We always applaud for dancers’ superb performance on the stage. "One minute on stage requests ten years off stage", dancers have worked hard for over ten years just to perform on the scene for less than one minute. Most have learned dance since childhood and practiced hard to become shining stars on the platform.
Why do they learn at an early age? What are the benefits of learning dance in childhood? According to a report (Link) by the National Dance Education Organization, dance is basic to learning, and children learn most readily from experience. Dance integrates kinesthetic learning with understanding, allowing children to learn through physical and sensory experiences that enable them to think in concrete movement reality.
Dance education in the United States begins in elementary school and spans a child's entire learning path. Since the beginning of the last century, the country has set dance education as a school course. They found that dance learning can significantly benefit children's physical and mental development.
In this article, we summarize the following five benefits of learning dance for children.
1. Promoting Children’s Physical Function
Dance is a form of expression through body movement, and it can help children in their critical growth time. Moderate dance movements can speed up the development of children's bones, muscles, breathing, nervous system, and other body functions, enhancing metabolism and thus strengthening their bodies. When learning dance, children can follow the rhythm to move, such as stretching, jumping, and spinning. These movements can help children exercise their physical coordination and adjust bad postures such as slouching. Then, their body appearance and temperament can be enhanced.
2. Improving Children's Cognitive Development
In a study conducted by Coventry University in the UK, participants were asked to take a salsa dance class taught by a dance coach and sports scientists. After the course, the psychological evaluation showed that participants’ attention was improved by 13%, and their memory was enhanced by 18%, only through the 30-minute class.
The results proved that learning dance could better promote children's cognitive development, and children's imitation of teachers also improves their learning and imitation ability. In addition, the choreography allows children to use their imagination to dance freely, enhancing their imagination and creativity and promoting intellectual development.
3. Developing Children's Social and Teamwork Skills
Many children study under the same roof. In the class or during the performance, they interact, cooperate, and support each other as a team towards the same goal, and thus their joint efforts can better enhance their teamwork ability and sense of collective honor.
4. Cultivating Aesthetic Ability and Moral Character
Dance is a kind of artistic beauty. During the learning process, children subtly feel the beauty of art, and learn how to appreciate and experience beauty. Further, the unique culture conveyed in the dance can also help children develop better moral character. For example, the Chinese dance course (Link) designed by Dadi Education integrates the most typical elements from the dances of 56 ethnic groups in China, so that children can experience different ethnic cultures and understand the essence of Chinese culture.
5. Building Children's Good Will
As said, "one minute on stage requests ten years off stage". Dance learning cannot be accomplished overnight, but requires long-term persistence will. By practicing for a long time, children's will can be honed, and their self-discipline can also be enhanced.
A Tip for Children’s Dance Learning
While dancing can exercise children's physical function, parents should also pay attention to their safety. According to data from the Children's Hospital Colorado in the USA, up to 90% of dancers have experienced sports trauma, especially for children 8-12 years old with fragile bones.
Therefore, teachers’ professional guidance plays a more important role. For example, children with better body flexibility can do splits and other stretches, but children with less flexibility can act step by step. Professional teachers can adjust the content based on children's physical functions to ensure safety.
Dadi Education has excellent teachers who can comprehensively and carefully teach them step by step based on their condition. We start by using games and music to attract children's interest in dance, and then exercise their muscle coordination and rhythm sense, so that children can fully experience the charm of dance and help them thrive.
Our students have achieved many high-profile results. For example, after three months of intensive Chinese dance training by our teacher Ms. Ng, our students got prizes in the 2023 Asian Student Arts Festival (Link). Student Sophie won the 2nd runner-up in the Chinese dance group for 10-11 years old, and student Iris won the Champion in the Chinese dance open group. It is our great honor of Dadi Education to witness the students receiving awards on the stage and to accompany them through their momentous journey.
Dadi Education will continue to adhere to our educational philosophy of "combining pleasant education and well-rounded education", so that children can learn to dance happily.
Developed for Dadi Education and written by Union Communications.
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