Have you ever wondered why we like to dance? Would understanding this help you either start to dance or dance with more enjoyment? Perhaps you just like mysteries and want to solve this one?
Look no further friends. In this article, we discuss both the scientific and the non-scientific explanations as to why we like to dance.
The non-scientific explanation is written by none other than our principal author Jake. His insights into why we like to dance come from 20 years of dancing experience across a vast number of dance scenarios.
We like to dance because dance rewards us emotionally, socially, and creatively, and we are biologically biased toward rhythm, movement, and music.
The beauty of dance is that it is so multifaceted- all of which we discuss in this article.
Before getting into this fascinating topic, we will leave you with this quote by none other than Charles Darwin.
“The human ability to make and appreciate music is one of the most mysterious with which I am aware of”.
Charles Darwin (1872)
The non-scientific explanation
The non-scientific explanation can make more sense to us than any confusing brain anatomy.
Essentially the non-scientific explanation involves what:
- Mindset we morph into when we dance
- Emotions we readily identify when we dance
- Concepts we connect with when we dance
We address these areas below.
Dancing is a pure and raw way for people to KNOW YOU:
One of the big concepts of well-being/happiness in life is relationships.
Martin Seligman is a pioneer in the field of positive psychology. He created what is known as the PERMA system of wellbeing. R in PERMA stands for relationships.
He has stated that a key in relationships is people KNOWING you. Essentially, we all want the world to know us as the uniquely special individuals we all are. We want to share ourselves with the world in a deeply profound way. Words often don’t do us justice. But movement, energy, and emotion, can do just that.
This is what happens in dance.
A part of being understood is being able to communicate the deepest part of our souls.
Dancing allows us to communicate how we really feel:
Dancing allows us to truly show how we feel in a very raw and direct way. It allows us to cut through the small talk and get to the good stuff.
Dancing allows us to FULLY express DEEP concepts such as love, hope, determination, passion, bitterness, aggressiveness, peace, etc.
Dancing allows us to convey what we really mean. How something really affects us, and what sort of character we really are. We can show what sort of emotional response or mindset we are capable of generating. This might mean showing our incredible resilience or compassion.
As a friend once said to me ‘dancing allows me to express myself as nothing else can’. And I fully agree. We touch on this in more depth in section 3 of our article How To Dance As A Man: The complete guide men need. Even though the title is for men, section 3 applies to both genders.
Often times words are insufficient and don’t do us justice. And it takes more than words to show how we really feel, to convey our sense of depth.
Dancing allows us to do all of this in a life which can be at times pretty beige.
And when we communicate the deepest parts of our soul, through powerful mediums such as music and movement, it makes us feel alive.
Dancing is a validation of our current state, but also the hope of what could be:
Dancing can validate our existence and value in this life. It can also hint at the possibilities of what we could be in the future.
You see, when we dance using a mirror, we see ourselves COME ALIVE through music.
When we dance we:
- See ourselves experience emotion and managing that emotion in honorable ways.
- See our athleticism and creativity and how strong and powerful our movements come across.
- Can appreciate our coordination and rhythm and swag.
- Can validate our current state of existence WHILST we are shining.
Dancing also allows us to project ourselves into a future self. We can imagine what type of person we could be and become that person whilst we dance.
For example, when I dance, I feel like I am showing the best side of me. My skill, rhythm, swag, athleticism, and emotional interpretation are on show.
There is something incredibly powerful in seeing and feeling yourself shine. Something incredibly powerful in seeing that you are powerful just as you are but also seeing what you could be.
Dance is a chance to remember the past, honor the present, and tell stories of the future:
Dance can be used to tell stories and reflect the past, present, or future.
We can use dance to remember the past: the good times, sad times, or perhaps even process bad times. Through dance, we can relive our childhood, or to stay in touch with deep memories that are dear to us.
Perhaps you wanted to be a warrior when you were a child, a knight in shining armor. Or perhaps a princess going on exciting adventures. Dance gives us this opportunity to reconnect with such visions.
We can also honor the present moment, and forget about the past or future. In this way, dance can keep us grounded and clear our heads.
Perhaps you have been anxious about a complex future riddled with small potential issues. Dance allows us to quell such thoughts and come to back to our bodies and immediate surroundings.
Dance can be used to tell stories of the future: to be hopeful for better times. Or instead of hope, perhaps ambition and desire can be shown.
Perhaps you are not happy with your present circumstances and seek better times. Dance allows us to paint a picture of what we really want and need in our lives. It allows us to show frustration and hope.
Audiences love a good story, and we can be our own audience with a mirror. We can be both the director, performer, and the audience. This is very powerful.
Dance gives life to fundamental concepts and makes them almost tangible:
The two core motivators in life are to avoid suffering and seek pleasure.
At its core, happiness is the ultimate pleasure. Happiness is an emotion. So without emotion, life would be relatively empty.
At its core, movement is the ultimate way to avoid suffering. Think of running from hungry lions or escaping natural disasters.
