Dance Skills Make for Better Engineers

June 2, 2013

Some aspiring engineers at Northwestern University have been stepping outside their comfort zones recently.

Well, more accurately, dancing outside their comfort zones.

A mix of biomedical, mechanical and chemical engineering majors have been learning to swing dance in a new class called Whole Body Thinking. The idea is that teaching highly right-brained science peeps to dance—a left-brain activity—will make them stronger, more creative thinkers.

Joe Holtgreive, assistant dean at the McCormick School of Engineering, dreamed up the class, which is taught by dance professor Billy Siegenfeld, and it looks pretty nifty. Check out the AP’s video report: