Dance - Nothing Else Comes Close
- John Lowry
- Apr 30
- 7 min read
Updated: May 11
Tango - The Super Pill.
Tango is good for:
• Cardio Health
• Mental health
• Stress, anxiety, depression
• Posture
• Walking
• Mourning
• Human contact (social and physical)
• Body Mind awareness
• Motor neurone conditions
• Business Change Management
Education & learning
Cardio Health
American Journal of Preventive Medicine - Western Sydney
University and the University of Sydney
A study of 48 thousand healthy people indicated a 46% lower risk of
cardiovascular death in dancers over a decade compared with
infrequent or non-dancers.
Mental Acuity
New England Journal of Medicine study on the effects of physical
and cognitive activity on mental acuity in ageing.
Duration - 21 years
The only physical activity to offer protection against dementia is
frequent dancing. Dance has a much greater effect on warding off
dementia than any cognitive activity.
Risk reduction
• Reading - 35%
• Crosswords - 47%
• Regular dancing - 76%
In addition dance increases serotonin in the brain, reduces stress
and depression and induces feelings of emotional well-being.
Dancers have stronger bones, less falls and less fractures.
Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia
Pinniger / Brown study 2013 (University of new England, ANU,
McGill University (Tango v Meditation)
In this study, tango dance has been shown to produce a broader
range of clinically significant improvements in psychological function
and sleep disturbance than meditation or exercise. Specifically,tango induced clinically relevant decreases in stress, anxiety,
depression, and insomnia, and increases in mindfulness, which
were maintained over time.
Cynthia Quiroga Murcia, Department of Psychology, Campus
Bockenheim, Goethe University , Frankfurt
Tango not only raises mood, but also has a demonstrable impact on
the distribution of stress and sex hormones. The stress hormone
cortisol decreases while dancing, whilst both partners experience
elevated levels testosterone and dopamine.
Motor-neurone Disease - Parkinson’s Disease
Many studies and programs around the world indicate that Tango is
beneficial as a therapy for people with Parkinson’s Disease, assisting
balance and mobility, as well as self worth and social connection.1
Reducing peripheral neuropathy in cancer patients
Dance as a form of therapy - specifically Argentine Tango -- has the
potential to significantly improve balance and reduce falls risk among
cancer patients experiencing peripheral neuropathy, according to new
research conducted by a multidisciplinary research team at The Ohio
State University.
Education & social cohesion
More than 400 studies related to interdisciplinary neuroscience reveal the
hidden value of dance. For instance, we acquire knowledge and develop
cognitively because dance bulks up the brain. Consequently, the brain
that “dances” is changed by it. As neuroscientist Antonio Damasio points
out, “Learning and creating memory are simply the process of chiseling,
modelling, shaping, doing, and redoing our individual brain wiring
diagrams.”
Dance is a language of physical exercise that sparks new brain cells
(neurogenesis) and their connections. These connections are responsible
for acquiring knowledge and thinking. Dancing stimulates the release of
the brain-derived protein neurotropic factor that promotes the growth,
maintenance, and plasticity of neurons necessary for learning and
memory. Plus, dancing makes some neurons nimble so that they readily
wire into the neural network. Neural plasticity is the brain’s remarkable
ability to change through out life. (Judith Lynne Hanna, PhD, is author of
Dancing to Learn: The Brain’s Cognition, Emotion, and Movement).Pierre Dulaine, through the US program “Dancing Classrooms” has
demonstrated improvements in student behaviour and academic
performance in schools that have adopted his programs. This
program was extended to a successful social experiment with Arab
and Jewish children in Israel, reported in the documentary, “Dancing
in Jaffa”.
It is well accepted that the southern European family structure is
beneficial for children. Engaging children in adult social activity
helps children develop mature social behaviours as they move into
adulthood. Dance is a particularly effective way to integrate
generations in mutually enjoyable social activity. We believe that
dance could have a long-term beneficial effect on high-risk social
behaviours.
Change Management
1. Improvise - Tango is based on improvised movement. There are a few
steps that can be combined but there are no standardised procedures.
Leaders learn to harness the power of improvisation and instant
adaptation to new situations. Change leadership becomes much more
effective when leaders learn to improvise.
2. Profit from asymmetry - In Tango there is a clear role distinction
between a leader and follower. It is clear who is setting the direction and
who is performing this. This asymmetry is highly effective in providing
clarity, a visible sense of direction and quick decision-making. However,
this
1 Balance, Body Motion, and Muscle Activity After High-Volume Short- Term Dance-Based
Rehabilitation in Persons With Parkinson Disease: A Pilot Study - McKay, J. Lucas PhD, MSCR; Ting,
Lena H. PhD; Hackney, Madeleine E. PhD ;
Dance therapy for individuals with Parkinson’s disease: improving quality of life - Madeleine E
Hackney Crystal G Bennett.; Dance as Therapy for Individuals with Parkinson Disease Gammon M.
Earhart, PhD, PT; Qld Ballet.
Therapeutic argentine tango dancing for people with mild Parkinson’s disease: a feasibility study
Laura M. Blandy, Winifred A. Beevers, Kerry Fitzmaurice and Meg E. Morris*
College of Science, Health and Engineering, School of Allied Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora,
VIC, Australia (c) John & Cheryl Lowryasymmetry must not to be mistaken with dictatorial leadership or
powerless submission of the follower, it must be based on a trustful and
relationship instead. Note: Direction and Directions are very different. With
direction, the leader is creating opportunity for two people (or a group) to
move together in the same direction.
