Dance for Life
By Mikee dela Cruz
PUBLISHED: AUGUST 2009

Dancing Off the Calories You want to be nitpicky, sure: How many calories will you exactly burn while dancing? Here's how much, depending on some of the most popular varieties, based on a 150-pound person, per hour: Ballroom dancing 265 cals./hour Swing dancing 235 Ballet 300 Square dancing 280 Salsa dancing 420+ Aerobic dancing 540+ Belly dancing 380 Source: SixWise.com

“JUST HOW MANY calories can I burn when dancing?” said Juancho S.P., 65 – rhetorically, actually, since he was told to pick up “an activity, any activity that may not be as strenuous but will still keep him fit” by his doctor, who was quickly scoffed at.  “If it isn’t THAT strenuous, it’s not really an exercise.”

Juancho S.P. had been seeing his doctor more frequently the last few months – no thanks to “this recurring pain at my chest – if you ask me, it’s nothing, really, just the stress from everything I need to have finished before my retirement,” he says, though “getting checked seemed like a logical idea.” 

Then, he adds: “Especially if your wife bugs you day and night about it.  Making you eat only this and that. Making sure, as she says it, ‘You’d be around for long still.”

It was during these check-ups that he was told to exercise – “As if my daily responsibilities aren’t enough,” he said – to stay fit.  “Lower your risks of coronary heart disease – which the doctor said I could end up having – by decreasing my blood pressure,” Juancho S.P. said. 

Like many, though, dancing never struck Juancho S.P. as a healthy activity.  “Yeah, right.  I didn’t lose weight playing basketball in college some 50 years ago – and he thinks I can lose weight, be fit by dancing?” he said.

This, unfortunately, is a notion shared by many.

According to The Health Benefits of Dancing (SixWise.com), what not many people know is that “if you secretly sashay across your living room when you're home alone or long to cha-cha with your significant other, you're in luck. Not only is dancing an exceptional way to let loose and have fun, but it also provides some terrific benefits for your health.”

A 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in fact, found that dancing can even reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly – with participants over the age of 75 who engaged in reading, dancing and playing musical instruments, and board games once a week had a 7% lower risk of dementia compared to those who did not. Those who engaged in these activities at least 11 days a month had a 63% lower risk.  Interestingly, dancing was the only physical activity out of 11 in the study that was associated with a lower risk of dementia.

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