So as humans, we have movement and emotion as two fundamental motivations. Dance is one of the few activities that actively contains both.
Another great motivator is music. Dance takes everything that is music and gives it life through the dancer.
This life-giving capability of dance to music is also unique to the dancer as it involves the dancer’s interpretation and personal emotion. This is why dance can be so special.
Emotion also yearns to be released in some format. Think of a dam filling with water. The best release often comes with a physical element, for example:
- Crying
- Walking
- Running
- Making love
- Hugging
- And of course, dancing.
In this way dance validates our emotion and makes it more real, it makes us wonderfully human. In this way, dance can be quite cathartic and almost spiritual.
The scientific explanation
Now we have the scientific explanation of why we like to dance.
The science tends to be anatomy-based, for example, this part of the brain fires when we do this etc.
If you are looking for such a take on why we like to dance, then read on my friends.
Humans like rhythm:
We humans tend to get pleasure out of movement and rhythm.
There is evidence to suggest that we have a biological tendency towards moving with rhythm. We outline these below:
“Chimps unambiguously (without room for different interpretation) tap along in time with each other.”
Unidirectional adaptation in tempo in pairs of chimpanzees during simultaneous tapping movement: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan (2016)
“Infants have a natural tendency to perform rhythmic movements to music.”
Feeling the beat: Movement influences infants’ rhythm perception: Phillips-Silver & Trainor (2005)
“Our brain is biologically wired to move our bodies to music with synchronicity.”
Listening to musical rhythms recruits motor regions of the brain: Chen, Penhune, and Zatorre (2008)
Peter Vuust, is a neuroscientist and music theoretician at Aarhus University in Denmark. Vuust remarks that one of the reasons we like rhythm is that it exploits our brain’s tendency for prediction coding.
Prediction coding is another term for pattern finding. Vuust states that dopamine (the brain’s reward chemical) is somehow related to the prediction of a beat.
“As long as the rhythm is still simple enough to make predictions, we feel pleasure”
Syncopation, body-movement and pleasure in groove music: Maria Witek, Eric Clarke, Mikkel Wallentin, Morten Kringelbach, Peter Vuust (2014)
There are reward-related brain areas associated with movement:
There is increasing evidence that indicates that reward brain areas are activated when WE MOVE.
Interestingly these reward areas are also activated when WE WATCH OTHERS MOVE. The mechanism that this happens through is called mirror neurons.
This may indicate a primitive yet powerful appreciation for skillful movement.
In another context, a number of neuroscientists in England found that different types of movement generated different responses in us. For example, soft and graceful movements made us calm, sharp and irregular movements can cause us distress.
Music is pleasurable to our brain:
Music is very pleasurable to our brain. When we move to music it stimulates pleasure and reward areas such as the:
- Orbitofrontal cortex: This has extensive connections with sensory areas as well as limbic system structures involved in emotion and memory.
- Ventral striatum: A vital part of the circuitry for decision making and reward-related behavior.
- Cerebellum: Responsible for coordination and timing of movement.
- Supplementary motor area: Responsible for planning an action.
Some theories suggest that music may have been created by rhythmic movements such as tapping our feet. This would explain why we might feel such a strong connection to music as our bodies created it.
Music+movement= Layers of pleasure:
Our brain finds pleasure in movement. Our brain also finds pleasure in music.
When we put these two together, we get layers of pleasure and reward.
In this way, it is clear that our brains find a multifaceted stimulation from moving to music.
It is also possible that science may not have even identified every anatomical function that is being activated when dancing to music.
There are mirror neurons that connect music to dance:
Remember when we said that when we watch dancing, the same reward areas are activated as when we dance ourselves? Well, the same thing happens with music and dancing.
However, instead of a visual link, there is an audio link.
For example, the ACTION of hitting a drum produces an audio sound. We hear that sound and that activates OUR motor reward areas.
These motor reward areas activate as if we are hitting the drum ourselves (Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004).
This might possibly explain why we feel the need to move when music plays. Because it produces a visceral effect on us.
Dance as a social connection:
There is evidence to suggest that dance plays a part in social interactions.
Ian Cross is a professor of music and science at Cambridge University. He has stated that dance may have evolved to enable us to engage socially with each other.
In another study, research by psychology professor William Brown found that good dancers are an indication of a good mate.
Brown used 40 different dancers and reduced their movement into stick figures. It was found that the preferred choice by viewers was those with symmetrical movements. In the study, Brown concludes that symmetry appears to influence our perception of how healthy an individual is.
Conclusion
So there you have it, explanations from science and non-science perspectives as to why we like to dance.
Regardless of the explanation used, humans can find great enjoyment in dancing. It could even be more natural, necessary, and beneficial than anyone might realize.
I myself find it interesting to compare these two narratives. Personally, I find the non-science explanation more useful, understandable, and meaningful.
I would be interested to know what others think. Which do you find resonates with you more, the science or the non-science explanation? Let us know in the comments below friends.