Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes and dance. —Oprah Winfrey
I’m very familiar with forming bad habits, like scrolling social media when feeling tired or anxious. What does it take to form good habits, though, such as dancing more?
Not much, it turns out. Evan Zhou, in The Key to Building a Dance Habit in 2025, describes how dance can benefit our physical and mental health and how starting small helps create an everyday practice. Zhou claims dedicating just 5 minutes a day to dance can reduce stress, boost our mood, and increase confidence, and he shares some simple strategies.
It’s known that regular physical activity promotes neurogenesis, the process of forming new neurons associated with memory and learning, and forming good habits around exercise improves mental health. (Paige Acton, How do habits impact mental health?)
For the month of February, then, I’m committing to at least 5 minutes of dance per day. In lieu of reaching for a device and doom scrolling into oblivion, I’ll frolic freestyle, practice a moon walk or body roll. I’ll report back on how the habit’s going and, if you decide to join me, please drop me a line about your experience.
There’s so much happening right now! See the Seattle Dance Info Calendar for dance listings and here’s to getting hooked on a daily dance habit.
See you on the dance floor. —Sean Donovan