30 Jul Why We Need to Dance
Like water and food, dance is a natural human need. When faced with great joy, we feel the need to jump up and down, clap our hands and dance for joy! When faced with great misfortune, we seem to make other movements – we clasp our heads with both hands, fall to our knees, and kick, punch or scream.
But the movements we feel the need to do are just as varied as the range of our emotions we feel – which explains why there are just so many different kinds of dance! There are romantic dances, festive dances, traditional military dances as well as religious dances! If we never dance, the result is similar to not having enough food or water – our bodies and soul wither.
Dance & Babies
Even before being able to stand up or walk, when babies hear music, they dance! They shake their heads and bend their knees in rhythm to the sounds they hear. No one needs to show them how to dance – just as no one needs to teach them how to cry or suck on a bottle. Before the age of one, dance has already been written in their little hearts.
Dance & Co-Existence
Today, when we dislike someone, it is usually possible to avoid them. However, in traditional tribes and villages, this was not as simple – as the prospect of leaving was never an option. And so, it was essential to find a way to endure, live together and reconcile after the inevitable conflicts. Otherwise, the entire community would be threatened as each individual held a vital role. And so, tribal and village dances played a central role in community life and were practiced during all occasions. Dancing in the middle of a group of people, even when not knowing them, creates a sense of union. It is usually during these moments when one feels a desire to put an end to conflicts and vain disputes. Dance, through the ages, has been an essential and vital role to enable human communities to endure.
Dance & Love
Is it really necessary to dwell on this point? Prelude love dances arouse and express love. They also maintain it. Nothing is more exciting than an elderly couple, united in decades, dancing tenderly entwined, despite the years, tests and storms they have endured. There is another dimension to this that is expressed in other courtship dances including pole, striptease as well as belly dancing!
Dances & Rituals
One of the greatest wonders of dance is its ability to absorb us completely. After all, dance has been central to voodoo and magic rites since time immemorial. Dance allows us to ‘get out of our minds’, and in the language of modern psychology enables us to express the unsaid that we seem suppress. Dance ultimately helps in ‘letting go’ – as long as we are able to overcome our initial reluctance!
Dance & Well-Being
Dance is extremely demanding on the body; it requires strength, coordination, accuracy and balance, but also flexibility and grace. It activates all the muscles, exercises the heart and stimulates psychomotor skills. Dancing regularly, to old age, is a great way to maintain good physical shape. From a medical standpoint, it helps prevent Parkinson’s disease as well as Alzheimer’s and is particularly effective against diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Let’s also not forget that is a powerful anti-depressant!
So to conclude this blog post, we suggest you to partake in a little dance today, if you haven’t already!