Dance helps your body be strong, helps you express your feelings, helps you make friends, teaches you how to control your body and makes your brain want to learn more. Dance can even teach maths! Who knew?!
Dance is a universal language. It doesn’t matter where you come from or whether you are rich or poor – everyone dances!
Dance helps children to make meaning of the world around them.
‘we do not know then move, we move in order to know’
Bradley and Szegda
Dance as a Learning Tool
Through dance children can:
Improve their muscle strength & coordination, rhythm and stamina (physical development)
Express their feelings (emotional development)
Improve their balance and midline development eg: crossing arms, jumping side-ways, working with opposite arms and legs
Learn to love the Arts
Develop social skills such as problem solving and cooperation with other children
Be themselves
Be actively involved in their own learning eg: like where children make up their own steps
Be creative as they express their ideas
Learn about spatial awareness (the way their body moves within a space)
Be more confident
Be curious about new dance styles and new music to dance to
Improve their language skills as they give names to the steps
Develop early numeracy skills as they learn the sequences of steps and to count beats in the music
Be part of a community when they dance in a group.
Dancing can also help educators acknowledge children’s identity, culture and spirit. Children bring prior knowledge from home to their learning environment.
Example: in Penguin Class at HEY, Robbie asked for the song “Bing Bang Bong” which his grandma had taught him. The children have loved making up their own steps to this song this year and it has made Robbie very happy that his prior knowledge and routine with grandma has been acknowledged and built upon.
Dance also allows educators to recognise and respect different cultures and traditions.
Example: During Divali celebrations we learnt some Indian dance steps in the Penguin class at HEY and the children were delighted, especially those with an Indian background.
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