Health Benefits of Professional or Competitive Red River Jigging and Square Dancing

In collaboration with Red River Jigging and Square Dancing instructors, this research explores health benefits of Red River Jigging and Square Dancing over the course of a year, focusing on the competitive season. Though commonly associated with Métis culture, the researchers of this project acknowledge that Red River Jigging and Square Dancing are practiced and enjoyed by numerous and diverse communities of Métis, First Nations and Inuit cultures on Turtle Island. Funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant, Professional or competitive Red River Jiggers or Métis Square Dancers complete a health assessment including questionnaires about cultural connectedness, social support, and mental wellness, physical fitness tests such as grip strength, 6 minutes of walking, and physical measures of blood pressure and heart rate at five timepoints throughout a year. Once a year, dancers are also invited to have scans of muscle quality and bone density.