Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Footloose: Whether it’s whirling dervishes or stadiums filled with people dancing to their favourite bands, movement is joyful medicine .
In 2021, the global value of music festival events was $62 million. The value of the global market for antidepressant medicines was. It’s ironic that gatherings that facilitate human connection through sound and dance are mostly undervalued by society and that the Western paradigm has cultivated a suspicion of gatherings that centre on ecstatic dance, psychedelic exploration and the collective healing of music and movement.
It seems odd that these easily accessible human experiences were not woven deeply into the fibre of religious practice. Although there are sects of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that continue to make use of the dancing body for praise and elevation of the Divine, what you will find in most services in houses of worship across the world is a much more restrained physical practice. Several small studies have tried to elucidate the biochemistry of song and dance and it’s clear that these practices reduce cortisol levels, increase protective immune cells and stimulate release of endorphins and dopamine.
It feels obvious to remind you that communal dance is a wonderful form of medicine that will exercise your heart muscle and protect your bones from osteoporosis. And to assure you that this kind of collective effervescence, to borrow a term from psychologist Dacher Keltner, “quiets the voice of that interfering and nagging neurotic”.
It makes sense that the antidepressant benefits of cardiovascular exercise coupled with community and music will have a compounded positive effect. Although the world of psychiatric care is evolving its treatment of trauma, pain and loss, most psychiatric facilities still don’t even have a gym, let alone a dance class for those admitted to such institutions.