The Health Benefits Of Dancing Go Beyond Exercise And Stress Reducer

A report from NPR begins with th question: What are the health implications of dancing? New social science research shows that dancing in synchrony with others increases people’s threshold for dealing with pain.

Psychology researchers at the University of Oxford recently published a study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. They brought volunteers into a lab and taught them different dance moves. They then placed the volunteers in groups of four on the dance floor and put headphones on them so they could hear music.

Some of them were taught the same dance moves, and others were taught different dance moves. Before and after the volunteers danced to music, the researchers measured their pain threshold by squeezing their arms…

Now, many of us already know that or have experienced the various benefits of group dance, particularly the kind we do at our camps, but here’s some details.  Listen to the story…