5 Interesting points about Ballroom Dancing and improving relationships:
- “He will take responsibility”
During the dance, the leader has to choose and plan the moves, learn how to lead, how to listen to the rhythm as they go, navigate their way on the dancefloor, and grant a sense of calmness and security. This might sound like a “Mission Impossible”, but it is definitely not as hard as it sounds. Even if it is a tiny bit complicated – it is so much fun, and we love a good challenge!
- “She will learn to let go”
All day long her head is running between thoughts and tasks, she is running the house and to tell the truth – it’s probably for the best. However, dancing is the perfect time to let go, to unburden your responsibilities and the never-ending journey, breath, truly let go and give the responsibility to the lead. After all, we want to teach the fisherman how to fish, and if we don’t let go, how will he ever learn? From an honest place of choice, maybe he will learn how to choose correctly. Not to mention the great feeling we get when our partner truly trusts us.
- “Mutual Listening”
Despite the familiar structure of “Lead” and “Follow”, listening must be mutual to make it truly work. The follower may be listening to the moves communicated by the lead, but what happens when the follower gets it wrong? Or if the lead lost the rhythm? Mistakes will happen, yet mutual listening will help the couple to naturally continue the dance and fix their movement together. Mutual listening while dancing is done through looking in each other’s eyes, breathing together and of course, the gentle resistance of touch. If we resist too strongly or loosen our grip too much, we will lose balance, lose our mutual listening and the confidence will break. At this point, the couple either “struggles” on the dance floor, or just falls. Sounds familiar?
- “Touch/Hug”
In some dances we hug and in others we simply hold hands. Either way, research shows that couples with relationships that lasted long, make sure to hug and touch each other a lot. Hugging and touching cause the release of “the love hormone” oxytocin, from the heart, and strengthening the connection between them. The best and most obvious way to make sure you hug a lot, is by joined and synchronized movement with music in the background.
- “Laughter and Fun”
When we learn something together, we enjoy the little laughters in between, and the hugging in between. The game of dance we play is causing the release of euphoria hormones. When we go through an empowering experience, or even just a fun one, it is burned in our memory and added to the pile of good memories we can later on share with our children, our grandchildren, or even just our dog. Experiences like these are fun to look back at years from now, when we are hugging each other sitting on a bench in the park or on a swing on the porch, rocking together to the sound of a song we once danced to.