Scenes from the Medal Ball 1

Scenes from the Medal Ball 2

Join us for the Marietta-Town Center Open House

Thurs, March 21st. 7:45 p.m.

We will be teaching a beginner class on Tango, followed by wine and mingling after @ 8:30. Visitors are welcome, so bring a friend, or two!

For details, contact the studio at 770-951-8811.

Dancing Stars is an exciting benefit for the Alzheimer’s Association, Georgia Chapter. Reinventing the popular show, “Dancing with the Stars”, this fundraising event comprises of 10 local celebrity dancers paired with 10 professional dancers, all raising funds by gaining votes! Then the dancers come together to compete in a one night gala dance competition, it’s an event you do not want to miss!

Dancing Stars aim is to support the programs and services provided for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as their families and caregivers. Presently, someone develops Alzheimer’s every 68 seconds, and this disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the country and the only one that is increasing. Without your support, the Alzheimer’s Association will cease to aid those who are affected by this devastating disease. For details, tickets and to make donations, follow this link.

To watch highlights of last year’s gala event, click play:

It’s easy as 1-2-3!

Simply click on the lesson or event you’d like to copy. You will then see a link to “copy to calendar.” When you click on that link, a new window will open with your own calendars, provided you’re logged into Google.

Now you can confirm the event details, or modify them, and make them public, private or share with friends!

Click on the screen-shot icon to look at a larger version of the examples.

We thought you’d enjoy this fascinating article by Richard Powers from Stanford University’s Dance department! Mr. Powers examines the reasons that dancing turns out to be one of the healthiest “mental” activities one can engage in to “stay young.” We’d also like to give a special thanks to Mr. Powers for granting us permission to share his excellent article here!

By Richard Powers

For centuries, dance manuals and other writings have lauded the health benefits of dancing, usually as physical exercise. More recently we’ve seen research on further health benefits of dancing, such as stress reduction and increased serotonin level, with its sense of well-being.

Then most recently we’ve heard of another benefit: Frequent dancing apparently makes us smarter. A major study added to the growing evidence that stimulating one’s mind can ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, much as physical exercise can keep the body fit. Dancing also increases cognitive acuity at all ages. You may have heard about the New England Journal of Medicine report on the effects of recreational activities on mental acuity in aging. Here it is in a nutshell.

The 21-year study of senior citizens, 75 and older, was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, funded by the National Institute on Aging, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Their method for objectively measuring mental acuity in aging was to monitor rates of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The study wanted to see if any physical or cognitive recreational activities influenced mental acuity. They discovered that some activities had a significant beneficial effect. Other activities had none. They studied cognitive activities such as reading books, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards and playing musical instruments. And they studied physical activities like playing tennis or golf, swimming, bicycling, dancing, walking for exercise and doing housework.

One of the surprises of the study was that almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia. There can be cardiovascular benefits of course, but the focus of this study was the mind. There was one important exception: the only physical activity to offer protection against dementia was frequent dancing.

Reading – 35% reduced risk of dementia
Bicycling and swimming – 0%
Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week – 47%
Playing golf – 0%
Dancing frequently – 76%.

That was the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or physical.

Quoting Dr. Joseph Coyle, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who wrote an accompanying commentary:

“The cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are critical to these activities, are remarkably plastic, and they rewire themselves based upon their use.”

And from from the study itself, Dr. Katzman proposed these persons are more resistant to the effects of dementia as a result of having greater cognitive reserve and increased complexity of neuronal synapses.

Like education, participation in some leisure activities lowers the risk of dementia by improving cognitive reserve. Our brain constantly rewires its neural pathways, as needed. If it doesn’t need to, then it won’t.

Aging and memory

When brain cells die and synapses weaken with aging, our nouns go first, like names of people, because there’s only one neural pathway connecting to that stored information. If the single neural connection to that name fades, we lose access to it. So as we age, we learn to parallel process, to come up with synonyms to go around these roadblocks. (Or maybe we don’t learn to do this, and just become a dimmer bulb.)

The key here is Dr. Katzman’s emphasis on the complexity of our neuronal synapses. More is better. Do whatever you can to create new neural paths. The opposite of this is taking the same old well-worn path over and over again, with habitual patterns of thinking and living our lives.

