Using Dance to Help People Grow...

            "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" Vincent van Gogh

         I am a dance educator and, on a cold day in January, 21 college students apprehensively entered my dance studio. Some had registered for the class because it seemed like it would be a fun elective, some because they had danced before and wanted to continue, and some because it fulfilled a requirement.

            It is impossible for me to imagine a life without dance.  I am passionate about what I do and I fight a constant battle – trying to convince others that dance is beneficial in a myriad of ways.  The easy part of my job is to teach the students who want to be in class – those who are looking for a fun elective or have danced before.  The challenge is to find a way to reach those who are there because it is a requirement and are hoping it will not be too painful.

            As the semester progressed the students learned about how the body works, the roles that muscles, tendons, and ligaments play in movement, and the importance of proper nutrition and hydration.

            They reaped the benefits of new neural pathways forming as they mastered dance steps and combinations, their circulatory and respiratory systems grew more efficient, and they increased the range of motion in their joints.

            They learned to trust each other, to take risks, to laugh at themselves, and to feel pride when they accomplished what seemed impossible on that first cold January day.

            Last week was warmer, but those 21 college students were still a bit apprehensive as they entered the college quad.  Their final class assignment was to perform in a flash mob in front of their peers and anyone else who might be passing by.  The music began, they all looked at each other and took a deep breath, and they started to dance, and they laughed and had fun!

            For a short three minutes they were all dancers and for many of them, it was the first time this semester that they truly believed it. The physical benefits had been apparent all semester, but last week there were emotional and mental benefits as well. These 21 students did something that scared them, something they had not thought they were capable of, something that took courage and confidence.

            Some may choose to continue to dance, but some may never dance again, and that is okay.  They will all have a greater appreciation for other performers in the future, they may become arts advocates, and they might look at dance differently because of this semester.  My greatest hope, however, is that they realized that sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone, sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind, sometimes you have to trust in yourself, and sometimes you just have to dance – just because…..and in doing all that, you might just realize that somehow dance helped you grow. 

Student Progress: Why Slow & Steady May Win The Race

"Plié is the first thing you learn and the last thing you master."                                                -Suzanne Farrell

            As spring performances and recitals conclude and summer plans begin, students will begin receiving information about level placements for the next school year.

            Since the educational system normally advances students each year, dance students and their parents have grown to expect the same type of advancement when studying dance.  The U.S. educational system offers twelve grade levels while most dance schools only offer five or six levels of dance for students ages 8-18.  Clearly this system cannot accommodate level advancement each year nor should it.

 

            Life has become a race to advance and achieve as quickly as possible, and parents often beg for checklists of what steps their children must know to advance to the next level.  It is difficult for parents to understand that simply knowing the steps is not enough for dancers to advance.  Dance is not simply about doing the movement.  Since it is a performing art, just as much, if not more, emphasis must be placed on how the movement is performed.  A plié is one of the very first steps a dancer learns, and although it is a bending of the knees, there is much more involved to execute a technically sound plié.  In a correct first position plié all five toes must remain stretched on the floor, the dancer’s weight must be centered over the balls of his or her feet, the outward leg rotation must be held from the hip, the knees must track over the toes, the pelvis must align with the ribcage, the ribcage must remain closed, the shoulders must be open and dropped, the sternum must be lifted and the head must be held high.  Once that is all accomplished, the dancer can begin adding port de bras, or arm movements.

            Dance steps can be compared to a cake.  Just as a cake must be put together and baked before frosting and decorations are added, steps must be learned and performed correctly before timing can be changed, variations of the step can be taught, the steps can be used in combinations and arm or head movements can be added.

            Moreover, dance steps build upon each other.  That same beginner plié is what must be used for preparing for and landing from relevés, turns and jumps.  There is a definite difference between learning a step and executing it well enough to be able to build upon it.  Sometimes the difference can be subtle and difficult for parents and even the dancers themselves to understand.

