1 . Dance is increasingly being introduced to anyone who is interested for both health and recreational reasons. The National Lottery is funding courses and training, so are local authorities and regional arts associations. In addition, it is suggested that patients take dance lessons, and young footballers are learning about rhythm and balance through hip-hop lessons.

Simon Dove, the Yorkshire Dance Centre’s organizer and promoter, says that attendance has doubled in the last three years. He owes this to more choice and easier access. There are 35 different lessons every week—everything from Arabic dancing to Egyptian, American tap, Asian and South African Township dances. “People like coming here because it helps you stay fit and engages your mind, enabling you to interact with others,” Simon explains.

Steven Johnson, 28, is one of the company’s teachers. He goes into schools and introduces kids to jazz, street dance and hip-hop. He thinks that for the less academic, it gives them something to focus on. “Several school teachers have reported that normally difficult and disruptive children have become more manageable because of the lessons. I think it is because they have found something at school that they excel at, making them more confident. The lessons also make them more aware of their bodies and how they work.”

For Flo Marsden, aged 71, her weekly dance lessons play a more social role in her life. “It’s the togetherness of dancing that is the best. A keep fit class doesn’t get you so involved with others. When I go out shopping I see people from the lessons and say hello. It makes you feel you are part of a community.”

Dance is one of the five activities the Health Education Authority is promoting in its current Active for Life campaign, and this summer saw one of the first health and dance conferences in the UK. John Dunbar, one of the speakers, says, “On a fitness level, dance can be just as effective as going on a running, and the results were the same. People are far more likely to keep up dancing rather than a running programme, so in that way it can be more suitable.”

So, if you’re lucky enough to have dance classes near where you live, my advice to you would be to have a go!

2 . Having spent more than a decade on the dance floor, ROME — Niccolo Filippi, a 23-year-old Italian dance performer, recently decided to explore Chinese culture and its traditional dance forms and believes that this experience will not only boost his career, but also broaden his horizons beyond the world of dance.

His interest in diversifying his skills grew after he stumbled upon a short video of traditional Chinese-styled dance on YouTube. “I saw it as an art that combines tradition and modernity, which was mostly the reason why I liked it,” says Filippi.

Ever since, he has been closely following Chinese dance performers and watching numerous videos to learn more about the traditional style that he admires. “I prefer the traditional style because of its light movements. It also reflects my personality with elegance,” he adds.

Filippi’s chance came when he was invited to perform for a Chinese New Year celebration in the central Italian city of Florence. He has since fully committed himself to the art form, learning several pieces and putting his newfound passion into practice.

“The biggest difference that I found (compared to other disciplines) is the change of mood and emotional expressions among dances,” says Filippi, adding that he needed to shift from the dynamic moves of hip-hop to the graceful and fluid movements of Chinese dance. Despite various obstacles, Filippi’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. Two of his friends shared videos of his performances on social media, and the response was overwhelming. One video garnered 500,000 views, while the other received 200,000 views.

Filippi believes that learning about different cultures is priceless, and he sees it as a means of personal growth. “I like to think of a person as a book,” he says. “Embracing different traditions and cultures, such as Chinese culture and many others, is like adding new chapters to my book, making it more diverse and wonderful.”

Singing is one of those universal actions that everyone can do for fun, regardless of how they sound. According to recent studies     1    (conduct) at Goethe University Frankfurt, singing can be actually helpful to your immune system. The study focused     2     a group of people who sang in a professional choir and discovered that the amount of proteins in the blood that function as antibodies (抗体) was     3    (obvious) higher after singing, so people involved in music could be less likely     4    (get) sick.

Singing actually is the perfect physical exercise for people who are injured, disabled or elderly. Not only     5    (do) singing help increase your lung capacity, but it helps stimulate circulation. This can lead to better results when people hit the gym thanks to the person’s increased aerobic (有氧的) capacity and newfound physical or mental strength.

The simple truth is that singing makes you happy. It releases endorphins (内啡肽), a chemical     6     reduces pain and makes you feel     7    (happy) and less stressed. People who sing, especially in choirs and on the stage are known to have better social skills and be loss lonely.     8    (stand) on the stage and performing can be tough,     9     when you do it in a group, it can help improve your sense of self as well as increase your     10    (confident).

4 . When New York City asked residents to stay home due to the pandemic, Jesse Means figured he wasn’t going to have any visitors anytime soon, so he might as well turn his living room into a studio.

