Thread: Belly Dance & Brain Fitness: A Potential Market?

When I'm not lurking around here, you can usually find me writing about brain fitness. The basic idea is that your brain needs taking care of, just like your body, heart, lungs, etc -- and that by keeping your brain in tiptop physical shape, it will work better for longer, be better prepared to cope with injury, ward off some age-related mental problems, and maybe even protect against (or at least delay the onset & severity of) diseases like Alzheimer's.

Dance is often mentioned as an excellent brain fitness activity. It combines physical activity, learning new skills, and socialization, all of which are important for brain fitness. And there's reason to believe that listening to music with an ear towards rhythm, distinguishing instruments, keeping time, etc, is also really good brain exercise. Dance, any form of dance, requires some pretty serious multitasking.

Bellydance, it seems to me, would make an especially appropriate brain fitness activity. The music is brand new to anyone without a background in ME culture, isolations are as much about the brain as the muscles, there are new bits of language, cultural concepts, totally new rhythms, instruments, it's just about endless.

At the same time, BD can be easy on the joints, and adapted to almost any physical difficulty, if you're creative enough. Even someone unable to stand could learn to tap out the rhythms (I saw a video a while back where exactly that was used as therapy in nursing homes)

This is a growing market that's only going to expand as awareness rises and the population ages, and I think it could open up a whole new avenue for BD teachers - and would bring you students who wanted a lot more than "learning to dance like Shakira" or just a workout.

So what do you think? I'm way too much of a baby dancer to do more than suggest it as a direction for others to take, but if I can provide any resources or information to get you started, I'd be happy to help. I know Cory Zamora already has a seniors DVD out (though I haven't seen it yet) but that's all I've seen even close to the topic so far. Anyone else doing anything similar?

Dont forget.... learning to play the zills is an excellent coordination exercise for the brain too!

There was an article in a local paper today about a Tango teacher who works with Parkinson's patients. There was an actual medical research study done on this, comparing the Tango students with Parkinson's to patients who did a regular exercise class. The dance students had better results and more improvements in function than the exercisers.

It would be really helpful if someone were to do a similar study about belly dance and brain function, but your post totally sold ME on the idea!

Maybe we shouldn't mention the addictive qualities of the dance, though (just kidding).

My class descriptions always say something about "exercising your brain as you move your body". I wouldn't go all out and advertise that unless a study had been performed though.

BlueEyed, yes, I'd think zilling would be awesome for this, and something even those with big physical challenges could do. (though some seniors would probably have to turn off the hearing aids! Ow!)

Dunyah, the Tango/Parkinsons thing sounds fascinating. I'll have to see if I can find that study. I especially love that they compared Tango to regular exercise.

Sandra, it's tricky finding the lines, for advertising, isn't it? I fret over it quite a bit with some of the things I do. But the guidelines seem to be similar to advertising health benefits of physical fitness classes, avoid specific claims, and instead, talk about how BD fits the suggested guidelines from the experts.

Sadly there aren't any bellydance specific brain studies out there that I know of. But there are several about ballroom and social dance.

I'll try to write a real article on the topic soon (maybe a series of articles) and I'll post about it here on Bhuz... we might catch the attention of some of the researchers and who knows.


I'm so glad there's a bit of interest in this idea - the biggest challenge is still educating the public, and getting people that they can powerfully influence the health of their brain, that it isn't all just genetics or bad luck!

I have been teaching a "belly dance for people over age 50" class through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute which is affiliated with the local university medical school's Center on Aging. This fall was the first time I'd tried it, so the class was small, but it has been a fun group of people.

Of course, the whole purpose of OLLI being in existence is to promote the idea of lifelong learning, of keeping the brain sharp. So yes, I'm already tapping into that market.

Another thing that many people don't realize is that statin drugs such as Lipitor, which many, many people take to lower their cholesterol, can rob people of their mental acuity. Doctors often blame the loss of mental acuity on getting older, when in fact Liipitor's effect on cognitive skills is so pronounced that there's even a book titled, "Lipitor, the Thief of Memory."

Originally Posted by *Shira*

I have been teaching a "belly dance for people over age 50" class through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute which is affiliated with the local university medical school's Center on Aging. This fall was the first time I'd tried it, so the class was small, but it has been a fun group of people.

