Health Benefits of Ballroom Dancing by Darryl Davenport
Ballroom Dancing has numerous health benefits. In beginner dance classes in Perth people are having more than just fun, they are also increasing their awareness of their bodies, helping them to stay of their feet, keep active and get more out of life.
Posture: Ballroom Dancing pays particular attention to the dancer’s posture and the use of the diaphragm and core muscles to support the dancer’s correct stance.
Joints: Ballroom Dancers gain an awareness and understanding to the use of joints particularly the lower joints of the balls, ankles, knees and hips to create a rhythmical and controlled movement to music.
Poise: Dancers are aware of the placement of their weight on their feet, back of the foot, middle of the foot, inside edge of the foot or front of the foot for control of movement to music. We are aware as dancers we fall and catch ourselves with every step.
Primary Forces: Gravity, inertia and momentum are all used in Ballroom Dancing with dancers gaining an awareness of how to use these forces in everyday movements. Dancers use gravity and momentum for efficiency of movement.
Body Tone: Important for posture, support and balance to control the dancer’s movement.
Spatial Awareness: Having to navigate the dance floor, awareness with a partner or team of dancers and awareness of the line of movement around the room.
Torsion: The twisting to initiate turning movements and for balance.
Centring: Dancers are aware all movements of the limbs should be generated from their centre or core. This helps to create efficiency of movement and stability.
Centre of Gravity/Grounding: Dancers actively and voluntarily lowering their centre of gravity to create greater grounding and balance.
Push/pull: In our movement dancers gain an awareness of movement created from pushing of the standing leg, supporting the centre of the step and pulling to the new leg. This affects control in movement.
Breath and breathing: Dancers pay particular attention to their breath and the most efficient movements in which to breathe in or out.
Planes of Motion: Dancers have an awareness of the difference plans of motion including Front to Back, Right to Left or Left to Right, Top to Bottom and the axis of these movements. This is important for balance.
Eye Hand Co-ordination: Dancers who participate in New Vogue and Latin American dance styles require good Eye Hand Co-ordination as figures change and require different connections with their partners. This is great training to improve Eye Hand Co-ordination particularly in fast dancers such as Rock n Roll/Jive.
Counter Balance: Couple dancers gain an awareness and understanding of not only their own movement but also that of their partners. This may require partners to counter balance one another to create the movement. Dancers also use counter balance in their own bodies to stay balanced while executing difficult movements or stances.
Isolation: Dancers are aware of using different parts of their body independently. In many moves dancers are required to rotate hips while maintaining a still torso and via versa.
No age limit: Beginners of Ballroom Dance classes can be for anyone at any age who dance together as a couple on the dance floor. It is not like most sports where team are divided in age divisions.
Male and females together: Couple dancing is an opportunity for men and ladies to participate in an activity together. Because dancing is more about skill than strength men and ladies can participate as equals.