Means, a Broadway actor turned elementary school music teacher, uses that studio to record weekly lessons that he said seek to not only educate but uplift and encourage. “My job is teaching, but my ultimate work is building up people and making sure their spirits are all right,” he said. “I became the modern-day Mr. Rogers, as some have referred to me.”

Mr. Means Music, his YouTube series, teaches rhythm, songs and vocabulary, but also includes assignments like asking students to write down something kind they did recently or a fond memory with a parent. And because his lessons are public, he said he’s received fan mails from as far as the United Kingdom and Kenya. “These little kids really need to have some normalcy(常态),” he said. “They’re used to seeing specific faces every day, mine being one of them.”

While Means said he works almost straight through every weekend on new 10-to 20-minute episodes, he said seeing video reactions showing strengthened bonds between parent and child has made the extra work worthwhile. One father, for example, regularly submitted videos of his daughter, sitting alone and responding to Means’ weekly questions. Halfway through the school year, the videos changed. “There was this very burly (魁梧的) man who is now in the video with his daughter singing ‘the bell on the buoy goes ding ding ding!’ and touching his nose,” Means said. “You can see how much he loves his daughter. That’s what keeps me going in those moments when I can barely keep my eyes open.”

8 . On a recent afternoon in a studio in Brooklyn, Mervin Primeaux-O’ Bryant and Brandon Kazen-Maddox were filming a music video. They were recording a cover version of Midnight Train to Georgia, but the voices that filled the room were those of Gladys Knight and the Pips, who made the song a hit in the 1970s. And yet the two men in the studio were also singing—with their hands.

Primeaux-O’ Bryant is a deaf actor and dancer, while Kazen-Maddox is a hearing dancer and choreographer (编舞者) who is, due to seven deaf family members, a native speaker of American Sign Language(A. S. L.). Their version of Midnight Train to Georgia is part of a 10-song series of American Sign Language covers of influential works by Black female artists that Kazen-Maddox is producing for Broadstream, an art’s streaming platform.

Around the world, music connects people closely together as it tells basic stories, teaches emotional intelligence and strengthens a sense of belonging. Many Americans know about signed singing from moments like the Super Bowl, when a sign language interpreter can be seen—if barely—performing the national anthem (国歌) alongside a pop star.

But as sign language music videos increase on YouTube, where they caused comments from deaf and hearing viewers, the richness of American Sign Language has gotten a broader stage.

“Music is many different things to different people,” Alexandria Wailes, a deaf actress and dancer told me in a video interview, using an interpreter. Wailes performed the national anthem at the 2018 Super Bowl, and last year drew thousands of views on YouTube with her sign language contribution to Sing Gently, a choral work by Eric Whitacre.

“I realize,” she added, “that when you do hear, not hearing may seem to separate us. But what is your relationship to music, to dance, to beauty? What do you see that I may learn from? These are conversations people need to get accustomed to having.”

10 . Under the first full moon of the year, music lovers in Norway sit on seats made of ice and covered with animal skins. On a frozen stage, musicians in furry hats and coats play instruments carved from ice! This show is the Ice Music Festival, the only concert in the world of its kind. This cool idea began in 1999, when musician Terje Isungset played music inside a frozen waterfall. The amazing sounds that he heard led him to start using ice as a musical instrument. Isungset spent years experimenting with ice instruments. The more he learned, the more excited he became. After years of trial and error, he was ready to start the Ice Music Festival in 2016.

To prepare the frozen instruments, Isungset hunts for the best natural sources of ice. He tests each source of ice by cutting out a piece, tapping it with his finger, and listening to the sound it produces. Experience tells him whether the ice will make a good instrument. He prefers not to use human-made ice, because he believes frozen lake water sounds better. This may be supported by science. Scientists have noticed that natural ice has fewer bubbles (气泡), which could lead to a clearer sound.

Once the ice has been sourced, professional ice carvers use tools to create instruments. They carve everything from saxophones to xylophones. The carvers often change the look of the instruments, which helps them produce special, even unique, sounds. Each year, the goal of the festival is to challenge musicians to make creative music when playing these one-of-a-kind ice instruments.

Playing the frozen instruments is a challenge. Each performance surprises both the musicians and the audience. After the concert is over, Isungset jokes that the musicians will drink their instruments. Actually, they just leave their stage and instruments behind, giving it all back to nature.