Moving Online Together: Enhancing Mental Health and Social Connection Through a Virtual Dance Class During COVID-19

Physical activity has profound acute effects on the body and brain, causing a cascade of beneficial physiological and psychological processes to occur. Dance, a multidimensional form of physical activity, has shown similar positive effects in long-term studies, but no studies to date have looked at the relationship between mental health and social outcomes of dance. In March of 2020, the quarantine that took place due to COVID-19 caused a sense of social isolation, lack of physical connection, and increased mental health issues. In this study, we explore the hypothesis that online dance can acutely improve mental health and connection during a time of isolation. N=47 healthy adults completed a series of self-reported Qualtrics questionnaires before and after a single 60- minute online dance session. Data were analyzed using paired-samples t-tests, Pearson's correlations, and linear regressions. Online dance acutely improved mental health by increasing positive affect and self-esteem while decreasing negative affect and depression. Social and community connectedness were also enhanced, with those who experienced the largest decreases in negative affect demonstrating the largest gains in social connectivity. Further, an individual’s trait learning style influenced class efficacy, with tactile learners benefitting the most in mood state and visual learners benefitting the most socially. Finally, we found that greater levels of experienced enjoyment improved mood state, whereas greater levels of perceived difficulty resulted in increased anxiety. We suggest best practices for online dance, provide future areas of research, and highlight the importance of using online learning to increase dance accessibility to diverse populations.