Another "Research shows dancing is good for you" story..

[DavidY]

BBC News story here

Admittedly it's about Salsa, but it looks like the conclusions apply generally to partner dancing.

[ducasi]

One concern expressed after the study was the high number of people who dropped out of the classes at an early stage - and only one male participant managed to complete the course.

I wonder if this would have been such a big problem had they chosen to do their study with Ceroc/MJ, rather than Salsa.

[David Bailey]

I wonder if this would have been such a big problem had they chosen to do their study with Ceroc/MJ, rather than Salsa.

Well, according to this press release, the guy running the study is a salsa dancer, so that probably influenced his choice somewhat

But yes, Ceroc / MJ would definitely have been a better choice from a "retention" point of view. Would it have been more effective, though? I'm not sure - you've got to think and work a bit to get salsa, which maybe is more effective than just turning up. It'd be interesting to see a comparative study of effectiveness of different dance forms.

( Of course, if it'd been tango, they'd probably have sunk even deeper into depression )

[Blueshoes]

I don't need the BBC to write a story to know that dancing is good for you! And I would defy anyone to come to Southport for a day and draw any other conclusion. Oh yes, just remembered, nearly anyone....

[David Bailey]

I don't need the BBC to write a story to know that dancing is good for you!

I think (I hope!) it's a bit more sophisticated than that.

Apparently, they're using the Beck Depression Inventory - and the results (summary here) seem to be effective.

It's an interesting question whether it's "salsa" or "partner dancing" that is the cause, however - if the latter, then Ceroc would be better because it's a shallower learning curve, and therefore a higher retention rate.

And I would defy anyone to come to Southport for a day and draw any other conclusion.

Christ no - the last thing I'd do to someone with depression is to send them to Pontins for a weekend. It's quite possible for normal people to get depressed at these events, emotions are heightened and so on - you often see people who are miserable and/or crying. So it'd be massively irresponsible to do that, it could tip them over.

Oh yes, just remembered, nearly anyone....

[David Franklin]

Apparently, they're using the Beck Depression Inventory - and the results (summary here) seem to be effective.

It's an interesting question whether it's "salsa" or "partner dancing" that is the cause, however - if the latter, then Ceroc would be better because it's a shallower learning curve, and therefore a higher retention rate.

An even more interesting question is if the results are from selection bias since they only include the 30% or so who actually stuck with the Salsa classes. I would suspect those people would tend to be the ones whose depression was least "severe" (for want of a better term) in the first place.

From experience of both Salsa and Ceroc, I'd think Ceroc would work a lot better - I think it's a far more welcoming environment for beginners. Conversely, a lot (although not all) of Salsa classes have elements that almost seem designed to demoralise beginners. (E.g. the classes that have the group warm-up, but don't break any of it down for beginners. It makes a huge difference if you find a class which actually teaches it).

Christ no - the last thing I'd do to someone with depression is to send them to Pontins for a weekend. It's quite possible for normal people to get depressed at these events, emotions are heightened and so on - you often see people who are miserable and/or crying.

Of course, sleep deprivation will do that... But even without that, I'm not sure weekenders are ideal for newcomers to dance, even if they don't suffer from depression.