Of course, the whole purpose of OLLI being in existence is to promote the idea of lifelong learning, of keeping the brain sharp. So yes, I'm already tapping into that market.

Another thing that many people don't realize is that statin drugs such as Lipitor, which many, many people take to lower their cholesterol, can rob people of their mental acuity. Doctors often blame the loss of mental acuity on getting older, when in fact Liipitor's effect on cognitive skills is so pronounced that there's even a book titled, "Lipitor, the Thief of Memory."

That's a cool idea for a class, Shira, I would be interested in doing something like that some time if the right opportunity presents itself.

I hadn't heard that about lipitor. I know that I can't take any of the statins because of other side effects. My body just won't tolerate those drugs.

Doesn't it build new neurological pathways and lead to the growth of new brain cells to learn complex activities or other new activities? I heard from a friend once that getting lost and finding your way helps build new neurological pathways, helping to reduce alzheimers.

Belly dance is certainly the most complicated skill I have ever engaged in. Continuing to learn, I have no doubt, will help my brain maintain function well into my older years.

I'm glad you started this thread, Saskak. I, for one, am fascinated with the human brain. Here is a good article on brain function. I'm particularly interested in the section that talks about muscles activating brain receptors: The Human Brain - Exercise

Remember the movie Awakening? How the scientist represented in the film works on helping the brain through music and movement? I remember the patients when they heard music came out of their catatonic state temporarily or even just started moving a tiny bit in response to music they remembered from when they were young.

there are clips of my dvd on youtube.thank you for the mention.

The OLLI sounds like a wonderful group, Shira :) Yepp, Lots of medications reportedly cause memory/cognitive problems, especially when there's a cocktail of them as many seniors wind up taking. Medical conditions that are seemingly unrelated to the brain can also cause problems - so the first step in correcting memory issues is evaluating current meds and health. That information really does need to be out there a lot more than it is, I seem to recall a study or two that suggested a significant number of people in nursing homes are suffering more from medication problems than memory problems.

Smuse, that link is a GREAT resource - I'm always wandering back there for refreshers :) Yes, according to the neuroscientists, learning new and challenging things creates new neural pathways in the brain, while physical exercise encourages the brain to produce new brain cells.

So being physically active helps create new cells, and mental activity connects them into the neural network. (without that, they seem to just die off again) That combination makes dance classes a really promising brain exercise.

And you're welcome, Cory : ) I'll be looking up your video asap.

Disclaimer: I'm writing very casually here, and not watching my words, so no one jump me for being imprecise, please! (can you tell I've been on the blogosphere merry go round a few too many times?)

I have a couple of students who are going through the big M or are Elders and say that they started taking classes to keep up thier brain function. Since they started they've mentioned that their memory capability has increased along with all the other benefits of dance.

I sell commercial playground equipment and in our training we are taught about the importance of vestibular stimulation (inner ear). With vestibular stimulation comes neuron connections in the frontal lobe of the brain. Children especially need these pathway connections as they don't yet have them. This is probably why exercise of various forms works so well for Alzheimer's patients.

How do you get this vestibular stimulation? Rocking, swinging, sliding, SPINNING, etc. Basically, if you get butterflies in your tummy, you've v.s. going on. :-) Since spinning is such a fantastic form of v.s., this may in part explain why tango worked better than other exercise for the seniors. :-)

Get dizzy easily? Here's a tip: After spinning in one direction, quickly go the other or bounce up and down. Another trick is to stare at something close to your face. Hold up your hand for example. But we can't always do that in a performance, so incorporate spins that go from one direction to the other. The bouncing shimmy works wonders too!

Yes - I've had nursing home staff tell me the residents were more responsive after one of our dance shows. Music & rhythm is a very basic 'language' so to speak.

Originally Posted by smuse33

I'm glad you started this thread, Saskak. I, for one, am fascinated with the human brain. Here is a good article on brain function. I'm particularly interested in the section that talks about muscles activating brain receptors: The Human Brain - Exercise

Remember the movie Awakening? How the scientist represented in the film works on helping the brain through music and movement? I remember the patients when they heard music came out of their catatonic state temporarily or even just started moving a tiny bit in response to music they remembered from when they were young.

Isolations and layering are super-brain-builders, for sure...g.: