For decades, scientists have known that physical movement is good for our brains. Now, researchers are looking at how some types of exercise—like dance—may have special benefits for brain development.
In downtown Pulaski, 10 ballet students recently gathered for class. Their teacher, Sarah Alderman, leads them through a warm up.
Some of these students have been training for more than 10 years . In another class, 15-year-old Lucas Fiske is learning dance for the first time.
“Lucas early on had some coordination things that he was struggling with,” said Henry Fiske, his father.
When he was younger, Lucas went to a specialist who taught him exercises that helped the right and left sides of his brain work more in tandem with each other. Swimming also helped. He was reluctant to take dance, but this past year, he gave it a try.
“I think that dance has really helped me to focus on movement,” said Lucas Fiske. “And I think it does have an impact on the brain because I got more efficient at it.”
Researchers at Virginia Tech are studying how dancing influences brain activity. Neuroscientist Julia Basso, a dancer herself, is leading the study.
“For me, dance goes a bit above and beyond general physical activity,” said Basso.
This spring, Basso’s team at the Embodied Brain Lab hosted a dance performance at the Moss Arts Center. Three dancers, including Basso, wore special helmets that measured their brain activity. A computer produced music from their brain activity and the dancers could actually hear and dance to it in real time.
Studies have found that professional dancers have better connections between different regions of their brains, especially the parts of the brain that have to do with sensory information and movement.
“Dancers are better able to connect that incoming sensory information, whether it’s visually through the eyes, or through touch, and then connect that to motor output,” Basso said.
Which led her to wonder what impact dance has for people with sensory conditions, like autism or ADHD. She and her team recently spent a day measuring the brain activity of 14 performers at Charlie Brown the musical.
A group called STEPVA, Inc. hosted the event. They teach performing arts to people with disabilities.
14-year-old Presley Levasseur has been learning dance and theater with the group for eight years. “I think it gives her an opportunity to be front and center,” said Wendy Levasseur, Presley’s mom.
“And also to express herself in different ways that she normally probably wouldn’t if she wasn’t given the opportunity to.”
Presley has a speech disability. This spring, she was promoted to dance leader, and helped choreograph the performance of Charlie Brown. She said teaching the dance moves to her peers, and then watching the show come together, was exhilarating.
“It feels like I burst out in flames,” Presley said.
“Because you were so excited?” her mother asked.
“Yeah.”
Presley starts high school in the fall, but said she feels confident about the transition, mostly because of the experience she’s had dancing, and teaching dance.
Back at the Pulaski dance school, Lucas Fiske says he wants to keep learning dance. His teacher, and the other dancers, helped him learn to do a cartwheel—something he gave up on years ago.
“I have people who ask all the time, like they’re surprised when I tell them I do dance,” Fiske said. “And it’s like, well, who says boys can’t dance?”
Earlier this month, Lucas performed a hip-hop dance, at the dance school’s spring recital. On stage, in front of hundreds of people, he seemed confident and at ease, as if he’d been dancing for years.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