            It is of no advantage to a teacher to hold back any student who is ready to progress.  When a teacher recommends a student remain in the same level for another year, it is either to perfect certain movements, to wait for the body’s muscles to develop more strength and/or flexibility or to prevent the frustration that will occur if the dancer is advanced too quickly.  Dance movements are so difficult to master that there is always a challenge available no matter what level class the dancer is in.

            Although a dancer may be disappointed when asked to remain in a level after working hard, it is important that the student learn to cope with this disappointment.  The student will have to face future disappointments in life and in the dance world.  There will be summer camp rejections, roles not received, contracts not offered and promotions not granted.  The small disappointments along the way will teach the dancer how to face and cope with the larger ones that may be encountered in the future.

            Lastly, repeating a level can, and should, be seen as a confidence building opportunity.  Dancers who have already learned the basic steps at their level can begin to embellish them and work on performing them.  These students will be seen as role models in the class, and as a result, they will develop the self-confidence and determination that is a large part of dance education and is necessary to perform and succeed in the dance world.

The Case for Dance in Public Education

         Each day students enter schools, sit at desks and get ready to learn.  They read, they write, they use computers, and they take standardized tests that are used to determine the effectiveness of the educational system.  They are told things like, “You can’t think while you’re moving,” or “You’ve got to be still to learn things.”  In walks the dance educator, the radical thinker, who actually believes that movement aids learning and encourages higher order thinking.

            In addition to the obvious physical benefits that integrating dance into education would provide, dance reaches the kinesthetic and tactile learners.  A large portion of today’s educational approach uses verbal and written skills, which are primarily left-brain hemisphere functions.  Kinesthetic learning primarily involves the right-brain hemisphere.  There is a strong belief that higher order thinking in one hemisphere increases higher order thinking in the other.  Doesn’t it make sense to strengthen the entire brain by engaging both hemispheres?

            Learning through movement makes the approach both active and experiential.  These types of learning are believed to double the educational impact.  In Seattle, Washington, a program that used movement to teach Language Arts to 3^rd graders saw a 13% increase in reading scores over a 6-month period, (1) and a program based in Chicago, Illinois, saw similar results.  Between 1998 and 1999, first graders were taught letter sounds through the use of body shapes in the Basic Reading Through Dance Program and scored significantly better than their peers on reading assessments. (2)

            Integrating dance in the classroom involves using movement to illustrate and solve various learning problems and puzzles.  This integration often involves teamwork and encourages students to learn to work together and appreciate others’ solutions as they watch the problems being solved.

            Moreover, the arts promote high levels of self-esteem and self-confidence since they encourage creativity.  The actual dance creation can never be wrong.  Although it must satisfy given parameters, there is no standardized answer that judges the solution right or wrong, and the creations showcase multiple approaches to solving the same problem.  A 1992 study showed that students who were taught concepts through the use of music and movement scored higher on tests of creativity than those who were taught conventionally, (4) and in 2002, Sandra Minton found that high school students who studied dance had higher creative thinking scores in the areas of fluency, originality and abstract thinking than their peers. (3)

            Imagine the difference dance can make when the concepts of parallel, symmetry and area come to life in geometry class.  Imagine how interesting a study of another country becomes if it culminates in a festival that features students doing authentic cultural dances.  Imagine the students illustrating the three branches of government, the structure of the solar system or the concept of fractions through a dance.

            Integrating dance into traditional education may seem like a radical change, but aren’t the radical changes the ones that lead to radical progress?

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1. Gilbert, A.G. (1977). Teaching the 3 Rs through movement experiences. New York: MacMillan.

2. McMahon, S. D., Rose, D. S., & Parks, M. (2003). Basic reading through dance program, the impact on first-grade students. Evaluation Review, 27 (1), 104-25.

 3. Minton, S.  (2000). Assessment of High School Students’ Creative Thinking Skills: A Comparison of the Effects of Dance and Non-dance Classes
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Unpublished Manuscript, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO.

4. Mohanty, B., & Hejmandi, A. (1992). Effects of intervention training on some cognitive abilities of preschool children. Psychological Studies, 3, 31-37.