A dancing is a type of physical activities which gives people a lot of opportunities not only for improving their bodies, their appearance but also for self-expression, for expression of different feelings, etc. People can meet their psychological needs and solve some of their psychological problems through dancing. While many types of art give people opportunities for self-expression, etc., the art of dances has a lot of advantages which other arts do not have. For example, dances are a combination of listening to music and physical activities. Such combination makes a dancing advantageous for both mental and physical health of an individual.
People enjoy dancing when they are passive observers of other people`s dancing and people also enjoy dancing when they dance themselves. Therefore, dancing can be the type of physical activity or the type of art which gives people aesthetical pleasure. Some people cannot imagine their life without dancing while other individuals cannot imagine that they can dance one day. Some people have an inherent talent to dancing, good kinetic memory, the plasticity of the body, etc., while other individuals find it hard to repeat simple moves and steps, to dance to a certain rhythm, melody, etc..
Nevertheless, dancing is one of the most common ways of self-expression for most of the people. It is hard to find a person who has never enjoyed dancing, who has never felt the inner desire to begin moving one`s body to favorite music composition, etc.. While only some people can become professional dancers, dancing is remaining the universal activity which is common for almost every individual. That is why for this paper, we choose the article which explains how dance art is associated with psychology.
Goldman (2016) discusses in his article results of several types of research on how dances influence social bonding. The author of the article indicates that there are two main hypotheses about why dances may induce the social bonding between people. The first hypothesis is that social bonding is induced due to a synchronization which appears during dances. The second hypothesis is that social bonding increases during dances because of the exertion and release of endorphins.
Goldman reviews the study of Tarr et al. (2015) to answer the question about causes of social bonding during dancing. Researchers who conducted the study asked participants to dance with different level of exertion and with different level of synchronization. Then, researchers compared teenagers (participants) who danced with a high level of exertion and teenagers who danced with a low level of exertion. Also, teenagers who synchronized their dance movements with other people and teenagers who danced without synchronization of their movements with movements of other were compared.
Results of the study proved that both the high level of exertion and the synchronization of own dance movements with movements of one`s dance partners lead to increase of social bonding among people who dance. Dancing the same steps with a partner increased the feeling of closeness between partners regardless the level of exertion. At the same time, the high exertion also increased the feeling of social connectedness regardless whether dance movements were synchronized or not.
Moreover, the study also demonstrated that synchrony and high exertion influence positively pain tolerance of participants. Participants who both danced with a high level of exertion and synchronized their dance steps with steps of their partners had the highest increase of pain tolerance. Authors of the study believe that both increases of pain tolerance and the increase of social bonding emerge due to release of endorphins during dancing. Also, Tarr, one of the authors of the experiment indicates that social bonding, obviously, can be increased not only by mirroring each other during dancing but also by mirroring each other during conversations, sports activities, etc. (Goldman, 2016).
Also, Goldman reviews results of other studies on social bonding and its association with dancing. For example, Goldman discusses the study of Maraz et al. (2015). The study explored motivation of people who dance salsa and ballroom dances. In the study of Maraz et al. (2015), it was found that the opportunity to improve the mood, to increase self-confidence, to socialize, to feel own mastery were the main reasons which motivated females to dance salsa and ballroom dances. Male participants were motivated by similar reasons in their dancing. For both females and males, the opportunity to socialize was the key reason which motivated them to dance.
Other studies on dance therapy also demonstrated impressive results about how dancing can influence mental health and well-being of people. Thus, dancing was proved to help people with Parkinson`s disease. It was shown that dancing helps patients to improve their balance, their movements and to reduce depression. Therefore, we can state that dancing is not only the kind of art, but it is the art which can be the powerful instrument for improving human`s life, mental health, well-being, etc. (Goldman, 2016).
In the article of Goldman (2016), it is demonstrated that dancing is the art which gives people opportunities for active self-expression and for meeting some of their basic needs. This article also explains why dancing are so therapeutic for people how dancing can change a life of an individual. I know real-life examples which only confirm that results of different studies discussed in this article are true.
For example, one of my female friends visited social dance lessons for several years. As she told me, dancing helped her to improve her social skills, to find new friends and even meet the man who became her husband. Also, she told that the dance group where she studied such dances as salsa, zouk, bachata, tango, is a really united group where the warm, friendly relationships prevail. My friend always wondered why members of her dance group have such a warm and friendly relationship with each other. I think that this study explains why the dance group of my friend was so friendly and united.
As we know, social dances include partner dances such as salsa, bachata, kizomba, etc.. As a rule, these dances are highly energetic, rhythmical, therefore they induce the high level of exertion. Also, partners who dance social dances must synchronize their movements, steps. Therefore, social dances induce both high level of exertion and high level of “mirroring”. These features of social dances become the reason why the feeling of connectedness, closeness, and bonding arise between social dance partners.
This article and results of studies discussed in the article are important because it gives the useful information, first of all, for those people which have problems with social interactions, socialization, etc.. Because dancing induces social bonding, shy individuals may train their social skills through dancing. Dancing is the way of non-verbal communication; that is why people who are afraid of talking with other individuals, can use dancing as the “safe” way of the establishment of social bonding.
Knowing about psychological meaning and effect of dancing, dance teachers can increase the cohesion of members of their dance groups. Asking to synchronize movements with movements of other dancers, or asking individuals to dance to fast, rhythmical music, dance teachers can increase the group cohesion, etc.
Generally, this article demonstrates the “therapeutic” potential and power of dancing, especially of those dancing which involve social interactions between partners. The article shows that dances can play the therapeutic role for individuals of different age and for people with different psychological/mental problems. Dancing, as I believe, can help couples to improve their relationships, the quality of their interactions and communication, dancing also can be helpful for people who experience the problem like loneliness, social isolation. Dancing can be helpful even for elderly individuals who have problems with their balance, movements, etc.
References
Goldman, J. G. (May 1, 2016). Why Dancing Leads to Bonding. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-dancing-leads-to-bonding/
Maraz, A., Király, O., Urbán, R., Griffiths, M. D., & Demetrovics, Z. (2015). Why do you dance? Development of the Dance Motivation Inventory (DMI). PloS one, 10(3), e0122866.
Tarr, B., Launay, J., Cohen, E., & Dunbar, R. (2015). Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain threshold and encourage social bonding. Biology letters, 11(10), 20150767.
