by Natasha Maltseva on 12/19/14
For many people, the New Year is about starting fresh with new beginnings and resolutions. Many people include health and fitness goals as a part of their N ew Year resolutions. Well, what a better way to get fit and healthy in the New Year than a dance class? Dance is not only a great way to get some exercise, but it is a fun social outlet, as well.
The greater Seattle area has many dance clubs to offer opportunities to practice and show off your new dance skills in style. Quite a few cater specifically to salsa and ballroom dance.
The place to start before you strut your stuff in public is in a quality dance class with instructors who not only know what they are doing, but also how to help you bring out your own personal style and pizzazz in your dance.
Beyond the great exercise benefits, there are many more reasons to include a dance class in your New Year:
- Boost your brainpower: A 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that dance out ranked all other forms of physical exercise when it comes to improving mental acuity. Learning and focusing on the new steps and keeping time to the music all challenge our brains in fabulous ways.
- Strengthen your social life: Even if you don’t have a partner for a dance class, most classes rotate partners and provide a great opportunity to meet a wide variety of people in one evening and social connections are fostered.
- Muster your mood: As with all forms of exercise, mood enhancing chemicals are released into your body after dancing, but dancing improves mood more than other forms of exercise.
- Bolster your balance: Dance challenges and preserves motor skills and perceptual abilities; both of which are necessary for good balance
- Shore up your skeleton: The National Osteoporosis Foundation states that dance helps build good bones due to the weight bearing nature of the activity.
If all the scientific and health reasons aren’t convincing enough for you, just remember how good it feels to move your body to the music and that is all the reason you need to get off the couch this winter and DANCE your way into the New Year.
