Embrace Flexibility: The Benefits of Dance Drop-In Classes
Seven Ways Ballet Dance Class Will Help Your Child Thrive
August 10, 2021
Health,Tips and Tricks
Many of us can easily picture what ballet looks like: dancers displaying graceful movements, strong poses, incredible balance and flexibility, often with a soundtrack of classical music. Through movement, it expresses its meaning through formalized steps and gestures set in intricate, flowing patterns.
But ballet is far more than an expressive art form. It many has tangible benefits for all people, especially kids. All children should have a chance to experience these huge benefits of ballet dance classes. Don’t let your kids miss out!
Here are seven benefits of ballet for dancers of any age:
1. Develops Teamwork Skills
Teamwork is a valuable lifelong skill that will improve your child’s success in school, in their social life, and in their career aspirations. Parents often believe that putting children in team sports is the only way to cultivate this skill, but the pressures involved in these competitive teams can be hard on your children and add stress to an already overwhelming lives. Research shows that dance benefits brain function, especially in teamwork situations.
In ballet lessons your child will learn to move in time with their classmates, build body synchronicity together that connects their brains and bodies in the task of working together. Removing the competitive nature of team sports gives your little person’s developing brain a chance to process team-building activities in a safe and nurturing environment.
2. Reduces Stress
Kids today face more stress than we really know. There was already much pressure to do well in school, to be part of the right social groups, and tight scheduling constraints before COVID19. Now the way they interact in school has totally changed. Their social circles have been reduced dramatically, and a lot of the activities that they were involved in have changed or disappeared. This leads to stress, anxiety and grief in our children.
Parents want to change that for the young people they know and love.
Research shows that exposure to the arts can reduce stress in people of all ages. Listening to gentle music lowers heart rates and calms nerves. Dancing involves the act of creating (movement in this case) and that stimulates the creative centres of the brain. Ballet teaches people lifelong coping methods. Exercise such as dance is a valuable stress management technique, according to the American Psychological Association. Even five minutes of aerobic exercise has been shown to enhance mood, improve self esteem, and even lead to better sleep.
Ballet is meditation in motion. Focusing on the movements of their arms, legs, feet, and core muscles will draw your child into a mindset away from the stresses of their lives. That doesn’t have to only happen in dance class, their practice time at home will have the same impact. As they begin to regularly shed their daily tensions through movement and physical activity, you will find that this focus on a single task, and the resulting energy and optimism, will help them remain calm and clear in everything you do.
It can be tough to get kids to head outside for a walk, their screens are too tempting. Ballet class has a special draw that will get them moving without realizing they are changing their lives for the better.
3. Improves Focus
Is your child having trouble paying attention in class or at home? The mind naturally wanders, but there are several things you can do to train it to focus on what you are doing. Dance is one such activity.
This study outlines how arts education can help strengthen the brain and enhance cognitive abilities. And the more your child loves to dance, the more benefits will be derived. Kids who take ballet are regularly encouraged to understand and follow directions which build neural pathways in their brains. Performing steps or moves in a specific order will help your child with organizing and following tasks throughout their lives . In their ballet dance class, these skills will be taught and developed.
4. Strenghens Posture
A slumping or slouching posture is unhealthy, gives poor first impressions and leads to muscular and joint pain later in life. Like you I know the frustration of telling kids to “sit up straight” only to have them slouch again moments later. Although there are some medical reasons that children might have poor posture, a lot of it comes from bad habits and underdeveloped muscles. Ballet is uniquely positioned to eliminate both of these concerns.
Although the movements of professional ballet dancers look graceful and gentle, there is an extreme level of core strength and control necessary to achieve the fluid gestures. One of the first things that your child will learn in ballet class is to engage their body’s core and recognize how all movements start from your middle. Even the youngest students show improved posture, walking gait, and core muscular control
Ballet engages the body’s core, delivering essential posture-enhancing power in the process. From working the abdomen to the pelvic floor muscle, the regular practice of ballet helps kids become tuned in to their bodies and posture in everything they do.
5. Enhances Balance
Professional ballet dancers effortlessly assume challenging position after challenging position. While physical strength and training is certainly a large part of these abilities, research shows that ballerinas actually have differences in their brain that allow them to spin without compromising their balance. But they’re not born that way. The act of practicing dance actually alters the brain and the enhanced balance derived in class leads to all sorts of lifelong benefits, such as better mobility and flexibility in adulthood.
Your child doesn’t have to spend hours every week in the ballet studio to take advantage of the many brain and body boosting wonders of ballet. Just a class or two a week can lead to beautiful, lifelong benefits.
6. Teaches Discipline
Performing ballet takes determination, hard work, and discipline to master the different positions. As children progress through a ballet dance class, they learn the different moves gradually, building their skills as they develop. Ballet teaches children to follow instructions, listen to their teachers, concentrate, and practice in order to get something right. These are all skills that can be applied to other areas of life as well.
7. Boosts Mood/Emotions
Dance is a particularly effective exercise for lifting mood and reducing stress levels. Studies have shown dance releases more endorphins – natural feel-good hormones – than typical aerobic movement. In addition, it lowers the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the body, making it an ideal way to let go of worries.
Have Any Question?
We would be more than happy to answer any questions you have, dream with you about your dance ambitions, or discuss any dance-related topics.
- 519 365 4632
- studio@ascensiondance.ca
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I met Brianna while performing in Chatham-Kent's production of Mama Mia! Together. She was involved in the show in more ways than one, while also performing she had the role of choreographer. When I met her, i immediately looked up to her. Not only do I now call her a friend, but also a role model. She is so passionate about dance and so organized I was never afraid I would not be prepared to dance in this "heavy " dance show! My dancing has improved ten-fold, because of Brianna which is super important to me as an singer/actor.
Emily