Japanese researchers interviewed 1,003 Tokyo women over 70 years old about which of 16 types of exercise they did, including dancing, calisthenics, jogging, golf, ball games, hiking, yoga, bicycling and tai chi. In eight years of follow-up, those that danced were 73 percent less likely to be classified as impaired in any of the “activities of daily living” such as walking, cooking, dressing and bathing—a result not produced by the other physical activities. “Dancing requires not only balance, strength and endurance ability, but also cognitive ability: adaptability and concentration to move according to the music and partner; artistry for graceful and fluid motion; and memory for choreography,” writes lead author Yosuke Osuka, of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

This article appears in the May 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings.