Let me be clear, I love a bit of yoga or meditation and I am even a frequent Hot Yoga attendee, but neither activity has ever allowed me to succeed in banishing all the niggling, anxious thoughts from my mind. Whether it be the minor “what to have for dinner” type-thought, to ruminating on whether someone hates me based on a message containing a single, indelicate full stop. As a naturally anxious person, I find quietening the buzzing mind as difficult as swatting all the flies in a pig-farm.

But dancing banishes those pesky flies like nothing else. It allows me the self-confidence and full creative freedom to just be myself, and not think about what anyone else thinks.

I am a Ballroom & Latin dancer by trade (think Strictly). The main reason is that being swept around the dance floor, tuning into every small change in a dance partner’s bodyweight/lead and reacting to that change - it’s truly magical. Leading and following a dance with a partner is the ultimate mindfulness in my opinion.

“Firstly, and most obviously, dance is a form of physical exercise and therefore, is the sneaky way to get your body moving without having to drag yourself to the gym. ”

Make no mistake, dance is not a magic potion; and there are some dance classes out there that can do more harm to your mental health than good (trust me, I’ve been to those too!) but there are so many proven positives to engaging in dance as an activity - from the physical benefits to the impact on our mental and or/emotional health - that you will always be onto a winner if you invest your time into a dance class that has a proven track record of uplifting, inclusive classes.

Firstly, and most obviously, dance is a form of physical exercise and therefore, is the sneaky way to get your body moving without having to drag yourself to the gym. Ballroom and Latin dance is a sport - in fact, in most western countries other than the UK, Ballroom & Latin dance is referred to as ‘dancesport’ and one of the major governing bodies for Ballroom and Latin dance competitions is the World DanceSport Federation (the “WDSF”).

Dance is a form of cardio training but also one of the best ways to tone and sculpt muscle. Anyone who has ever tried to dance the Jive cannot deny that it gets you sweating, and to keep going for more than one song requires STAMINA. Learning to dance also helps improve balance, coordination, flexibility, alignment and posture.

Secondly, research shows that dance is one of the best ways to optimise your brain health and reduce aging of the brain. Dance promotes plasticity in the brain and the consistent act of learning new choreography activates multiple brain regions, boosting memory.

Scientific research into the effect of leisure activities on cognitive deterioration amongst older adults, suggests that dance is the only form of physical activity to reduce the risk of dementia (when compared to other forms of physical activity studied in this research: walking, swimming, cycling, playing team games, doing housework, babysitting, participating in group exercise, climbing stairs…). So, dance is not just about the short-term gains of a bikini bod for the summer, it has an impact on our long-term cognitive health as well.

“On more than one occasion, dance has pulled me out of a pit of despair by giving me the leg-up of endorphins+serotonin+dopamine that I need to climb up the first rung of the ladder. ”

Thirdly, dance has a proven positive effect on our mental health. On more than one occasion, dance has pulled me out of a pit of despair by giving me the leg-up of endorphins+serotonin+dopamine that I need to climb up the first rung of the ladder. Ballroom and Latin dance is especially strong in this respect because the act of dancing with somebody else can increase social connections and the feeling of being part of a team/community, reduce loneliness, and nourish existing relationships by providing new shared experiences.

An evening of dancing also generally reduces screen time (let’s face it, you would probably be watching TV or scrolling otherwise), forcing you to look up and out at how beautiful and amazing the world can be. A 2024 study suggests that dance has the largest effect on depression symptoms of any treatment (including SSRIs). As someone who takes both prescriptions, I can confirm that the two in combination have helped me get to a much healthier, happy place.

Partly because of the above, I set up my own dance school - Foxtrot Oscar Dance - where we focus on the sheer joy of dance without all the pressures that traditionally come with the dance world to “look good”. Kill two New Year resolutions with one stone, and join us every week on a Monday or Thursday evening in central London for both some exercise and mindfulness.

Foxtrot Oscar is a London-based Ballroom and Latin American Dance collective, which aims to deconstruct the gender stereotypes that partner-style dancing is based on and has developed from. They aim to provide a safe and inclusive space for practising this art form, and an environment conducive to making new friends, particularly among young professionals in the capital.

You can get 10% off Foxtrot Oscar’s Thursday evening classes with the Friends Pass.

This article is part of our Wellness Budget campaign, sharing different ways that the City Girl Network audience can spend their money, time and energy on improving their health and wellbeing.

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