Latin dance can liven up holiday celebrations and boost health

Family gatherings and workplace parties with mouth-watering spreads are hallmarks of the holiday season. But if you want to boost your holiday cheer and your health simultaneously, tap your feet to the beats of salsa, merengue and bachata.

Adding Latin dance to holiday celebrations not only enlivens a party, but it also can keep you healthy. "Dance is good for brain health and heart health," said Dr. Susan Aguiñaga, a professor in the department of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Research shows that dance can reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. Aguiñaga's own research focused on Latin dance suggests that learning the rapid and sometimes complex movements of salsa, cha-cha-cha, merengue and bachata may improve memory.

It makes sense, she said, because you have to learn new moves. "You have to combine those steps and then you have to remember those steps from previous classes to create dance sequences."

Aguiñaga described the hip-swaying merengue, with roots in the Dominican Republic, as the easiest Latin dance to learn because of its simple steps. Salsa, a fast-paced confluence of Cuba's African and Spanish musical heritage, is the most difficult because of its complex movements, she said.

Latin dance can be an endurance exercise that keeps you fit and improves heart health – at any age. And because dance is an integral part of Latin American culture, many Hispanic people prefer it over other forms of exercise, she said.

Aguiñaga has studied cognitive function among older Latino people through dance, which she said is crucial because they face a higher...