Dance away the coronavirus lockdown blues with a boogie around your kitchen, as online dance classes spring up around the world
- Physical exercise such as dance is good for health, as is mastering a new skill. Dance studios’ online classes give those stuck at home a chance to do just that
- Whether it’s hip hop, funk, ballet, salsa or classical dance that moves you, there’s an online class for it, in Hong Kong and around the world
Hong Kong’s dance studios have been closed to the public for weeks, as the city restricts leisure activities to lower coronavirus infection rates. All over the world, from Paris to New York, the music has been paused, with millions of people confined to their homes. But letting loose and dancing could well be more important than ever.
“At any time – lockdown or not – having regular physical activity is a really crucial part of looking after our physical health, but also our mental health, and that need has not gone away,” says clinical psychologist Dr Hannah Sugarman, clinical adviser at Mind Hong Kong. “In fact, it’s probably increased because we’re exposed to more stress.”
Research suggests that self-expression through dance could be beneficial in more ways than one. A systematic review published in 2019 of various studies exploring how dance movement therapy (DMT) helps people with depression concluded that “there is evidence from high-quality studies of a positive effect for DMT in reducing depression in adults”.
Could waltzing around the kitchen help us to stay upbeat in these anxious times?
“We need to make sure that we’re doing things every day that give us a sense of pleasure, achievement and mastery,” says Sugarman. “Those are the three factors that really influence how good our mood is, in our actions, and so dance – and exercise in general – gives us all of those things.”
