You probably read plenty of dance blogs and magazines that focus on the needs of dancers. But sometimes you can find information on dance in surprising places.

One of the interesting pieces of dance information that I found recently was a study on dance from the American Sociological Association. (A sociologist is a scientist who studies society, human behavior, and relationships among groups. Sociologists help us understand the

different ways that individuals, groups, and institutions make decisions, exercise power, and respond to change.)

Sociologist Helene Lawson presented her study “Becoming Through Dance” at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in 2005. For this study, she asked,

• Why do adults begin taking dance?
• Do adults start dance for different reasons than children?

Lawson is an adult tap-dance beginner. She had taken two years of classes before beginning her study. She wrote, “I wanted to know why I was doing this, why the other people in the class were doing it and even why people told me they ‘cried’ when they saw a tape of me dancing or saw me in the recital.”

Lawson knew there was something unique in the experience of adult dance beginners.

Few Studies on Dance

Sociologists often ignore dance, Lawson said. She thinks that dance has been hard for sociologists to study because it’s “nonverbal.” But another reason that sociologists avoid studying dance is that “to write about music or art or dance, you have to do it.”

Lawson felt that sociology shouldn’t ignore dance. She knew the importance of dance in her adult life and in the lives of her adult classmates. And so she had to ask, why is dance important to an adult beginner?

Why Dance?

After interviewing adult dancers, adult beginners, young dancers, dance parents, and dance instructors in studios throughout Pennsylvania and New York, Lawson found an interesting answer to her question.

Lawson’s conclusion: very often, a “crisis” gets adults dancing.

For the adult dancers that Lawson interviewed, a crisis took the form of divorce, depression, declining health, or children moving away to college. But in any case, the adult dancers began dancing to save themselves from tragedy, even if they didn’t realize that that’s why they began dancing.

I’ll include some quotes from Lawson’s study so that you can see what the adult dancers had to say.

Escaping From Work and Family Pressures:

Adult dancer Sue is raising three children on her own. She works two jobs to make ends meet:

Why am I taking dance lessons now? Because at this time in my responsible grown up life of no husband and three kids I’m tapping for mental stability. Keeping something, the something being, I don’t know what, possibly my life, under control: maybe another form of finding me. For the years I’ve given up for the sake of taking care of my kids. So this dance class is something for me because I never do…for me. Forty-five minutes of just me time.

Seeking A New Identity:

Rosemary, a 55-year-old pre-school teacher, says she was depressed and is finding herself through dance:

I feel like I have a whole new identity. I am someone else. When my students see me (in recital) they are so excited…When I was 50 years old my girls were off to college, going to their own dances having fun. No one was at home to dance with… my head, my feet, my arms, nothing goes together. I’m a little out of breath, but I’m breathing. I can’t always remember the steps, but I’m thinking. My feet aren’t fast, but they aren’t hurting. Good grief…I’m having fun!

Escaping Death:

A 67-year-old College Professor:

So why am I taking this dance class? Because I’m 67 and I’m afraid I won’t be able to use my legs or be able to dance… Also because I have so much fun when I put on taps and make noise with my feet… I actually forget my problems when I dance. I don’t think about anything but the steps. I never knew it was so hard to move your feet and hands to organized steps and to keep a smile on your face all at the same time. I know I am not very good. I’m stiff, klutzy and not particularly graceful, but who cares.

Dance for Adults -vs- Dance for Children

Along with her observation on crisis, I also thought Lawson made an interesting point about the difference between adult dance beginners and

child beginners.

Based on her interviews, Lawson wrote, “children talk about costumes and performing on stage where they gain confidence in public, perhaps for the first time.” But in contrast, “many adult students discuss dancing class as a spiritual happening akin to a religious experience, a form of self-regeneration. I see the adult class as a process similar to therapy.”

For children, dance encourages social and creative growth. But for adult beginners, dance encourages spiritual and internal growth, even though it’s a social activity. Lawson found that for adult beginners, dance is about “people constructing or reconstructing themselves.” In starting dance, adult students are “reacquiring what they have lost or never had, or changing who they are.”

More on the Science of Dance

One study that also looks at the emotional healing powers of dance is psychology research student Rosa Pinniger’s study on whether Tango can help depression. It’s another great example of work on dance that comes from outside the dance world.

If you’d like to read all of Lawson’s “Becoming Through Dance,” you can find her study on dance at this link.