Stress reduction in alternating steps
Why You Should Dance the Tango More Often. By Anne-Friederike Wilhelm.
Crisis, traffic jams and swine flu, minaret debate, Polanski and a visit from Aunt Käthe - Jesus Christ, do we really have to do all that? Calm down! Go tango dancing again. It's incredibly calming. What women have always known and men have always denied has now been proven by a scientific study by Frankfurt's Goethe University: dancing is great.
Colombian-born Cynthia Quiroga Murcia wondered why couple dancing plays such a minor role in leisure activities in Switzerland and Germany. Does it perhaps not bring pleasure to the stiff gentlemen there? Murcia wanted to find out exactly, and in her doctoral thesis she investigated what else happens to couples besides painful contortions during tango dancing. She took saliva samples from 22 couples before and after dancing and measured their hormone concentrations. In addition, the dancers assessed their own emotions using a standardized questionnaire. The result is hardly surprising for ladies: erotic dancing reduces stress hormones and increases the sex hormone testosterone. So, gentlemen: dancing does NOT stress you out. On the contrary. Recently, couples therapists have even been trying to save troubled relationships with tango.
Murcia does not reveal how well you have to be able to dance tango for the stress-relieving effect to work. However, she most likely conducted her study on couples in which the tango was already recognizable as a tango. Murcia also leaves open the question of whether dancing with your partner at home has a negative or positive effect on hormone release. The best thing is probably to give it a try. A tried and tested tip for the ladies: Fishnet stockings can enhance the effect of a brisk little dance. And for the men: take the lead. She'll never let you down that easily again.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm
Colombian-born Cynthia Quiroga Murcia wondered why couple dancing plays such a minor role in leisure activities in Switzerland and Germany. Does it perhaps not bring pleasure to the stiff gentlemen there? Murcia wanted to find out exactly, and in her doctoral thesis she investigated what else happens to couples besides painful contortions during tango dancing. She took saliva samples from 22 couples before and after dancing and measured their hormone concentrations. In addition, the dancers assessed their own emotions using a standardized questionnaire. The result is hardly surprising for ladies: erotic dancing reduces stress hormones and increases the sex hormone testosterone. So, gentlemen: dancing does NOT stress you out. On the contrary. Recently, couples therapists have even been trying to save troubled relationships with tango.
Murcia does not reveal how well you have to be able to dance tango for the stress-relieving effect to work. However, she most likely conducted her study on couples in which the tango was already recognizable as a tango. Murcia also leaves open the question of whether dancing with your partner at home has a negative or positive effect on hormone release. The best thing is probably to give it a try. A tried and tested tip for the ladies: Fishnet stockings can enhance the effect of a brisk little dance. And for the men: take the lead. She'll never let you down that easily again.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm
