Dance alleviates perceived symptoms of depression, study finds

Dance as a performative art form alleviates perceived symptoms of depression, helps to understand its root causes and promotes self-actualization, a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland found. The multidisciplinary research collaboration brought together perspectives from psychology and social psychology, as well as from dance as a performative art form, which is rarely included in interventions related to depression.

Depression is a major public health concern, and there is an urgent need for adjunct treatment methods. Robust evidence regarding adjunct treatments for depression already exists for physical exercise, for example. The inclusion of expressive elements, such as those found in dance, could make physical exercise particularly appealing for many."

Tommi Tolmunen, Professor of Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Eastern Finland

Nowadays, dance is regarded as a promising rehabilitation method that complements medical treatment across a range of conditions, including depression. Dance movement therapy, in particular, has been shown to be a suitable adjunct treatment for both depression and anxiety. Dancing may reduce the secretion of stress hormones such as cortisol and noradrenaline, while increasing the secretion of dopamine, which, like physical exercise, is associated with pleasure. Dancing also enhances bodily awareness and offers a creative, non-verbal means of self-expression. Through dance, it is possible to process emotions that may be difficult to verbalise or that transcend verbal language.

The pilot study involved seven adolescents diagnosed with mild-to-moderate depression. During the study, they created a digital dance piece of their desired future, using dance improvisation and a camera-based 3D motion capture method. The results highlighted particularly the psychosocial health benefits of dance in reducing symptoms of depression, including better self-esteem and self-awareness, improved ability to process embodied emotions, a sense of being accepted and the importance of peer support.

Participants' experiences of an accepting and trusting atmosphere, and of a sense of belonging and community, were especially conducive to helping them develop their relationship with their own body through enhanced bodily awareness. Participants also observed this transformation in their concrete choreography process, as their experiences of their own body and its capabilities evolved into encounters with the self, self-actualisation and self-expression.

"Depression can affect interoception, that is, how we perceive internal sensations in the body. Disruptions in interoception are common in depression, anxiety and alexithymia, for example. Moreover, one's experience of the body can be negative in many ways," says Senior Researcher Hanna Pohjola, Docent in Multidisciplinary Health and Well-being Research.

For participants, a key aspect of the research process was making their experience of depression and of their desired future visible through dance using 3D motion capture. This provided participants not only with a concrete way to anonymously perform dance to a wider audience, but also an opportunity to observe their own movement from an external perspective. This enabled reflection on personal values and attitudes, and therefore facilitated confronting the root causes of depression.

"For participants, this opened a path to self-actualisation, that is, engaging in meaningful activities that bring joy and satisfaction, and experiencing a sense of purpose," Pohjola notes.

The study was conducted as part of the Narrating through Dance in Life Fractures project (2021–2025), funded by the Kone Foundation. The project explored the experiential and social psychological impacts of dance in various life fractures.