3. Embrace emotion, protect pride - Tango is a performance of desire,
passion, seduction, despair and the struggle for recognition. It therefore
plays out a vocabulary of emotions, which are commonly unacknowledged
in modern change management concepts. “Change management projects
are emotionally charged – employees are proud of their work and this can
be damaged in the process of altering the way things are done. Tango
dancers protect each other’s pride during a performance by turning
mistakes into deliberate moves. Good leaders should similarly seek to
ensure their employees take pride in what they do, supported to shine, are
pushed to their limit, but not beyond, and that their pride is not hurt in any
upheaval. “ (Ralf Wetzel, Vlerick Business School)
Engage the senses
Tango simultaneously, intensely engages the senses of sight, hearing,
touch and smell. It requires a high level of concentration to listen to and
interpret music and to instantly convert the interpretation into action, via
only sensing movements in the dance partner’s body.
Yin & Yang
Tango combines yin and yang energies from both partners in a constantly
changing physical interaction, a conversation without words, bound in a
mix of music, social interaction and ambience / mood. Tango is often
described as “one body, four legs”.
Meditation / Flow state
Tango is a meditative exercise that requires intense concentration on the
music and your partner.
The key role of the woman is to listen for and respond to subtle
movements of the man’s body movements with a positive response
(question and answer), whilst concentrating on the music.
The key role of the man is to “listen” for the position of the woman and to
present opportunities at exactly the right moment for the woman to move
into space or change direction, whilst concentrating on, interpreting and
translating the music into complimentary movement. He must alsoconnect with other men in the vicinity, carefully navigating the floor in
complete harmony with the other dancers. This wider connection creates
an enormous energy boost in a crowded room, similar to large group
transcendental meditation.
A dancing couple can, very quickly reach a flow state (be in the zone)
once they have the skill to dance without thinking about the “steps”. (See
Conditions for Flow in Tango).
Human touch
“Touch is truly fundamental to human communication, bonding, and
health. It is our primary language of compassion, and a primary means for
spreading compassion”. Dacher Keltner PhD UC, Berkley.
Connection with other people, both physical and social is beneficial for
physical, emotional and mental health. Tango offers very close non-
threatening physical connection during the dance. Tango dancers quickly
adopt the Argentine (and Latin) habit of embracing when they meet. Tango
also provides a safe, healthy, non threatening social atmosphere for
people to gather and socialise in a non-work, low-stress environment.
The Embrace
The embrace is central to the dance of Tango. “We embrace, connecting
our bodies, closing our eyes, mixing our breath, walking every musical
note”. “Tango is a 3 minute romance”. The tango embrace will emphasise
the felt sensations of the embrace, rather than what it looks like for a
(c) John & Cheryl Lowry
detached observer, thus underscoring the importance of experiencing the
dance for fully comprehending it2
.
Decision making (neuroplasticity)
Dance is known to engage more regions of the brain at one time than any
other activity. Tango requires continual, fraction-of-a-second, decisions
from both partners as they respond to one another’s subtle physical cues.
These decisions are random and not predicted, or predictable (like golf or
chess). Because of the random nature of many tiny decisions, the brain
continually forms new neural connections. This aspect of Tango is an aid
in the treatment of certain brain and motor- neurone diseases, particularly
Dementia, Parkinson’s and similar complaints.Creativity
Tango is creative. At its best it is not a collection of rote-learned “figures”
or “steps”. It is created from moment to moment, responding to the music,
your partner and the people around you. As soon as it is created, it is
gone.
Confidence building / skill development / teamwork / people
management
Tango requires a level of skill and confidence. It also requires a sense of
when to act and when to wait. It is an exercise in give and take, question
and answer. That is why we call Tango a silent conversation between two
people. These are life skills that are practiced in a dance.
Confidence, posture, balance and strength are all improved.
Tango requires a person to be centred. Even though a Tango couple are
working intimately together, each one must be personally centred, in full
control of their balance and actions for the dance to work properly.
Balance
Most beginners struggle to walk slowly to music without wobbling. Tango
teaches balance, posture, and core strength. Tango dancers learn to
maintain their centre, stand on one leg at a time and to walk very slowly to
complex musical rhythms. The Tango walk can become part of a person’s
way of walking and holding themselves, efficiently and confidently.
Physical activity
Tango is a low impact physical exercise that brings all the well-
documented benefits of physical exercise.
Caution: Addiction
Tango can be classified as an addiction based on to several psychiatric
guidelines. Although the consequences of this addiction were primarily
positive, many dancers reported experiencing withdrawal symptoms when
they didn’t dance, even including “sadness, feeling uncomfortable and leg
prickling.”
Other general health benefits
Positive Emotions - Think of things that make you feel happier; random
acts of kindness; Positive, supportive relationshipsSense of purpose
Sense of achievement - reaching a goal
Positive Psychology - Martin Seligman http://www.positivepsychology.org
Sensuous and Gendered Embraces: An investigation into Tango Dance
Practices; Mia Jensen, Dance Anthropology.
(c) John & Cheryl Lowry
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