The Benefits of Dance Beyond the Physical!

The Benefits of Dance Beyond the Physical!

Everyone knows that dance, along with other sports and physical activities is good for your health. Keeping active and exercising regularly promotes a healthy body, keeping you fit. But let’s take a look further into the benefits of dance beyond the obvious, especially on young people.

Emotional Benefits

The rush of endorphins that are released when you dance have such a hugely positive impact on your emotional wellbeing. Feeling sad, stressed or a little blue before class, it is common and even expected to find that those moods have lifted considerably after a dance class. Reducing the feeling of pain and creating a happy feeling, endorphins are so important to the human psyche and mustn’t be underestimated. Many adults join dance classes as a way to relieve the stress and pressures of daily life, and this is the reason that dance can help anyone of any age.

Focus & Concentration

When you dance, you place your whole focus on what you are doing that anything else doesn’t matter, helping the mind to switch off and training your brain to be able to focus and concentrate for long periods of time. A technique which is rapidly being lost on todays youth with the technological society that we find ourselves in.

It is important and a vital skill that dancers learn through attending regular dance classes and working towards goals. Committing to attend a class regularly is already half way to achieving great focus and concentration.

Friendship

It is a common misconception that dance schools are nasty, back-biting places for girls to go and compete against each other at. Although there are some places that would fit this description, you will more often find that students make life-long friendships through their dance lives. Meeting weekly and sharing a common interest, the students become very close and many remain friends through life. This can’t often be said for school friends, who often lose touch over the years. This also extends to the teacher where many times you will hear students refer to their teacher as their ‘second mum’. It is a wonderful environment to have the privilege to be a part of. Building these friendships in class and then during performances working together to help everyone out creates a massive buzz for everyone. A feeling of achievement as a team is what the students should be aiming to achieve.

International Language

It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you can communicate through dance. You might be in a nightclub in Kavos or at a barn dance in Texas. You could be watching a Ballet in London or see a Flamenco dance in a restaurant in Spain. It doesn’t matter where you are, you understand and appreciate what you experience in so many different ways. There is a depth of beauty to dance that means it is accessible and enjoyable by everyone.

Discipline

The discipline that is fundamentally required to practice any style of dance, becomes part of your character and this skill transfers to other aspects of your social and professional life. As an individual you find yourself more determined to succeed at your goals, you are willing to work hard to reach these goals. You do not expect others to do the work for you. If you dance from being young, this discipline is something that never leaves you.

We could go on for a long time, but the picture is now becoming clear. When you send your child to a dance class at a professional school, you may think they are ‘just learning to dance’ but behind that simple outer view, your child is being taught a huge array of life skills that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Much of the time, even the student doesn’t realise this until many years later.