Boogie benefits

Dance psychologist Dr Peter Lovatt** explains how spins, chassés and samba rolls could aid your wellbeing. You’ll…

1 BOOST YOUR BODY

Blood pumps around your body and your heart rate increases. Dancing also stimulates the opioid system, which can increase peoples’ pain threshold.

2 TRAIN YOUR BRAIN

Dance helps with divergent thinking, allowing you to find solutions to problems that you can’t usually solve. It was also found to reduce dementia risk by 76% – twice as much as reading – in a 21-year-long study.

3 MAKE NEW FRIENDS

Joining a class or club can give you a sense of belonging, which can help defend against loneliness and depression.

4 IMPROVE YOUR MOOD

As you dance, the brain produces the ‘happy hormone’, dopamine.