Culture and Health

Dance and Well-being, review of evidence and policy perspectives

Dance is mainly concerned with the body and its expressive capacities, an in-depth comprehension of the balance between physical and mental health, as corporeal expression and movement can foster wellbeing. The study suggests that working on the dance and health may contribute to attaining some of the objectives included in the SDGs. Especially, objectives 3.3 (concerning communicable diseases, 3.4 (promotion of mental health and wellbeing), 3.5 (prevention and treatment of substance abuse), 10.2 (social, economic and political inclusion for everyone), 11.7 (universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible spaces even for vulnerable people). Individual and group effort involved in the dance may contribute to improving health and wellbeing and including the dance in communication campaigns on health are the two main ways this connection can be established.