5 Benefits of Freestyle Dancing

5 Benefits of Freestyle Dancing

In this blog, Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC will highlight 5 Benefits of Freestyle Dancing. This month our Keep Dancing classes have enjoyed learning a Freestyle dance to ‘I love to Boogie’ by T-Rex.

Freestyle is a popular form of dance in the UK today. Freestyle dance incorporates many genres of dance, which evolve with the current music trends. It can be very physical and high energy or slow and expressive, and can be performed solo or with a partner. It involves runs, spins, kicks and leaps, as well as many other diverse steps and movements with lots of arm and hand actions.

The music can be fast and rhythmic or slow and sensuous, allowing dancers of all ages to use freedom of expression to enhance their style.

Freestyle dancing, sometimes referred to as street dancing, is a unique type of dance that is based on improvisation rather than the choreography seen in other dance varieties. As the era of disco died, freestyle dancing was born in the early 1970s when dancers began to show off their freestyle skills on the streets and in public areas. New York and Los Angeles were home to several important locations that contributed to the birth and growth of freestyle dancing, while Jamaica played a role in the incarnation of reggae seen in some forms of freestyle dance. Today, freestyle dance has evolved to be edgier and harder and has given birth to several other forms of dancing like krumping, street jazz, breakdancing, and popping and locking.

Freestyle dancing encourages a combination of promoting opportunity for self expression, improve flexibility and stamina.

Here, Xpress-Yourself Dance to further emphasise how Freestyle dancing can be beneficial for health and wellbeing and promote healthy ageing . Here are our 5 benefits of Freestyle Dancing.

Improves Staminia

Freestyle dance encourages aerobic exercise and so can help improve lung and heart health thus improving stamina. However because of the repetitive nature of the dance style Freestyle can improve both physical and mental stamina.

Encourages self expression

Freestyle dance can be a transformative medium for self-expression, moving beyond just mastering steps. You can dance to different music that encourages you to encapsulate the mood or feeling of the music in the way you move your body.

Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.

Martha Graham

Improves mobility

Freestyle dance uses all parts of the body and therefore allows you to increase the amount of movement around a specific joint or body part. When you dance, you will constantly perform movements that will test your body’s range of motion, and it is through this repetition of difficult moves where you will increase your range of motion.

Improves cognitive function

The rhythm, beat and pattern of steps involved in the dances also help mental and physical development can help to delay memory loos and decline in cognitive functions.

Improves ankle mobility

Ankle mobility refers to the flexibility of the ankle joint and its surrounding muscles and tendons. When your ankle is flexible, you have a greater range of motion during your activities. The constant transferring of weight from one foot to another also build greater bone density which is significant as we get older to prevent weak bones and fractures. 5 benefits of line dancing (xpress-yourself.co.uk)

The different foot patterns ensure that the ankles experience the full range of movement. Good ankle mobility means that you have good flexibility of the ankle joint and its surrounding muscles and tendons. When your ankle is flexible, you have greater range of motion during your activities.

An additional benefit to our highlighted 5 benefits of Freestyle Dance is that is fun and enjoyable and often sparks conversations about dancing in clubs.

Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC run weekly Keep Dancing classes, suitable for older adults across, Birmingham, Solihull, Walsall, Sandwell and online. Keep Dancing will teach you dances from around the world with no need to have a dance partner. Find your nearest Keep Dancing class here.

If you enjoyed reading 5 benefits of Freestyle Dancing you might want to consider reading 5 benefits of Line Dancing

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Thank you for taking the time to read our blog 5 Benefits of Freestyle Dancing and keep dancing!