By Melissa Hutsell
Dance your way to better health! This fun, active form of exercise gets your heart rate up, works your core, challenges your body, increases serotonin levels and seriously reduces stress. Whether it’s during a commercial break at home, at a concert, or by enrolling in classes, staying active through dance offers benefits for all ages.
Dance challenges our minds and muscles. Research, including a 21-year long study led by the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, shows it increases cognitive awareness at all ages. Of the activities studied (reading, bicycling, crossword puzzles, golf and dancing), dancing remained the only routine that protected against Dementia. This is because dancing improves mental capabilities by stimulating neural connectivity and integrating several functions (musical, emotional and kinesthetic) simultaneously.
Dee Dee Daniel, owner of Dee Dee’s Dance and Fitness in Lodi, and her clients, are testaments to these many benefits. From babies to aging adults, her students get their bodies moving with a variety of dance genres and experience levels, even including seniors and special needs students. “I have an 85-year-old student who dances to help with her memory,” she says, “And another with Fibromyalgia. Dancing has helped most of her symptoms go away.” Several students with Parkinson’s disease come to her studio to help keep their symptoms at bay. “It’s not about losing weight, it’s about increasing your quality of life.” Dance makes a difference in people lives’ because because they think and move. It improves blood flow, helps arthritis, and improves balance,” among much more.
For this reason, Dee Dee incorporates fitness, such as squats, crunches, and sit-ups, into each session. By beginning with the most basic steps, each student learns at their own pace while gaining endurance. Her beginner classes combine more than 5,000 steps (that’s 500 calories).
Debra Spoulos, owner of Devotion to Motion Dance Studio in Tracy, says she sees the difference dance makes on her students’ confidence, pose and character. “It takes them out of their shell and supports confidence and self love,” says Debra. No matter your experience, Debra says adults of all ages are welcome to participate in the studio’s many classes that range from tap to jazz, hip-hop and ballet, to mommy and me or daddy and me classes- beneficial to both parent and child.
Whatever class you choose, you are guaranteed a good time and a welcoming environment to get your body and mind moving. “Anyone who walks into the studio in a bad mood is uplifted within 10 minutes of dance,” she adds, “And when they preform at recitals, all are on such a dancer high!”
Benefits of dance:
- Improves Memory
- Weight Loss
- Improves Flexibility and Balance
- Reduces Stress Levels & Risk of Depression
- Increases Energy
- Social Interaction
- Elevates Heart Rate
- Increases Circulation
- Increases Muscle Tone
- Improves Cardiovascular System
- Offers a Creative Outlet
Get into the Groove:
Dee Dee’s Dance & Fitness
720 W. Lodi Ave, Lodi
ZumbaDeeDee.com
Devotion to Motion Dance Studio
3602 Mars Ct. #117, Tracy
(209) 833-1844
D2mDance.com