When I was studying the creative process as a grad student at Stanford, I came across the perfect analogy to this: The more stepping stones there are across the creek, the easier it is to cross in your own style. The focus of that aphorism was creative thinking, to find as many alternative paths as possible to a creative solution.

But as we age, parallel processing becomes more critical. Now it’s no longer a matter of style, it’s a matter of survival — getting across the creek at all. Randomly dying brain cells are like stepping stones being removed one by one. Those who had only one well-worn path of stones are completely blocked when some are removed. But those who spent their lives trying different mental routes each time, creating a myriad of possible paths, still have several paths left.

The Albert Einstein College of Medicine study shows that we need to keep as many of those paths active as we can, while also generating new paths, to maintain the complexity of our neuronal synapses.

Why dancing?

We immediately ask two questions:

That’s where this particular study falls short. It doesn’t answer these questions as a stand-alone study. Fortunately, it isn’t a stand-alone study. It’s one of many studies, over decades, which have shown that we increase our mental capacity by exercising our cognitive processes. Intelligence: Use it or lose it. And it’s the other studies which fill in the gaps in this one. Looking at all of these studies together lets us understand the bigger picture.

Some of this is discussed here, which looks at intelligence in dancing. The essence of intelligence is making decisions. And the concluding advice, when it comes to improving your mental acuity, is to involve yourself in activities which require split-second rapid-fire decision making, as opposed to rote memory (retracing the same well-worn paths), or just working on your physical style.

One way to do that is to learn something new. Not just dancing, but anything new. Don’t worry about the probability that you’ll never use it in the future. Take a class to challenge your mind. It will stimulate the connectivity of your brain by generating the need for new pathways. Difficult and even frustrating classes are better for you, as they will create a greater need for new neural pathways.

Then take a dance class, which can be even better. Dancing integrates several brain functions at once, increasing your connectivity. Dancing simultaneously involves kinesthetic, rational, musical and emotional processes.

What kind of dancing?

Let’s go back to the study:
Bicycling, swimming or playing golf – 0% reduced risk of dementia

But doesn’t golf require rapid-fire decision-making? No, not if you’re a long-time player. You made most of the decisions when you first started playing, years ago. Now the game is mostly refining your technique. It can be good physical exercise, but the study showed it led to no improvement in mental acuity. Therefore do the kinds of dance where you must make as many split-second decisions as possible. That’s key to maintaining true intelligence.

Does any kind of dancing lead to increased mental acuity? No, not all forms of dancing will produce this benefit. Not dancing which, like golf or swimming, mostly works on style or retracing the same memorized paths. The key is the decision-making. Remember, Jean Piaget suggested that intelligence is what we use when we don’t already know what to do.

We wish that 25 years ago the Albert Einstein College of Medicine thought of doing side-by-side comparisons of different kinds of dancing, to find out which was better. But we can figure it out by looking at who they studied: senior citizens 75 and older, beginning in 1980. Those who danced in that particular population were former Roaring Twenties dancers (back in 1980) and then former Swing Era dancers (today), so the kind of dancing most of them continued to do in retirement was what they began when they were young: freestyle social dancing — basic foxtrot, swing, waltz and maybe some Latin.

I’ve been watching senior citizens dance all of my life, from my parents (who met at a Tommy Dorsey dance), to retirement communities, to the Roseland Ballroom in New York. I almost never see memorized sequences or patterns on the dance floor. I mostly see easygoing, fairly simple social dancing — freestyle lead and follow. But freestyle social dancing isn’t that simple! It requires a lot of split-second decision-making, in both the lead and follow roles.

I need to digress here: I want to point out that I’m not demonizing memorized sequence dancing or style-focused pattern-based ballroom dancing. I sometimes enjoy sequence dances myself, and there are stress-reduction benefits of any kind of dancing, cardiovascular benefits of physical exercise, and even further benefits of feeling connected to a community of dancers. So all dancing is good. But when it comes to preserving mental acuity, then some forms are significantly better than others. When we talk of intelligence (use it or lose it) then the more decision-making we can bring into our dancing, the better.

Who benefits more, women or men?

