The best way to practice dance is to dance. The next best way to practice dance: watch.

Dance is movement, and movement is physical. But it also requires a lot from your brain. Bending into a plié might not seem like it’s physically or mentally demanding; but before you can execute the movement, your brain must orchestrate a complicated series of muscle movements and balance calculations.

Science shows that the brain activity needed to complete a plié takes place when you think about performing a plié, even if you don’t move a muscle. And it even takes place when you watch another dancer perform a plié.

Preparing to Move

Preparing to make a movement requires the same brain processes as actually making the movement. Brain imaging shows that the sub-regions of the brain that are activated by movement (the supplementary motor cortex, the premotor cortex, and the parietal lobe) are also activated when a person thinks about performing the movement. ¹

A study by the University College London (UCL) studied the brain activity of Royal Ballet dancers, of capoeira experts (capoeira is a Brazilian art that combines martial arts and dance), and of normal people who did not practice ballet or capoeira. All of the participants watched videos of ballet movements and capoeira movements as researchers measured their brain activity with an MRI scanner.

The results: when a ballet dancer watched ballet movements, there was greater activity in areas of the brain collectively known as the “mirror system.” Researchers found the same results when capoeira experts watched capoeira movements. And, there was no increase in activity in the mirror centers of people who didn’t dance or perform capoeira, because those people weren’t familiar with those movements, and their muscles hadn’t been trained to perform them. ²

Mental Training

Aside from just being interesting, this knowledge of brain activity might even be helpful to you as a dancer.

First, it gives you a good reason to watch dance! Mental “practice” can actually improve your strength. One study asked participants to think about flexing their biceps. After just a few weeks of this exercise, the participants had improved their bicep strength by 13.5-percent. Another study showed that when people imagined themselves performing leg exercises, they experienced increased heart rates and respiration rates. ³

Second, this mental training can help you stay in shape when an injury or illness forces you to miss lessons. Even if you’re missing out on learning new choreography, you can learn the routine and train your muscles to execute the movements, just by watching your fellow dancers. Since your body knows the movements needed for the choreography, the action centers in your brain are activated by thinking about those movements. In turn, your brain exercises the muscles needed for those movements. You practice without moving, and this will help you catch up quickly when you’re finally able to resume lessons. ⁴

Third, this reinforces the effectiveness of certain dance training methods, such as the use of mirrors in the studio. This article from Ballet Talk Magazine helps explain how these studies of movement and brain activity can apply to memory and learning choreography. And for more information on mental training and how you can use it, check out our sources in the footnotes below.