Dance Fever
If you’ve been caught practicing a twirl around the living room during a commercial break, chances are you’re enchanted by the latest crop of hit dance shows burning up the small screen. Competitive dance programs like Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance have got audiences hooked on dancing as entertainment, and many viewers are deciding to try it themselves.
Shall We Dance?
Inexpensive beginning level classes are easy to find. Check out community centres, recreation halls, the YMCA, and church halls. DanceSport BC— www.dancesportbc.com is a great place to start learning about ballroom.
In Victoria
Victoria Ballroom Dance Society: www.vbds.org
Victoria Dance Connection: www.victoriadanceconnection.com
In Vancouver
Crystal Ballroom: crystalballroom1.tripod.com/home
Harbour Dance Centre: www.harbourdance.com
Common Dance styles
Partner or group dance:
- Ballroom (including the waltz, foxtrot, tango, quickstep, and many more)
- Salsa and Latin
- Swing (also known as jive)
- Line and square dance
- Regional or “Country” dancing (such as Ukrainian, Scottish, Irish, etc.)
Individual dance:
- Ballet
- Jazz
- Tap
- Modern
- Bellydance
- Hip-hop and breakdance
- Burlesque or “Pussycat Dolls” style
It’s easy to see why: dance looks challenging, but it also looks like a heck of a lot of fun. And the workout is undeniable, as the formerly flabby celebs of Dancing with the Stars can attest; with each sweaty week of practice, they’re soon transformed into lithe and limber dancing machines.
The physical benefits of dance cover all the fitness bases: cardio stamina and endurance, toned muscles, better posture and flexibility, core stability, balance, agility—there’s a reason competitive ballroom dance is known as “DanceSport.” Those dips, turns and lifts would challenge even a serious athlete, but luckily, introductory-level dancing is gentle and safe enough for every fitness level and age.
Speaking of age, some preliminary research suggests that dancing can even help stave off the onset of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s. A 21-year study on dementia and Alzheimer’s, conducted by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the only physical activity that helped slow the onset of these diseases was ballroom dancing. Critics of such studies say that more research is needed to prove a positive link, but since dancing also offers clear mood-elevating and relationship-building benefits with your workout, it certainly can’t hurt to add it to a fitness regimen. And it’s easy to get started: classes are everywhere, and all you need are two feet—even if they’re both left ones.
Consistency is key. Here too, dance delivers, with new styles to try, constant opportunities to improve and a workout that’s so fun that it doesn’t feel like work. An hour or two of instruction and practice can fly by—you’re so busy remembering steps and enjoying the music that you don’t count the minutes or the calories burned. Try getting that from a treadmill.
