BRING THE BENEFITS OF DANCE TO YOUR STUDENTS!

11/16/20

As educators, you likely already have great ideas about how to get your students more active and engaged this year. But here’s an idea we’d love for you to consider more deeply: Dance.

We know that dance is a powerful, yet underutilized tool for education, health and well-being across all spectrums of Canadian society. For kids, ongoing involvement in dance can bring many benefits physically, emotionally, mentally and socially for everyone involved. One of the greatest attributes about this form of movement is that it is very inclusive and anyone can participate. Music can create a specific vibe to a program that allows participants to express themselves or the music itself can increase the energy within the room. We witness this in our BOKS program very similar to how Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS) observes the positive benefits within their programs. Have you ever just turned on your favorite song and danced around the house like no one was watching? If not, we challenge you to try this by yourself or with your family or friends to experience that feeling of letting loose and having fun.

High-quality dance activities can:

  • Build physical literacy.
  • Use imagery, story, music, and games to motivate kids to explore and practice different co-ordinations, movement patterns, and locomotor skills.
  • Foster a love of movement and desire to be physically active for life.
  • Through inclusive and accessible movement activities, this can allow participants to feel that dance is an approachable and fun way to stay active, regardless of prior experience.
  • Increase social and communication skills.
  • Encourage participants to create original movement projects as a team, present the project to peers, and provide each other with thoughtful and constructive feedback.
  • Strengthen bonds with peers.
  • Dance can foster a community-oriented atmosphere that allows kids to connect and cooperate by moving together.
  • Improve self-esteem and self-confidence.
  • By engaging in dance activities with your students you can celebrate success and recognize creative and personal growth.
  • Encourage young people to work from their own experiences and abilities, communicating thoughts, emotions and ideas through movement.
  • Make sure to allow participants to use their own experiences as a driving force in the creative process.

NBS has developed a free suite of easy-to-use, bilingual, online resources to help you engage your students in high-quality dance activities. No dance experience is necessary to facilitate NBS’ kids programs!

Videos, lesson plans, and additional course content are developed by world-renowned dance experts and teachers—so you can trust that your students are receiving the best programming. Everything you need to get your students dancing is available in NBS’ online learning environment. For more information check out NBS website.

At BOKS we can’t agree more! We love the idea of using movement through dance and encourage you to access these amazing resources put out by NBS. We also challenge you to try some of our latest dance Bursts in your classroom. These can all be done within a classroom setting or through virtual learning. Check out these links and get your groove on today!