If your sole experience with the dance community came from the dramatized and highly-problematic TV show Dance Moms, it’d be easy to wonder whether or not a dance program has anything positive to offer for children. We’re here to tell you that yes, it does. (Also, that you shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV.)
In fact, dance can be the perfect extracurricular activity for your child. Here are 5 reasons why.
1. Dance Training Stimulates Creativity
Dancing, at its core, is a creative venture. Like drawing, painting, or singing, it’s not always polished to perfection. Especially where kids are concerned. However, by taking dance classes, your child is engaging creative impulses that can get stifled and ignored by their regular classes at school.
Many teachers even encourage students to choreograph their own simple routines as they learn new steps. This can help them both understand the moves better and make something all their own.
2. A Dance Program Gets Your Kids Moving
Physicians have expressed concern for years over the amount of time that kids these days spend seated in front of screens. When you enroll your child in a dance program, you get them up and moving around.
And those dance classes don’t always have to be ballet, tap, or jazz! For instance, this program focuses on modern, urban dancing.
3. When You Train in Dancing, You Train Your Discipline
Dancing, like all other artistic pursuits, is a skill. While most of us come with an innate enjoyment of creative endeavors, it takes time, practice, and discipline to make something that looks good.
Dance moves might not come naturally to your child. However, because of every time they struggled to perform a pirouette, they will feel all the more accomplished when they finally do it right at their recital.
4. Dancing for Kids Can Boost Social Skills
A dance academy tends to be a social hotspot for kids. Dance, as well, is a collaborative activity as much as any sport. You and your fellow dancers must move in sync, or collisions can and do occur.
Additionally, there’s a certain kind of bonding that only comes from spending time in study with other people, as your young child may soon learn. So, take advantage of these formative years and let your child interact with other dancers their own age.
5. Dancing Is Fun
Last, but certainly not least, dancing is fun! While learning specific maneuvers might prove daunting at first, the elation of a completed recital or a new skill mastered makes all the hard work worth it.
Plus, the kids get to listen to music and move around while they’re learning. What could be more enjoyable?
Looking for More Ideas for Extracurricular Activities?
Enrolling your child in a dance program is one of the best options for extracurricular activities. However, it may not be the right one for your specific child. Only you can determine that.
If that’s the case, and you want more ideas, then check out our blog. We update each day with more educational articles like this one!
