So... why do we dance? 🕺🏼

A dance of neurons

Our brains love synchronization, as researchers have shown using medical imaging. Humans do not like chaos but are happy when they detect harmony and order. The pinnacle of happiness is seeing coordinated movements: it triggers our reward center, hence the instinctive pleasure of watching dance performances, car chases, or choreographed fights in movies.

As for music, it stimulates different areas of the eyes, ears, and brain related to pleasure, movement, motivation, and coordination.

Well, well, well, what a surprise... Music and dance offer the pleasure of synchronization!

Dancing particularly affects mirror neurons, which are activated both when an individual is performing an action and when they are watching someone else perform that action (hence the term "mirror"). These neurons play a special role in learning, desire, and empathy, which makes dancing even more interesting.

Anyway. Dancing activates not only essential functions in our brain, but complex social functions as well. Hence its irresistible appeal? There's more to it, so let's keep going!

The perfect rhythm is created by the French government

Classical music or military parades are hard to dance to, but Aya Nakamura can shake up entire stadiums. How can this be explained? Why are some sounds considered "danceable" and others not?

The INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) is taking the matter quite seriously. In a video by the YouTuber Scilabus, neuroscience researcher Benjamin Morillon explains how his work was focused on the notion of "syncopation". Such a word may seem technical, but it's much simpler than you think:

"Our brain is a prediction machine. Perception then allows us to confront this model, and to see if it's working or not... Syncopation brings surprise. Some notes are off, percussions don't hit at the right time, and it creates an expectation... But if it goes too far, the pleasure might disappear!"

Music should have just the right amount of complexity. Neither too much (or it's a mess), nor too little (or it's boring). A reasonable syncopation makes us dance, makes us move between the notes, in the silences, and helps us maintain an instinctive understanding of the tempo.

To go further, we could ask ourselves: is there an ideal tempo? As a matter of fact, there is! It's 2 hertz. That is, two movements per second. This is the usual rhythm of our daily movements. It is also the rhythm of walking. And any music that makes us feel like we're tearing up the dancefloor follows that order.

Did Cro-Magnon dance the dubstep?
 

Ok, let's see. How does dancing make our brains go wild? Covered. What is the ideal rhythm for maximum pleasure? Also covered… But one question remains: what's the point of dancing? Why do we have such power?

When it comes to this, researchers are still in doubt...One thing is for sure: this skill was not randomly selected but may have been, at some point, extremely useful for our survival... For example, a 2006 study suggests that dancing may have helped our ancestors communicate and bond, especially during difficult times. Tribes with a sense of rhythm and coordination would have gained a selective advantage over others...
Genetics provides early evidence for this hypothesis, as two genes have been identified in people who enjoy dancing. These genes are associated with pro-social and pro-communicative tendencies. So don't blame your relatives if some of them are not the greatest Tik Tok dancers... Maybe nature hasn't been too generous with them in terms of dance DNA.

Other scientists believe that dancing may have been used as a "courtship", allowing to display one's physical prowess to attract mates. Just like some birds do.

Finally, some theories suggest that dancing is a somewhat accidental by-product of evolution, tied to our capacity for vocal imitation, which is essential for learning a language. This is called the "vocal learning hypothesis". As proof, animals with vocal abilities may also be the most able to dance. For example, parrots, whales, dolphins, and some great apes are able to differentiate and keep up with different rhythms…Therefore, rhythmic awareness may be a kind of basic skill, shared by several species, but used differently depending on their priorities: communication, coordination for hunting, or twerking in the club.

All these different hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. Dancing may well have occurred in the wild for all of these reasons at once.