently take in oxygen—which helps power your muscles.
4. Improves Flexibility, Balance, and Coordination
Falling can cause injuries to your organs, bone fractures, bleeding, and blood clots. Falling can be life-threatening in older adults. Exercise, including dance, is a recommended intervention for preventing falls in those over age 65.Fall preventionis an important aspect of physical therapy and maintaining mobility with aging.
Dancing can improve the following, which can reduce the risk of falling:
Dance has been shown to improve each of these skills, and the combined effect of this improvement is a reduced risk of falling.
5. Helps Maintain Weight
Being overweight or having obesity is a risk factor for several health conditions, including cardiovascular disease (involving the heart and blood vessels) heart disease, vascular disease, stroke, and lung disease. It’s been proven that weight loss can help reduce, or even reverse, the risk of these weight-associated health conditions.
As a cardiovascular exercise that can be done with a low-impact or high-impact approach, dance uses up calories and can help promote weight loss for people who are overweight or have obesity. Research shows that dancing for exercise for at least three months can have a more long-lasting impact on weight loss.
11 Surprising Health Benefits of Zumba
6. Builds Core Strength
Core strength is the strength of your pelvis, abdomen, and chest muscles. Exercises such as sit-ups or push-ups commonly target core strength. Dancing also engages your core and builds strength in core muscles.
Core strength can improve the ability to carry heavy items safely, stability when standing or walking, and cardiovascular health.
7. Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Dancing has been shown to reduce feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety.There are many reasons for these benefits. Dancing as a social activity often helps maintain connections between people, which leads to relaxation.
Music can also promote feelings that can help reduce stress and anxiety. Dancing also promotes the release ofendorphins, chemicals that help promote feel-goodneurotransmitters(chemicals that allow nerves to communicate) and reduce unpleasant emotions.
8. Increases Mood and Happiness
You may instinctively sense that dancing can improve your mood and make you feel happy, and research does show that dancing does have a positive impact on mood.
Dance movements can help improve mood through various methods. Listening to familiar music while rhythmically moving in sync with the music promotes the release of neurotransmitters that stimulate a feeling of happiness. Additionally, the community environment and relaxation that’s associated with dancing often promote a joyful mood.
9. Builds Self Confidence and Social Skills
People who dance either professionally or in an amateur setting experience improvements in confidence and social skills.
The process of practicing and learning the challenging dance steps incorporates a skill set that builds confidence. Working through a dance routine in a class with other people also helps build a bond between the team of dancers.
Even dancing socially in a without the goal of performing can help you build confidence as you feel a sense of achievement in spontaneously being able to dance in front of other people. Dancing with others also builds a connection with other people who are enjoying the same music and who are part of the same social or recreational event.
10. Improves Posture
Medical conditions, such asstrokeorperipheral neuropathy(nerve damage), can impair spatial awareness. Dancing can help maintain spatial awareness for people who are healthy and can also help rebuild spatial awareness for a person who is losing those skills due to a medical condition.
11. Gentle on the Body
Exercise is often promoted for health. However, exercising can be challenging. You might also be worried about getting hurt or overexerting yourself.
Dancing is a safe and gentle exercise for older adults.If you have a health or mobility issue, there are a few things to be aware of when dancing.
Safety considerations include:
With these tips in mind, you can dance safely to improve your overall health and well-being, regardless of your underlying health.
A Word From VerywellConsult a healthcare provider before starting a dance program to determine what level of exertion is right for you. This is especially important if you are recovering from musculoskeletal/orthopedic issues, have chronic and painful conditions in the legs and feet, or have other chronic conditions, such as respiratory or heart issues.A physical therapist can assess your current level of functioning and advise on which movements would be appropriate for you.—THERESA MARKO, DPT, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
A Word From Verywell
Consult a healthcare provider before starting a dance program to determine what level of exertion is right for you. This is especially important if you are recovering from musculoskeletal/orthopedic issues, have chronic and painful conditions in the legs and feet, or have other chronic conditions, such as respiratory or heart issues.A physical therapist can assess your current level of functioning and advise on which movements would be appropriate for you.—THERESA MARKO, DPT, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
Consult a healthcare provider before starting a dance program to determine what level of exertion is right for you. This is especially important if you are recovering from musculoskeletal/orthopedic issues, have chronic and painful conditions in the legs and feet, or have other chronic conditions, such as respiratory or heart issues.A physical therapist can assess your current level of functioning and advise on which movements would be appropriate for you.
Consult a healthcare provider before starting a dance program to determine what level of exertion is right for you. This is especially important if you are recovering from musculoskeletal/orthopedic issues, have chronic and painful conditions in the legs and feet, or have other chronic conditions, such as respiratory or heart issues.
A physical therapist can assess your current level of functioning and advise on which movements would be appropriate for you.
—THERESA MARKO, DPT, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
Benefits for Kids
Dance is a beneficial exercise and activity for children. In many schools, dance is incorporated as part of physical education or music education. Some research studies have noted that teachers observe improved behavior among children when dance is incorporated into the school day.
Dance offers many social advantages, as well as health benefits, for children, including:
Summary
Dancing is a leisure activity, an art form, and a type of exercise. Dance has been shown to have numerous health and social benefits, including improvement of cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, weight loss, and improved coordination and balance. Dancing can also improve mood and reduce depression and anxiety while building social skills.
12 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Tung HH, Kuo CY, Lee PL, et al.Efficacy of digital dance on brain imagery, cognition, and health: randomized controlled trial.J Med Internet Res.2024;26:e57694. doi:10.2196/57694Carapellotti AM, Stevenson R, Doumas M.The efficacy of dance for improving motor impairments, non-motor symptoms, and quality of life in Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS One. 2020;15(8):e0236820. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236820Araneta MR, Tanori D.Benefits of Zumba Fitness® among sedentary adults with components of the metabolic syndrome: a pilot study.J Sports Med Phys Fitness.2015;55(10):1227-33.Kokubo T, Tajima A, Miyazawa A, Maruyama Y.Validity of the low-impact dance for exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program.Phys Ther Res. 2018;21(1):9-15. doi:10.1298/ptr.E9929Wołoszyn N, Brożonowicz J, Grzegorczyk J, et al.The impact of physical exercises with elements of dance movement therapy on anthropometric parameters and physical fitness among functionally limited older nursing home residents.Int J Environ Res Public Health.2023;20(5):3827. doi:10.3390/ijerph20053827US Preventive Services Task Force, Nicholson WK, Silverstein M, et al.Interventions to prevent falls in community-dwelling older adults: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement.JAMA. 2024;332(1):51-57. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.8481Mattle M, Chocano-Bedoya PO, Fischbacher M, et al.Association of dance-based mind-motor activities with falls and physical function among healthy older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(9):e2017688. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.17688Zhang Y, Guo Z, Liu Y, Zhou Y, Jing L.Is dancing an effective intervention for fat loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis of dance interventions on body composition.PLoS One.2024;19(1):e0296089. