Tango can benefit many aspects of your life. Tango is one of the most beautiful dances in the World because it is full of spectacular dance moves that take seconds to execute but years to perfect.
Here are the ten most important benefits of Tango dance:
- Boost your mood
- Improves your confidence
- Challenges your brain
- Improves your cognitive performance
- Reduces stress
- Helps with weight loss
- Improves your balance and coordination
- Improves your posture
- Strengthens your bones
- It helps improve your social skills
Tango Boosts Your Mood Instantly
You may have noticed the benefits about the brain and overall emotional state I have put on the top of the list. It is no surprise because I believe that the most important benefits that we can get from dancing the Tango or any other dance are those that improve our emotional state, and everything else will follow naturally.
Tango dance has therapeutic power because it is a form of physical activity, and it causes the release of endorphins, which is a feel-good neurochemical. You activate the primal reward centers in the brain when you combine music and dance. Tango dance activates sensory and motor circuits while the music stimulates the brain’s rewards centers.
Tango Improves Your Confidence
Tango dancing can be a valuable tool for building self-confidence. Taking Tango dance classes is a great way to overcome any issues and insecurities, whether you see yourself as a confident person or believe there is room for improvement. Tango dancing can gradually help you shape yourself into a charismatic and self-assured person.
All of us have dealt with a lack of confidence at some point in our lives.
Tango dance makes you face your fears because many of us are afraid of dancing in front of others. People fear the possibility of failure or looking silly, but these worries are put aside in a class environment because everyone in that room is in the same boat as you.
I was in this boat for many years until I have decided to sign up for a dance class one day. As soon as I came there, my fears disappeared because nobody was good at dancing, and I could relate to others.
Your confidence will grow by seeing how your ability to dance and learn new steps and skills has improved over a few weeks.
Being an adult, sometimes it is hard to get social interactions and meet new people. By taking Tango dance lessons, you get a unique opportunity to meet new people outside of your usual group of friends, which can be very refreshing.
Your improved confidence will reflect on other aspects of your life, not just on the dance floor.
Tango Challenges Your Brain
Tango, or dancing in general, has many positive effects on the brain. There are many studies that showed that dancing helps Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Dancing takes advantage of our brain’s neuroplasticity and areas that require the brain to rewire itself based on use.
These brain areas may die off as we age if not used. Tango is a very complex dance style and has many moves, and that’s why Tango dance would be an excellent choice for your brain health.
Tango dancing requires you to remember moves routines and make fast decisions such as taking the lead or following the lead and adapting to tempo based on music.
This will make your brain more active, and forgetting important information will be the thing in your past.
Tango Improves Your Cognitive Performance
Dancing can increase cognitive acuity at any age.
The memorization and focus required by Tango dance increase blood flow to the brain, promoting the growth of new neurons and activating the connections between existing ones. Staying in sync with the music is an effective way to build the brainpower of younger dancers and lower the risk of cognitive decline in older dancers.
Time spent memorizing movements, focusing on steps and turns, and listening carefully to music are all ways to improve your memory, sharpen your cognitive skills, and keep your brain in great shape.
There is increased use of dance (in general, not just Tango) to improve perceptual-motor function as a part of treatment for people with Parkinson’s disease.
Dancing may help you maintain and improve cognitive function and also lower the risk over time of getting dementia.
Tango Relieves Stress
Tango is so much more than those cool and seductive moves. You release the stress and worries with every move you make by dancing. Your mind is focused on what dance move to make next, so it doesn’t have time to think about anything that worries you.
Tango dance keeps your emotional and mental health in check. With a combination of the physical activity that Tango offers and music, your brain releases endorphin, the happy hormone that makes you feel relaxed, content, and calm.
Dancing puts you in a meditative state that can feel more relaxed and calming than meditation while sitting still. If you don’t like sitting still and meditating, then dancing would be a perfect substitute. All your focus is on your breathing, movements, and performance when you’re dancing.
Let me assure you; you will be in the present.
Tango is a partner dance, which means you will feel connected with your partner while at the same time relaxing and dancing to Tango music. Physical contact releases oxytocin, a hormone responsible for generating feelings of closeness and bonding, which plays a vital role in mental health.
And as we all may know already, when we reduce stress, many other areas of our lives improve.
Tango Helps With Weight Loss
One hour of Tango dance burn about 246 calories, 30 minutes burns 123 calories, and 10 minutes burn around 41 calories. Besides a nice amount of calories being burnt while dancing, it is also a great way to get your heart rate up, build lean muscle, and get rid of extra body fat.
Tango dance uses various motions to engage multiple muscle groups in a dynamic way that utilizes a significant amount of calories.