In social dancing, the follow role automatically gains a benefit, by making hundreds of split-second decisions as to what to do next. As I mentioned on this page, women don’t “follow”, they interpret the signals their partners are giving them, and this requires intelligence and decision-making, which is active, not passive. This benefit is greatly enhanced by dancing with different partners, not always with the same fellow. With different dance partners, you have to adjust much more and be aware of more variables. This is great for staying smarter longer.

But men, you can also match her degree of decision-making if you choose to do so.
(1) Really notice your partner and what works best for her. Notice what is comfortable for her, where she is already going, which moves are successful with her and what aren’t, and constantly adapt your dancing to these observations. That’s rapid-fire split-second decision making.
(2) Don’t lead the same old patterns the same way each time. Challenge yourself to try new things. Make more decisions more often. Intelligence: use it or lose it. And men, the huge side-benefit is that your partners will have much more fun dancing with you when you are attentive to their dancing and constantly adjusting for their comfort and continuity of motion.

Dance often

Finally, remember that this study made another suggestion: do it often. Seniors who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a measurably lower risk of dementia than those who did the puzzles once a week. If you can’t take classes or go out dancing four times a week, then dance as much as you can. More is better. And do it now, the sooner the better. It’s essential to start building your cognitive reserve now. Some day you’ll need as many of those stepping stones across the creek as possible. Don’t wait — start building them now.

We’ve enjoyed an excellent year of Anniversary celebrations at our Atlanta dance studios, but save the date for one more “last hurrah” before our centennial draws to a close!

If you haven’t invited guests to experience the fun, fitness and social savvy of dance a la Arthur Murray, here’s your chance.

Mr. Murray revolutionized social dancing when he began his franchised dance studios in 1912 after his launch days in Atlanta. He was the first to realize the growing popularity of the Latin dances in America during the 1950′s. Many conventions were held in Cuba during that time to give Arthur Murray dance trainers first-hand knowledge of the hot new Latin styles and moves that were in vogue and becoming popular. Bring your guests to experience the results of this social visionary, and introduce them to a new and healthy pastime that started right here in our fair city!

Showstoppers:

Holiday Parties:
Everyone loves an opportunity to get into the holiday swing of things with a formal dance. This year is no exception at Arthur Murray Atlanta!

First off, never mind the Black Friday crowds. Dance the night away instead of shopping til you drop! Our Marietta Studio will be hosting a Thanksgiving Leftover Potluck Party Friday, November 23 at 8:30 p.m. Don’t know what to do with that extra pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce?  Bring it in!

Also from the Marietta studio – they’ll be teaming up with The Marietta Country Club througout the month of November and will be holding classes at the Club. Stay tuned or call for more details.

Next up are our Holiday Formals to celebrate the season and fellowship in style. Please join us at one of the following!

• Alpharetta: 
Dec. 6th – Christmas Formal 8:30 – 9:30 p.m.

• Marietta Studio:
Dec. 14th – Christmas Formal 8:30 – 10 p.m.

So put on your dancing shoes…and your costume too, and meet up with us to have a ball!

Alpharetta:

Friday Oct. 26th, Halloween Party 9:00 p.m.

Marietta:

Friday Oct. 26th, Halloween Party, 8:30 p.m.

Alpharetta:

• Guest Party on Thursday, Sept. 20th at 7:30.
• Death by Chocolate Party on Friday, Sept. 27th. Bring your best chocolate recipe!
• Guest Party on Friday, October 19th at 7:30.

Marietta:

• Mega Fiesta on September 22nd.
• Studio Closed on October 12th! Staff training in Orlando.
• Halloween Party on October 26th. Free Event!
• Murray Showstoppers on November 2nd. Cost TBA.
• Thanksgiving Leftover Potluck on November 23rd. All family and friends welcome!
• Holiday Formal on December 14th. Free Event!

Check out our Alpharetta and Marietta event calendars to keep up on fun events at our Atlanta Studios! Hope to see you soon.

Dinner, Drinks, and Dances at Marietta

Visit our Marietta Studio on Saturday, September 22nd for a fun-filled night! Authentic Mexican dinner, dancing, and drinks — Margaritas and Sangria — will fill the night with fun.

Bring $40 for admission, and wear something casual, bright, and colorful. Don’t miss out on this great event!