Ballroom Dancing

Ballroom Dancing By Jan Pirnat

Every culture has its signature form of music and dance. There are so many forms and types of dance from African dance to Zumba and everything else in between. A 21-year study of senior citizens, 75 and older, was conducted by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, funded by the National Institute on Aging and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported that, dancing integrates several brain functions at once — kinesthetic, rational, musical, and emotional — further increasing your neural connectivity. So dancing to music keeps your body and brain healthy and active.

According to the study, the attributes that dance serves are: • Reduces stress and depression. • Increases energy and serotonin. • Improves flexibility, strength, balance, and endurance. • Strengthens bones and boosts cardiovascular health. • Increases mental capacity by ` exercising cognitive processes. • Creates new neural paths by dynamic and rapid-fire decision making.

Music and dance go together like a horse and carriage. You can’t have one without the other. A little child bouncing up and down to music, or an elderly person sitting in a chair tapping a foot to the rhythm of music is really not a formal type of dance, but it definitely is music being made visible, therefore, it's a dance. My experience in dance started as a child where I would just allow my body to move to the mood of music. In high school, dancing was very awkward since one had to coordinate with a partner of the opposite sex. When I was in college, I experienced folk dance and square dance. When Chuck and I married, we engaged in ballroom dance and ice dance. After moving from the University of Illinois to Florida, our ice dance fell by the wayside, and ballroom dance became sparse since we were engaged in work and raising our family. After the kids were out of the nest, we slowly renewed our interest in ballroom dance. Now we dance and take lessons at least once a week at the Wayne G. Sanborn Activity Center in DeLand.

Ballroom dance dates back to the sixteenth century. It has evolved into what we know today, comprising many different types of dance with many variations of steps. Ballroom dance is used as a social event although it is also used as competition at the bronze, silver and gold levels. Of the many types of ballroom dance, the ones Chuck and I do are waltz, foxtrot, swing, rumba, bolero, cha-cha, country/western two-step and tango. Chuck and I are now working on a tango showcase for Phyllis Dale’s next performing arts program. I am also starting to line dance with the John Knox line dance group.

To further describe the types of dance we do, the waltz is very elegant, the foxtrot is like a walk in the park, the swing is like children

at play, the rumba has the Cuban hip motion, the bolero is a romantic rumba, the cha-cha is staccato, the two-step is done to country/western music and the tango is a love-hate relationship.

Dance goes back to the beginning of history. Even King David "danced before the Lord with all his might.” (2 Samuel 6:14). “Praise him with the timbrel and dance” (Psalm 150:4). So let us celebrate and praise God in the life He gave to us through music and dance.

Fitness Coordinator Talina Hendrickson has started reaching out to residents on whether or not there is interest in ballroom dancing. If there is, there will be classes held in Valencia Landing. Contact Chuck or Jan Pirnat if you have any questions or skills you may want help in improving.