Children just seem to dance naturally. They hear music and they start to move! But, did you know that by giving your child the gift of a quality dance education, you are giving them the opportunity to grow up to be a confident adult who is able to perform under pressure? That is a fact!
Dance class is all about learning new things. A step or skill is shown to the child, then they try it out themselves. They then work on the movement bit by bit to learn the correct technique for that step or skill.
As you watch your child in dance class, you may be wondering why is the teacher so focused on getting the children to do the steps a certain way? Sometimes it looks like the teacher is being picky or maybe she likes to watch the children do the same step over and over again. But that isn’t what is happening at all. Dance teachers teach each step in small parts and go over those steps over and over again because it takes repetition for the body and mind to make the connection on how to perform the new step. Your child’s dance teacher wants to make sure that the habit of doing the new step is ingrained into their brain correctly. You don’t want to learn the step wrong! That’s not good! To unlearn or re-learn a step that was taught incorrectly is much more difficult and time consuming than to learn the step properly in the first place.
You have heard the saying: “Practice makes perfect”. Everyone says, “Of course that is true”. Actually, it is more accurate to say as Coach Vince Lombardi said “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect”. Now Coach Lombardi wasn’t saying that you have to be perfect or start obsessing about always having to be perfect. What he was saying is that practice has to be intentional. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing right. Because one thing is for sure: practice makes permanent. That is why it is so important to learn the steps right the first time and then keeping doing the steps the right way every time.
So how does all of this talk about practice tie into building confidence in your child? Every time your child masters a dance step or skill, it gives them a feeling of accomplishment. “I did it!” as one little boy shouted out during class in a video posted on Epic Dance Complex’s Facebook page. The excitement that a child gets when they figure out how to do the step the teacher is teaching in dance class is just the best thing ever! Once your child is able to do the new step without having to think of the mechanics of the step, they can then then work on the next progression of the step that they have mastered.
When your child has been taking dance classes for some time and they have been taught many different dance steps and they have practiced hard to do those steps correctly, they will have the opportunity to take a dance examination or perhaps learn a competitive solo routine. This is where the confidence levels in your child can really increase! When you and your child decide that you are willing to put in the time and effort to work on extra opportunities like exams and solos, your child’s dance expertise can really improve dramatically. When a child has trained with their teacher to present themselves to an examiner or to perform a solo on stage for adjudication, they have built up a series of small successes along the way which help to boost their confidence in their abilities.
These small successes build up to larger, more significant achievements which gives your child belief in their abilities. A step forward progresses to a leap from one foot to the other foot. Then the leaps get longer and higher and stronger and more impressive. With enough training and time, those little leaps can grow to look like this:
This is a picture of Matthew Golding of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan when he was dancing professionally with the Dutch National Ballet. He is now a Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. When he was younger, he was in the same ballet classes as Miss Desirae for a couple of years! Isn’t that exciting? To learn more about Matthew Golding, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Golding_(dancer)
So remember, in any competition, exam or performance, you only have that one moment, that one chance to show your dance. Knowing this, dancers have to learn how to perform at their best every time. Training for consistency of performance and learning how to ‘Be Your Best’ when the pressure is on is key to success in dance and can be carried forward in all aspects of life outside of dance.
#EpicDanceComplex #Saskaton #yxe #dtnyxe #Dance
Come back next Tuesday for another reason that dance is great for your child. (Hint: there is no “I” in this!)
Teamwork is defined by Collins Dictionary as:
Teamwork
1. The cooperative work done by a team
2. The ability to work efficiently as a team
Cooperative and efficient team work are essential for children to learn as they go from pre-school aged beginners all the way up to the most experienced advanced dancers. Being part of a team is not only a learned skill but it will also carry over to adult working environments.
