Freely moving your body to music can bring you healing, community, and tension relief.
Exercise has long been promoted for its positive influence on mental health. It’s been shown to improve depression and anxiety symptoms, enhance overall mood, and boost sleep quality — the latter of which has a positive influence on physical and mental well-being.
And a sweeping review published this February found that one type of physical activity may be particularly beneficial: dance. The meta-analysis of 218 studies, published in BMJ, showed that dance appears to be a promising treatment for depression, with larger effects than other movement methods such as walking, jogging, yoga, and strength training.
Dance has also been found to relieve physical tension, anxiety, and aggression while increasing pleasure, fun, and impulsiveness, according to a 2022 review. And in a small study conducted on female survivors of intimate partner violence, participants’ PTSD and psychological distress symptoms lessened after attending a 12-session virtual creative dance/movement program. The survivors also experienced improved affect and reduced tension and found new ways to express themselves through the program, according to the study authors.
That’s not to say dance is the only worthwhile form of exercise. (The BMJ authors did state that certain limitations — including a small number of studies, low number of participants, and biases in the study designs — prevented them from more strongly recommending dance for mental health.) But to anyone who has ever answered the call to “get up on the dance floor,” the potential benefits aren’t surprising.
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Your mental and emotional health will be affected by how you feel in your body. Unlocking your hips and shoulders and moving fluidly as you dance keeps those joints lubed up, so your lower back and knees don’t try to compensate for a lack of mobility, potentially causing discomfort. When you’re not in pain, you’re more likely to be in good spirits.
Beyond mobility-enhancing movement, dance is a form of art. You’ll not only see a boost in feel-good endorphins from moving your body, but you’ll also reap the benefits of expressing yourself freely and with vulnerability. Because it happens in real-time, there is a feeling of immediacy and presence, fostering a deeper connection with the flow of life. Think of Madonna, who started her career as a dancer. The message she champions throughout decades of lyrics — in “Everybody,” “Vogue,” “Music,” and other hits — is essentially: Get up from your seat and come to the dance floor, where you will find freedom and a new outlook on life. To her, it can be as simple as moving your body and letting the music take control.
This call to action is rooted in the idea that dance is primal. It’s one of the oldest forms of intentional movement and has been a staple of every culture throughout time. You can tell how hard-wired it is when you see a child dancing at a wedding or a stranger spontaneously grooving to the song playing at the grocery store. Dance goes beyond checking all the boxes for physical health; it taps into something that’s fundamental to who we are as humans.
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What’s more, dance can be social, enabling you to connect with others in ways that don’t involve words, or a solo experience that allows you to further connect with yourself. Regardless of who else is in the room — if anyone at all — it can be joyful and healing.
The best advice: Don’t overthink your moves and draw inspiration from real life. There are plenty of everyday moments in which you’re dancing without even knowing it. Think about when you’re shuffling across a crosswalk, with a car waiting for you to get to the other side. You might performatively pick up your legs a bit more and swing your arms faster to show that you’re hurrying across the street, but you may not actually move any quicker. That’s dance. It’s the same as when your path nearly intersects with someone else’s on the sidewalk, and you both keep stepping out to the same side in an attempt to avoid a collision.
At its core, dance is simply expression through the body. So shed any notion that your movement needs to look a certain way. Let your body go with the flow, feel the beat, and get into the groove.
Michael Gervais is a yoga teacher, dancer, and the creator of Equinox’s Headstrong Meditation. He currently serves as a Senior Director of Group Fitness Programming in NYC. His work in yoga, mindfulness, and movement has been featured in Goop, Furthermore, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, PopSugar, CFDA, Men’s Health, and Forbes. The driving motivation behind all of Michael’s work is the simple idea that when more of us are present in breath and body, the world becomes a better place.