Our Claire is getting strict…

The line-up for Strictly Come Dancing has been making headlines in the last week with the announcement of the first male same-sex pairing. This follows the first female same-sex pairing of Nicola Adams and Katya Jones last year. This is great for television but it also shows how inclusive dancing can be. Truly, if you can move, you can dance.

The benefits of dancing for our physical health are not hard to imagine. According to BUPA, you can burn over 400 calories an hour by dancing and, because it exercises your muscles, it can improve your strength and help you maintain it. Another great benefit that Healthline points out is that it doesn’t need to be vigorous. So those with limited mobility and chronic health issues can also take part.

Healthline also point out how dancing can help our mental health, stating that “scientists have found that the areas of the brain that control memory and skills, such as planning and organizing, improve”. So, if you’re trying to remember the steps of a dance, it can give you quite the mental workout.

As I have already mentioned, dancing is inclusive – check out this beautiful video if you don’t believe me. It can also lead to a great social life if you join a class… such as WHISC’s Belly Dancing class on Tuesdays. This is a gentle, low impact, oriental belly dance class with the lovely Miki. No dance experience is required and it’s totally suitable for beginners. For more details about this and everything else WHISC do, please take a look at the What’s On page of this website.

WHISC are also continuing to offer their Listening Ear service. So, whatever it is you want to talk about, please call 0151 707 1826 or leave a message on the WHISC Facebook page with your phone number and they’ll ring you back. Please remember that, whatever you’re going through, there’s no need to go it alone.