Tag Archives: balance

Chicken Soup When You’re Sick; But the Chicken Dance Is Good Any Time

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According to a study by an Oxford University experimental psychologist group dances and memes like Gangnam Style, the Macarena, and YMCA make us feel good because we are socially connected. Actually, it doesn’t take a lot of research to deduce that people feel good when they do these dances; all you have to do is to see the enthusiasm with which people—especially men—jump up and race to the dance floor to strut their stuff. And apparently the more ridiculous the dance, the better you feel, which accounts for the popularity of the Chicken Dance.

Practice Makes Perfect

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The worlds of competition dancing and social dancing don’t overlap too much. Sometimes the studios where they learn do overlap, though. Wilddancer and wife took many lessons from another Senior Champion, James Kleinrath, at the now-extinct Imperial Ballroom in Redwood City, CA, where we frequently saw Winston and Lily Chow practicing. Their devotion and discipline were admirable, and it paid off when they won a Senior Championship. James told us that to become really good dancers, one needs to enjoy practicing. Perhaps that separates competition dancers from social dancers, because we did not have the time nor the attitude to do that much practice. And we wanted to be able to do a wider range of dances than most competitors can do, enabling us to dance in a wide range of venues to a wide range of music. Plus, the social dance floor is a whole different place, with dancers of all abilities that need to be avoided, while competitors normally can expect other competitors to obey the “rules of the road”.
 

How to Improve Balance: Learn to Dance

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Dance for Balance

Couples usually go dancing for fun. And depending on the tempo of the dance and the length of time they dance, it is also good for fitness. But according to recent research, there is an additional benefit from dancing that doesn’t occur from exercise such as walking or running that produces the same amount of sweat. That benefit is improved balance which, especially for older folks (those same ones that actually know how to do touch dancing), can prevent falls and injuries (sometimes so serious they are hospitalized and die). This benefit comes from the unpredictability of a partner’s actions (similar benefits occur in doubles tennis). Skeptics could point out that the less skillful the dancers, the greater the benefit, while advocates could argue that the more skillful dancers have a lot more alternative moves, so they can surprise their partners in a variety of different ways, providing pleasure both to themselves and to onlookers.

Ice Dancing at the Winter Olympics: More Like Ballroom Dancing Than Ice Skating

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Couples dancing needs a lot more promotion than it usually gets, but right now it may be getting a bunch of free advertising thanks to the growing list of household names sponsoring ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White. According to the Wall Street Journal, their sponsors include Airwave (a Japanese mattress company), AT&T, Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Ralph Lauren, and VISA. “Dancing with the Stars” has apparently boosted interest in ice dancing, and its choreographer Derek Hough helped the couple with their routines.

Who Will Keep Their New Year’s Resolutions to Take Dance Lessons?

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There are a few perennial New Year’s Resolutions that are made, and usually broken. While social dancing, per se, does not appear in most popular top ten resolutions, it likely is a good possibility for at least two of the top ten—getting fit and learning something new. And it should be a particularly good choice because it is a lot less demanding than many of the alternatives.

Any Dancing is Better than No Dancing

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As part of its continued promotional campaign, YouTube did its own “12 Days of Christmas” video, which included a “9 Dancers dancing” verse with two options: Prancercise: A Fitness Workout, and Evolution of [Football] End Zone Dancing. The former was 5 minutes of a slender, fit woman with ankle weights hopping through a park. You can see that this is good exercise.

The latter was two slender, fit guys in football jerseys—actually Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake– hamming it up. Some exercise for those two. But end zone dancing in football gear is done by a tiny fraction of folks, while the vast majority are sitting and watching TV. No exercise here.

Dancing Improves Your Balance and Vice Versa

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The March 12, 2013 Wall Street Journal, reminds us that good balance for surfboarding, like dancing, requires vision inner ear, and proprioception. That balance can be improved by using balance equipment to challenge the proprioception system, and by closing your eyes or nodding your head up and down to make the vestibular system of your inner ear work and adapt.