It’s no secret dancing creates connection, movement, joy, and community for its practitioners. New to me was this study (National Institutes of Health, 16-Aug-2022) concluding ballroom dancing increases our empathy, i.e, “the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation” (Cambridge Dictionary).
By demonstrating how dance can help improve empathic ability, the study surmised dance could be used to aid “people with impaired empathy, such as individuals with schizophrenia or autism spectrum disorder.” And why stop there? How thrilling to imagine dance as part of the solution for the profound lack of empathy on display in our country and many parts of the world today.
Compounding the benefits, yet another study (NIH, 30-Nov-2021) finds “that when moving together with music, higher empathy is associated with increased social bonding and well-being.” Here they cite additional studies which find “music listening and musical interactions can promote empathy.” In summary, listening to music, moving together with music, and practicing ballroom dancing all promote empathy. And that makes sense, as dancers are some of the most caring people I’ve ever met.
See you on the dance floor. —Sean Donovan