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Click here to LISTEN LIVE to Ontario Today's program on dance and mental health. The show starts at 12:05 p.m. ET on Friday. (Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press)

What does dance do for you?

New research suggests dance can reach people with dementia, autism and mental illness in ways that words cannot.  People with Parkinsons disease can become less rigid. What has dance done for you?

To get fit, have fun, and sometimes, to forget — there's no shortage of good reasons to get down on the dance floor. 

Now, researchers are learning more about the cognitive and emotional benefits of moving to music, and those insights are being used to help treat people afflicted with a number of kinds of mental illness.

Hamiltonian Megan English will be on CBC Radio One's Ontario Today on Friday afternoon to discuss her work as a movement psychotherapist. She'll be talking about what inspired her to use dance in her practice and how her clients benefit from this unique form of treatment. English is the Ontario Regional Representative of the Dance Movement Therapy Association in Canada.

Do you have a compelling story about how dance has affected your mental health (or somebody else's)? You'll have the opportunity to contribute to the conversation. To phone into the program, which starts at 12:05 p.m. ET, dial 1-888-817-8995.

To listen live online, click on the image at the top of the screen.

Happy dancing!