From ballet and ballroom to salsa, dancing is good for your body and soul. Amy Vickers and Rachel Baird report.
If a drug company claimed to have developed a single pill which would help people lose weight, keep fit, resist dementia and get happy, then everyone would assume it was lying. Yet dancing offers all these benefits and more, as anyone who dances regularly will tell you. And there's a growing amount of evidence to show it.
Earlier this month, a new study revealed that energetic dancing such as salsa and rock 'n' roll is almost as good for heart patients as pedalling on an exercise bike.
The patients took a daily, half-hour class of either dance or exercise biking. After a month, the dancers had improved their heart health and exercise capacity by 28 per cent and the cyclists by 31 per cent.
"You should be dancing for the rhythm of your heart, " said Dr Hermes Ilarraza, of the National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico City, who revealed the findings.
"It's an attractive option for many and a good incentive to exercise. "Ballroom dancing has the added benefit of being fun and social."
Another study, of schoolchildren in Hampshire, found that regular dancing made them fitter and happier with themselves.
Emma Redding, a dance science expert at the Laban dance centre in South East London, where the research was done, says: "Scientifically, after a 10-week creative dance programme they got fitter in terms of their cardiovascular health and their self-esteem was improving, too."
Salsa is being studied at the University of Derby, where researchers are seeking volunteers to help investigate whether it helps with depression.
Matt Birks, a senior lecturer in mental health, is a keen salsa dancer himself.
He says: "It's been documented that exercise can help mental health sufferers in their fight against depression. With the physical benefits of salsa, together with the social interaction and the need for full concentration during a session, I believe salsa dancing could have health benefits for depressed patients."
June Davison, cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, says that like other forms of exercise, dancing has many health benefits, if you do it vigorously and often enough.
"Dancing is particularly great because it's obviously enjoyable and sociable as well, " she says.
The health benefits of regular dancing include slashing your risk of a heart attack, reducing your blood pressure, improving your cholesterol levels, reducing your risk of diabetes and controlling your weight.
"If dancing is done as part of your regular physical activity, which needs to be moderately intense, for 30 minutes a day, five times a week, then you will get those benefits, " she says.
For dancing to count as moderately intense, "you need to be breathless, you need to feel y our heart beating and you need to be slightly sweaty, " she explains.
Dancing will also help you to lose weight because it burns calories and is a fun form of exercise, so you will want to keep doing it. The number of calories you use will depend on how energetically you're moving, how long you dance for and your body weight.
Some dance styles will also give you stronger, more flexible muscles. In ballet, contemporary and jazz dance classes, for example, there are lots of stretching and strengthening exercises to do before you get to actual dance sequences.
Whatever type of class you choose, you can also expect to become better co-ordinated and aware of your body, which in turn should help with your balance.
Your brain will benefit, too, because learning new movements and sequences forces the brain to adapt; experts recommend learning new skills such as dancing as one of the ways to stave off memory problems and dementia.
Social activity is also good for maintaining brain health, which is good news if you like more sociable styles such as ballroom, ceroc (a mix of jive and salsa), salsa and line dancing.
Exercise, including dancing, helps some people who are depressed and can make you feel brighter even if you are perfectly comfortable with your life.
Dance science expert Emma Redding says: "In some ways, dance has the same effect as other physical activity because it releases the same endorphins, or feel good chemicals."
Learning to dance can also help you to reduce anxiety and promote a feeling of relaxation. When you are concentrating hard on mastering a new step or thinking about what comes next in a sequence, you don't have room in your head to be worrying about your problems.
Don't worry if you've never danced before. There are many classes for complete beginners, where you can master the basic steps before you move onto more complex moves and dance sequences. To find local venues where you can do dance classes, inquire about what's available at your local leisure centre. Some pubs and clubs offer dance classes, too. There's also a lot of information on the internet to help you find classes in your area.
Peter Davies, 28, a communications manager from Cheshire.
My wife and I have always liked to keep fit and healthy and used to go swimming, running and to the gym together every week. Although this was good for the body, it wasn't particularly stimulating for our minds or social lives.
We wanted to try something new that we'd both enjoy and which would introduce us to new people and keep us in shape. We discovered ballroom dancing. Rebecca was really up for it but I was apprehensive at first because I thought that it was too old for me and difficult to pick up. I was completely wrong. There was a whole range of young and old people at the class and the music was more upbeat than I expected.
We do the waltz, tango and foxtrot, and I'm becoming quite a fan of salsa.
It's surprising how energetic a class is and how much of a workout it gives the whole body. It really feels like you've had a good workout and after a 90-minute session, my leg muscles ache.
We've been going about twice a week now for about two years and have met some great people.
Rachel Baird has been a student from Maria since 2004.
Rachel Baird, 34, Daily Express health journalist from Clapham, South London.
I love my weekly salsa lessons. They are fun, they are sociable, they give my brain, heart and lungs a reasonable workout and they make me feel happy.
My brain might seem like an unlikely beneficiary but learning steps and remembering to do them in the correct sequence forces the brain to adapt to dealing with new information and tasks. That, say the experts, is a good way to keep your brain sharp ? you either use it or lose it.
The knowledge that I can learn moves that once looked impossible has also helped to increase my self-confidence.
Salsa must be good for my heart and lungs, too, because the sequences can be fast and furious, and often leave me a little breathless.
Best of all, I always walk out of the class feeling happier and more energetic than when I went in.
Lisa Howells, 34, a freelance journalist, lives in Streatham Hill, South London.
I've been line dancing every week for two and a half years. The class usually involves about 35 people, from twentysomethings to people over 50, singles and married couples.
It is a great mental workout as some of the dances can have 60 or more steps to learn and there are literally hundreds of dances, with new ones being invented all the time. It's also a very effective de-stresser ? remembering the moves means that you cannot spend the evening worrying about the stresses and strains in the rest of your life.
Physically, it can be incredibly challenging ? no matter how fit you are, you sweat buckets. Your heart rate increases during the fast dances and the various kicks, hitches, turns and dips work all the muscles in your lower half, particularly the thighs, calves and bottom, all of which have toned up since I began. It also boosts my levels of feel good chemicals ?
it's impossible to come out of there in a bad mood. As it is hosted in a pub, you get the extra benefit of it being sociable and you can combine it with the antioxidant benefits of a glass of red wine. I also used to pole dance, which was very physical and gave me more body confidence and a leaner all-over physique. My arm muscles became very defined, I toned my thighs and core muscles and I built a lot of upper body strength.
5 Rhythms frees my spirit ,Amy Vickers, 34, Daily Express health journalist who lives in Bermondsey, South London.
For years, I was a dance phobic, unless I had a drink inside me. But then I came across a dance which finally put all my inhibitions about dancing in public to rest.
5 Rhythms, a kind of movement meditation, is becoming increasingly popular across the UK. It's a barefoot dance to everyday music, where the teacher guides you through five different dance rhythms: flowing (gentle motion), staccato (increasing the pulse rate), chaos (starting to sweat), lyrical (luxuriating in it) and stillness (arriving at relaxation). A typical class lasts around two hours. There are no steps to learn, no wrong or right ways to dance ? it's all about letting your spirit move freely, and enjoying the connection with other dancers. It leaves you feeling full of energy and vitality and much more in tune with your body and your feelings.
It's actually quite therapeutic. I recently went on a week-long 5Rhythms holiday where we danced for three hours every morning. It left me emotionally drained but feeling more alive than ever. Aside from being a great form of physical exercise, it is an excellent stress release, helps my balance and really opens up my heart and lungs.
Belly DANCING KEEPS ME FIT, ELI APPLEBY, 25, an engineer, lives in Lambeth, South London .
I Love belly dancing because it's a great form of exercise and lots of fun. I started doing classes at university about two years ago and found it kept me fit and toned, so I now go to a class once a week, for an hour-and-a-half. It tones my legs, bum and waist, and it's much more fun than going to the gym. It's also pretty good for the arms because you're using them for veil work and snake arms. My arms really ache after a session. I also find it's great for burning calories, for flexibility and for improving posture. I like doing something different. I do have a gym membership but I prefer not to use it. It's really quite popular now ? there is such a range of women who do the same class as me, from teenage girls to ladies in their 60s, and there's all sorts of abilities. Even if you can't do all the moves, there's always something you can do.
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