I grew up in Miami, Florida, which is one of the biggest, if not the biggest home, to the largest population of Hispanics in the nation. Growing up in such a Hispanic rich atmosphere, Latin dance is something that I grew up seeing but was never really something I actually participated in. It was not until I got to college that I began to learn and truly embrace what Latin dance actually is. I started going to Latin Dance Club here on campus on Tuesday nights for two hours and I noticed just how much of a workout it can be. Also, when my friends and I would go out dancing at Salsa Cabana, a Latin club here in Columbia, or to a party where we would dance, the next morning we would realize how much of a workout it was as we would wake up sore the next morning. I chose to write about this topic because it is something that I am passionate about and because I am a firm believer that Latin dance can create improvements in your overall life. I posed this question of what benefits come along with Latin Dance as I was curious on the other benefits that come with Latin dance, which range from physical to cognitive to social.

When beginning my research, my first source was an article in the American Journal of Health Education by Sheila Jain and David R. Brown called "Cultural dance: An opportunity to encourage physical activity and health in communities". This article talks about the health benefits that are associated with cultural dance. This article goes into several studies that have showed that show health benefits associated with cultural dance including: lower Body Mass Index, lower heart rates, lower trait stress, etc. The major values of this source is that it encompasses several different aspects of fitness and health anywhere from physical benefits to psychological benefits and even social benefits. This source is definitely a credible source as the source is the American Journal of Health Education. American Journal's are very reputable sources. Although I do not know the authors specifically or their reputations, I do know that they probably know what they are talking about since they are writing for the American Journal of Health Education. 

Next, I tried to find a source that was a bit more focused and wasn't a compilation of sources. The next source I used was by David Marquez and was a specific experiment done called BAILAMOS. BAILAMOS is a research conducted to see how Latin dance could help improve the health of the growing older Latino population. In the experiment the participants were to participate in Latin dance classes to get them involved and doing physical activity as they said that they did not feel safe going out to get physical activity in their neighborhoods. The study concluded that the participants in the experiment reported that they had improved physical and cognitive function as well as overall improved lifestyle after participating in this form of physical activity as opposed to not getting enough physical activity. The major values of this source is that I could use it to help strengthen my argument is that I could use this source to speak more on the social benefits or overall lifestyle improvements that can come by participating in Latin Dance. Although I do not know who David Marquez is, I do know that the way that the experiment is explained, everything seems to be perfect in the sense that there was nothing that would make on think that they are not a credible source.

Lastly, I tried to focus my research on an experiment that focused on the cognitive and the social benefits associated with Latin dance. The next experiment that I used as a source is an experiment conducted by Azucena Guzman-Garcia, Elizabeh Mukaetova-Ladinska, and Ian James that used both dementia patients and care personnel reported more positive emotional states and just generally higher levels of satisfaction. The dementia patients improved cognitive skills but interesting like enough, the non dementia patients also recorded benefits from it. The value that this article could have in my paper is that it could focus on aspects other than physical benefits that come with Latin Dance like cognitive or social. Although I do not know the credentials of those who conducted the experiment, I do know that they work for Newcastle University and so they are most likely very reputable in their fields. 

My research question is feasible because when people think of Latin Dance they probably just think of the social aspect that comes along with Latin dance but I am arguing that there are many more benefits that come along with Latin Dance than those of just having fun. All of the sources I have found have pretty much agreed that Latin dance has many health benefits but they have all talked about different kinds of benefits that come with Latin dance. The different perspectives affect my perspective on the topic as most of the benefits that I though about Latin dance were physical but I have seen hat there are many others. I think that I have already revised my question because before my question mostly focused on the physical benefits of Latin Dance but I have now expanded to the many different was that Latin dance can improve ones life.

