Tango Therapy: Current Status and the Next Perspective

Abstract

Youngsoon Koh, IC Soo Kim and Geunwoong Noh

Dance is basically a complex physical activity which either casually or formally organized in which people take part for fitness, health and well-being, social relationships or competition and a worldwide human activity that involves complex whole body movements through space synchronized to music. Dance-related reviews of evidence have examined the effectiveness of dance therapy on psychological and physical health and well-being outcomes in patients with cancer, for schizophrenia, and on depression. Dance therapy was officially described firstly in 1948. The medical application of dance therapy was well reviewed in neurologic conditions. Dance has been used extensively for the treatment of gait and balance dysfunction in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Especially, Argentine tango is the most frequently employed dance form in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Tango therapy may hold promise as an intervention to improve gait, balance, and mobility in a variety of neurological conditions. Tango therapy was approached from dance therapy to the current status of medical application. A more systemic analysis of tango movement for proper and effective therapeutic application of tango is necessary for medical purposes.

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