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296089Koch SC, Riege RFF, Tisborn K, Biondo J, Martin L, Beelmann A.Effects of dance movement therapy and dance on health-related psychological outcomes. a meta-analysis update.Front Psychol.2019;10:1806. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01806Nikolaidou ME, Karfis V, Koutsouba M, Schroll A, Arampatzis A.Postural balance ability and the effect of visual restriction on older dancers and non-dancers.Front Sports Act Living.2021;3:707567. doi:10.3389/fspor.2021.707567Better Health Channel.Dancing—preventing injury.van der Graaf P, Azevedo L, El Zerbi C, Landindome PN, Watson P.Implementing creative dance activities for primary school children to improve health and wellbeing: a qualitative study in the North East England.Perspect Public Health.2024;144(5):304-311. doi:10.1177/17579139241282549
12 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Tung HH, Kuo CY, Lee PL, et al.Efficacy of digital dance on brain imagery, cognition, and health: randomized controlled trial.J Med Internet Res.2024;26:e57694. doi:10.2196/57694Carapellotti AM, Stevenson R, Doumas M.The efficacy of dance for improving motor impairments, non-motor symptoms, and quality of life in Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS One. 2020;15(8):e0236820. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236820Araneta MR, Tanori D.Benefits of Zumba Fitness® among sedentary adults with components of the metabolic syndrome: a pilot study.J Sports Med Phys Fitness.2015;55(10):1227-33.Kokubo T, Tajima A, Miyazawa A, Maruyama Y.Validity of the low-impact dance for exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program.Phys Ther Res. 2018;21(1):9-15. doi:10.1298/ptr.E9929Wołoszyn N, Brożonowicz J, Grzegorczyk J, et al.The impact of physical exercises with elements of dance movement therapy on anthropometric parameters and physical fitness among functionally limited older nursing home residents.Int J Environ Res Public Health.2023;20(5):3827. doi:10.3390/ijerph20053827US Preventive Services Task Force, Nicholson WK, Silverstein M, et al.Interventions to prevent falls in community-dwelling older adults: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement.JAMA. 2024;332(1):51-57. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.8481Mattle M, Chocano-Bedoya PO, Fischbacher M, et al.Association of dance-based mind-motor activities with falls and physical function among healthy older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(9):e2017688. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.17688Zhang Y, Guo Z, Liu Y, Zhou Y, Jing L.Is dancing an effective intervention for fat loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis of dance interventions on body composition.PLoS One.2024;19(1):e0296089. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296089Koch SC, Riege RFF, Tisborn K, Biondo J, Martin L, Beelmann A.Effects of dance movement therapy and dance on health-related psychological outcomes. a meta-analysis update.Front Psychol.2019;10:1806. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01806Nikolaidou ME, Karfis V, Koutsouba M, Schroll A, Arampatzis A.Postural balance ability and the effect of visual restriction on older dancers and non-dancers.Front Sports Act Living.2021;3:707567. doi:10.3389/fspor.2021.707567Better Health Channel.Dancing—preventing injury.van der Graaf P, Azevedo L, El Zerbi C, Landindome PN, Watson P.Implementing creative dance activities for primary school children to improve health and wellbeing: a qualitative study in the North East England.Perspect Public Health.2024;144(5):304-311. doi:10.1177/17579139241282549
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Tung HH, Kuo CY, Lee PL, et al.Efficacy of digital dance on brain imagery, cognition, and health: randomized controlled trial.J Med Internet Res.2024;26:e57694. doi:10.2196/57694Carapellotti AM, Stevenson R, Doumas M.The efficacy of dance for improving motor impairments, non-motor symptoms, and quality of life in Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS One. 2020;15(8):e0236820. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236820Araneta MR, Tanori D.Benefits of Zumba Fitness® among sedentary adults with components of the metabolic syndrome: a pilot study.J Sports Med Phys Fitness.2015;55(10):1227-33.Kokubo T, Tajima A, Miyazawa A, Maruyama Y.Validity of the low-impact dance for exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program.Phys Ther Res. 2018;21(1):9-15. doi:10.1298/ptr.E9929Wołoszyn N, Brożonowicz J, Grzegorczyk J, et al.The impact of physical exercises with elements of dance movement therapy on anthropometric parameters and physical fitness among functionally limited older nursing home residents.Int J Environ Res Public Health.2023;20(5):3827. doi:10.3390/ijerph20053827US Preventive Services Task Force, Nicholson WK, Silverstein M, et al.Interventions to prevent falls in community-dwelling older adults: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement.JAMA. 2024;332(1):51-57. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.8481Mattle M, Chocano-Bedoya PO, Fischbacher M, et al.Association of dance-based mind-motor activities with falls and physical function among healthy older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(9):e2017688. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.17688Zhang Y, Guo Z, Liu Y, Zhou Y, Jing L.Is dancing an effective intervention for fat loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis of dance interventions on body composition.PLoS One.2024;19(1):e0296089. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296089Koch SC, Riege RFF, Tisborn K, Biondo J, Martin L, Beelmann A.Effects of dance movement therapy and dance on health-related psychological outcomes. a meta-analysis update.Front Psychol.2019;10:1806. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01806Nikolaidou ME, Karfis V, Koutsouba M, Schroll A, Arampatzis A.Postural balance ability and the effect of visual restriction on older dancers and non-dancers.Front Sports Act Living.2021;3:707567. doi:10.3389/fspor.2021.707567Better Health Channel.Dancing—preventing injury.van der Graaf P, Azevedo L, El Zerbi C, Landindome PN, Watson P.Implementing creative dance activities for primary school children to improve health and wellbeing: a qualitative study in the North East England.Perspect Public Health.2024;144(5):304-311. doi:10.1177/17579139241282549
Tung HH, Kuo CY, Lee PL, et al.Efficacy of digital dance on brain imagery, cognition, and health: randomized controlled trial.J Med Internet Res.2024;26:e57694. doi:10.2196/57694
Carapellotti AM, Stevenson R, Doumas M.The efficacy of dance for improving motor impairments, non-motor symptoms, and quality of life in Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS One. 2020;15(8):e0236820. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236820
Araneta MR, Tanori D.Benefits of Zumba Fitness® among sedentary adults with components of the metabolic syndrome: a pilot study.J Sports Med Phys Fitness.2015;55(10):1227-33.
Kokubo T, Tajima A, Miyazawa A, Maruyama Y.Validity of the low-impact dance for exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program.Phys Ther Res. 2018;21(1):9-15. doi:10.1298/ptr.E9929
Wołoszyn N, Brożonowicz J, Grzegorczyk J, et al.The impact of physical exercises with elements of dance movement therapy on anthropometric parameters and physical fitness among functionally limited older nursing home residents.Int J Environ Res Public Health.2023;20(5):3827. doi:10.3390/ijerph20053827
US Preventive Services Task Force, Nicholson WK, Silverstein M, et al.Interventions to prevent falls in community-dwelling older adults: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement.JAMA. 2024;332(1):51-57. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.8481
Mattle M, Chocano-Bedoya PO, Fischbacher M, et al.Association of dance-based mind-motor activities with falls and physical function among healthy older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(9):e2017688. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.17688
Zhang Y, Guo Z, Liu Y, Zhou Y, Jing L.Is dancing an effective intervention for fat loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis of dance interventions on body composition.PLoS One.2024;19(1):e0296089. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296089
Koch SC, Riege RFF, Tisborn K, Biondo J, Martin L, Beelmann A.Effects of dance movement therapy and dance on health-related psychological outcomes. a meta-analysis update.Front Psychol.2019;10:1806. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01806
Nikolaidou ME, Karfis V, Koutsouba M, Schroll A, Arampatzis A.Postural balance ability and the effect of visual restriction on older dancers and non-dancers.Front Sports Act Living.2021;3:707567. doi:10.3389/fspor.2021.707567
Better Health Channel.Dancing—preventing injury.
van der Graaf P, Azevedo L, El Zerbi C, Landindome PN, Watson P.Implementing creative dance activities for primary school children to improve health and wellbeing: a qualitative study in the North East England.Perspect Public Health.2024;144(5):304-311. doi:10.1177/17579139241282549
Meet Our Medical Expert Board
Share Feedback
Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?OtherHelpfulReport an ErrorSubmit
Was this page helpful?
Thanks for your feedback!
What is your feedback?OtherHelpfulReport an ErrorSubmit
What is your feedback?
