Why Do Humans Dance?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2018
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kenyan listener Docktor can’t help himself. When music is playing he must move to the beat and he wants to know why. What role does dance play in human evolution? And what does dance mean to us? To help answer the many twists and turns in Docktor’s questions, the CrowdScience team heads to one of the most vibrant and diverse dance scenes in the World, Havana in Cuba. For Cubans dancing is at the heart of their cultural identity. They tell stories, bond with others, practice religion and celebrate their African ancestry through dance ¬– which came to Cuba with the slave trade.
For all humans, dancing is intimately connected to our love of music and is likely to be one of our oldest cultural practices. But why would our ancestors have wasted energy on what superficially seems to serve no survival benefits? Evolutionary anthropologist Bronwyn Tarr tells us that one clue lies in the brain. When we dance with others our brains reward us with a cocktail of feel-good hormones and this likely leads to profound social effects.
Presenter Anand Jagatia gets challenged on the dance floor, discovers how deeply rooted dance is in Cuban society and why we should dance more.
Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Louisa Field
(Image: Dancers in Cuba)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, remember. So that's remember, so that's your big deal. |
| 0:44.0 | So yeah, right foot, left hand. |
| 0:46.0 | Now, go. |
| 0:47.0 | One, two, three, four, five, six, see. |
| 0:51.0 | Good. |
| 0:52.0 | It's good. Hello, I'm Annan Jagatier, and you are living here. See? coming to you from the city of Havana on the Caribbean island of Cuba, a place that's |
| 1:05.2 | famous for rum, cigars and of course music and dance. |
| 1:12.1 | What you can hear but thankfully can't see, |
| 1:15.0 | and I got a bit confused in the double butt, yeah. |
| 1:18.0 | Is my attempt to learn the basic steps of a traditional Cuban dance called Rumba from my very patient teacher |
| 1:24.8 | Rodolfo. Good, that's good. Not too bad. Not as many mistakes is that's good. |
| 1:30.0 | That's really good. The reason we've come all this way is because of a question from a listener called |
| 1:36.2 | Doctor in Kenya. |
| 1:38.0 | Hi Doctor, how are you doing? |
| 1:41.0 | I think you, Annand, how are you? |
| 1:42.3 | Yeah, I'm good, thank you. Is that I'm thank you Anna how are you? Yeah I'm good thank you. |
... |
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