We all love the excitement of recital time, competition, and sparkly costumes. Dancers work hard all year to shine onstage. Beyond the thrill of performing, what else does dance education bring to the table? Read on to learn about the three D’s of dance!
Discipline
Any athletic activity requires discipline. Dance is no exception. Good things take time! As dancers learn and grow throughout the year, their bodies and minds become stronger. They become more proficient in dance skills and they can master and retain choreography. They develop physical endurance as they move through different dance styles and practice their craft in class.
Dancers learn to push themselves beyond their perceived limits with the help of their dance instructors. This is all made possible by the discipline required of them to show up and make every class count. This type of committed discipline is a beneficial lifelong skill and you’re never too young to learn it!
Directionality
The dictionary defines directionality as, “the property of being directional or maintaining a direction in space”. Basically, directionality means knowing where the heck you are and what your body is doing in relation to the space around you. We live in a society that is extremely fast-paced, putting many demands on our time and energy.
Because of this, children have suffered somewhat in the loss of unstructured play time, specifically time outdoors to run, jump, dig, climb, splash, and develop their own large and small motor skills while learning how to navigate the world around them. It seems, more often than not, that this kind of free play has to be actively sought out nowadays.
In past generations such as my own, children were free to play outside from morning until sunset. Parents didn’t have to worry about safety as much as they do now. Times have changed. Dance is a sport that requires high levels of body awareness as you move about expressively in a studio filled with other bodies doing the same thing.
Dance helps students find their own kinesthetic awareness and utilize it in a way that makes them more functional throughout every day life as well as on the dance floor. And dance education is a fun and exciting way to combat the loss of spatial awareness we see running rampant in young kids today.
Delight
If you ask any dancer why they’re involved in dance, many will simply say, “because I love it!”. Dance allows freedom through movement. It is expressive and therapeutic. Dance is joyful and healing. Just take a look at a room full of 3-year-olds bopping along to the beat, or a high school dancer nailing an expressive lyrical performance.
Dance brings joy to the viewer as well as the performer without a word being said. It has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life to be an instructor for our Darby’s Dancers program. All of the students in this program come from a special needs background, and dance is a place that they come each week to feel joy, move their body, and connect with others on a deep level. The delight that dance brings is endless!
So, the next time someone asks you why you choose dance as an extracurricular for your kids, you can refer to the three D’s of dance! We are so thankful to have you all as part of our dance community as we launch into season 15!
