Can Belly Dancing Help Us Feel Better About Our Bodies? What 2025 Research Says
If you've ever stood in front of a mirror before a dance class and worried about how your body looks, you're certainly not alone. This was one of my biggest barriers to overcome when I first started Belly Dance.
For some people, feeling self-conscious about their appearance can even become a barrier to participating in exercise or dancing in front of other people.
So, can dance actually help us feel more comfortable and confident in our bodies?
A new systematic review published in Frontiers in Psychology provides some encouraging evidence. And importantly for us as belly dancers, belly dance was one of the dance styles included in the research.
Skim-Reader Summary | |
Effect of dance on social physique anxiety and physical self-esteem among adults: A systematic review | |
The research | The effects of dance on social physique anxiety and physical self-esteem. |
How many studies? | 16 studies. |
Who participated? | Adults, university students and older adults aged 18–76. |
Which dances were included? | Zumba, Latin dance, Salsa, Dance Movement Therapy, Aerobic dance, Belly dance and Colombian Caribbean Folk dance. |
Key findings | Dance interventions were associated with improved physical self-esteem and self-confidence and reduced social physique anxiety and negative self-evaluation. |
What did the researchers investigate?
Liu, Soh and Lu (2025) conducted a systematic review looking at the effects of dance on two related psychological concepts:
Social physique anxiety (SPA) — essentially, concern about how other people might judge your physical appearance.
Physical self-esteem (PSE) — how positively or negatively you evaluate your own physical appearance and physical abilities.
These are interesting measures for dancers because you don't need to be unhappy with your body in general to experience anxiety about being seen dancing.
You might love dancing but still wonder:
“Do I look silly?”
“Is everyone looking at my stomach?”
“Am I too old to wear this costume?”
“What will people think when I move like this?”
Those sorts of concerns are related to the social physique anxiety examined in this review.
What did the researchers find?
The researchers reviewed 16 studies involving adults, university students and older adults, with participants ranging from 18 to 76 years old.
The studies investigated seven different forms of dance:
Zumba
Latin dance
Salsa
Dance Movement Therapy
Aerobic dance
Belly dance
Colombian Caribbean Folk dance
Overall, the review found that dance interventions were associated with improvements in physical self-esteem and self-confidence, along with reductions in social physique anxiety and negative self-evaluation.
Thirteen of the 16 studies reported improvements in physical self-esteem. Five reported reductions in social physique anxiety, and two studies reported improvements in both outcomes.
That's a pretty encouraging result.
However, there's an important qualification: the researchers were reviewing studies involving different types of dance, different populations and different intervention programs. They therefore couldn't perform a meta-analysis to calculate one overall effect size.
So this research doesn't tell us exactly how much taking belly dance classes will improve someone's body confidence.
But it does add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that dance can have psychological benefits beyond simply getting our bodies moving.
What about belly dance specifically?
This is the part that caught my attention as a belly dance teacher.
Belly dance was one of the dance styles represented in the review. The authors report that belly dance was associated with improvements in body image and reductions in anxiety in the studies they reviewed.
They also refer to previous research in which belly dance was associated with improvements in self-esteem and body image.
The review wasn't a study of belly dance alone. It combined evidence from several different dance styles. The researchers themselves noted that there wasn't enough evidence to properly compare the relative effectiveness of different dance styles.
So we can't conclude from this review that belly dance is better than other forms of dance for body image or confidence.
What we can say is that belly dance is included in a body of research showing promising psychological outcomes from dance participation.
Why might dance help?
The researchers suggest several possible explanations.
One is social connection. Dance classes provide opportunities to participate with other people, which may help create a sense of belonging.
Another is that dancing can redirect our attention away from simply judging how our bodies look and towards what our bodies can do.
And there's something particularly satisfying about learning a new movement.
When you finally manage that hip figure eight you've been practising, or discover that you can produce a smooth shimmy you couldn't do a few weeks ago, your attention shifts from “How do I look?” to “Look what I can do!”
The researchers suggest that mastering dance skills and developing a sense of competence may contribute to improvements in self-efficacy and physical self-esteem.
That distinction is important.
Rather than trying to make our bodies look different, dance can potentially help us develop a more positive relationship with the bodies we already have.
What does this mean for aspiring belly dancers?
If you've been thinking about trying belly dance but feel self-conscious about your body, this research gives you another reason to give it a go.
You don't need to wait until you lose weight, become fitter, become more flexible or somehow achieve a "dancer's body."
You can start with the body you have now.
And you don't have to feel confident before you walk into your first class.
Confidence can be something that develops through learning.
Of course, one systematic review can't promise that every person who takes a dance class will experience improved body confidence. The studies varied considerably, and the authors point out several limitations in the existing research.
More research is needed.
But the findings are still encouraging.
Dance appears to offer more than physical exercise. For many people, it can be an opportunity to develop skills, connect with others and experience their bodies as capable, expressive and enjoyable.
And perhaps that's one of the beautiful things about belly dance.
Your body doesn't have to look a certain way before it earns the right to dance.
You get to dance first — and discover what your body can do along the way.
Reference
Liu, X., Soh, K. G., & Lu, Y. (2025). Effect of dance on social physique anxiety and physical self-esteem among adults: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1547802. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1547802
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