Tango can be calm or intense, depending on what you prefer. You choose the level of intensity you want for your body, and Tango is not easy to dance. You have to be aware of your own body and your partner’s body.
Information about calories burned while dancing the Tango can be found here.
Tango Improves Your Balance And Coordination
Tango dance helps coordination of the body and mind. It is a fantastic cardiovascular exercise that increases balance, mobility, and core strength.
Tango dance improves balance and reduces risk factors for falls. If people reduce their chances of falling, they are less likely to fall and hurt themselves.
Tango will help you become more aware of your center of gravity, and you will have better control of your body. With regular Tango dancing, chances of you falling, tripping, or stumbling on something will increase. You will become more aware of the space around you because Tango dancing requires good spatial awareness.
When you are on the dance floor, you have to be aware of people around you, so you don’t knock them over or bump into them. This skill will gradually reflect in your everyday life.
Tango Improves Your Posture
Tango does wonders for your posture. In Tango dance, you have to have a perfect posture. After a few weeks of dancing, you will notice that you walk a little more straight and don’t bend down while sitting on your desk.
There is actually a term called ‘Tango posture”. General descriptions of tango posture were translated into a medical description. The upper body alignment for the tango posture and the standard methods of the tango stance were deduced.
The posture you have to maintain while dancing gets your transverse abdominal muscle working, which is excellent for your overall presentation.
When you learn correct posture during Tango dancing, it will naturally translate to your everyday life. Something is compelling and elegant in Tango dancers, all thanks to their perfect Tango posture.
Tango Strengthens Your Bones
All Latin dance styles require you to have a good posture, especially Tango dance. You can learn to improve your posture through Tango if it is not the best. Bad body posture can lead to many health problems such as back pain, a weakened spine, breathing issues, increased stress, and also can affect your confidence.
Tango dancing improves flexibility and strength, and it will keep your joints and muscles healthy.
Many different movements are involved in Tango dancing, making it an excellent way to challenge the bones. It is not just moving in a straight line.
Tango Helps To Improve Your Social Skills
Meeting new people and friends can be challenging as an adult. Taking group Tango lessons can make meeting new people much more accessible. You will meet like-minded people who have the same interests as you.
People who want to learn a new dance style are also looking to increase their social interactions. Social dancing is perfect for mind, body, and social life.
When you attend group Tango lessons, you will get the opportunity to dance with more people and uplift your social interaction skills. Sign up for group dance lessons if you are hesitant to meet new people and conquer shyness. Meeting people while dancing is a great way to gain new friends and increase your social circle. Other benefits include the ability to keep the feelings of loneliness away.
Also, you will be more confident dancing in social settings such as a club or any bigger event. Learning to dance has helped me in many ways, and one of them was that it gave me the courage and confidence to dance in front of other people.
What Is Tango Dance
Tango dance is one the most popular partner dances that emphasize the vibrant and playful style of movement, rich expressions, improvisation and requires close connection and passion between dancers.
Tango is strictly a partner dance originating from Rio de la Plata, the border between Argentina and Uruguay.
Argentine Tango is the most popular Tango style. Argentine Tango is a music and dance style that originated in the 19th century in Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
Argentine Tango music has a 2/2 or 4/4 rhythmic time signature. Traditionally, Argentine Tango has been danced strictly to Tango music. However, many dancers started dancing the Tango to alternative genres such as electro-tango, blues, experimental rock”, and others in recent years.
Argentine Tango can be danced in an open position where the leader and follower connect at arm’s length. Also, it can be danced in a closed position where the leader and follower connect chest to chest.
Essentially, Tango dancers drag their feet on the floor while mirroring each other. Tango dance is a very technical dance style. You must follow specific steps and patterns to dance correctly and adequately in Tango dance.
A difference between Argentine and ballroom Tango is in the feel and shape of the embrace. For example, there are open and closed embraces in Argentine and ballroom Tango.
In Argentine Tango, dancers’ chests are closer to each other than their hips. In the closed position, dancers’ chests are in contact, and their heads almost touch each other. There can be lots of space between dance partners in an open position, but there should be lots of contact with arms to communicate the next steps clearly.
There needs to be clear communication between dance partners because Argentine Tango is entirely improvised.
Argentine Tango is danced counterclockwise around the outside of the dance floor, and dancing in the middle of the dance floor generally is not acceptable. Occasionally, you can see beginners dancing in the middle of the dance floor because they lack navigation skills (aka me, haha).
If you want to find out more about different types of Tango dance, please check out this article.
Final Words
There are many benefits of dancing in general, not just Tango. Tango is, by nature, a more complex dance style, and you will rip more benefits for this dance style, unlike others. I hope that this article has helped you to shed some light on the main benefits of Tango dancing.
Happy dancing!
