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THE amazing health benefits of dancing. This week: Body confidence

IF YOU want to feel better about your body, try belly dancing, according to researchers from Flinders University in Australia.

They recruited 112 belly dancers from two dance schools in Adelaide, along with 101 women who had never done the activity before.

The participants filled in questionnaires in which they rated their bodies and how they felt other people viewed them.

The researchers found that belly dancers were less likely to be dissatisfied with how they look. Marika Tiggemann, a psychology professor who led the study, which was published in the journal Sex Roles in 2014, said: ‘They tend to focus less on their external appearance, and more on the experience and what they are able to do with their bodies.’